I installed the sb04 freaks version of the firmware on a couple of the drives. On my pc with the ECS board that would not read any of my dvd-r discs, I came up with some interesting results:

Usb 2.0, regardless of what is installed on the IDE ports ----All discs could be read.
IDE connection with a hard drive or by itself, as both master and slave---No discs could be read.
IDE connection with an NEC ND-3550A DVD +/-RW, as both master and slave---All discs could be read.

On this motherboard, why would the 182D work properly only when connected on the same IDE port with another dvd drive, but not with a hard drive or by itself?

I don't have a clue, but I bet Samsung does. This is just my own theory. It is just supposition and is not based on any specific knowledge or information etc., etc..

As this forum shows, Samsung has known about the incompatibility problems with this drive for a long time. They may have been aware of potential problems even before it was released. If so, they did what automakers and many other large corporations do. They weigh the cost of an upfront fix VS taking care of problems as they arise. This would make since if you can assume the following to be essentially true:

1. The drive seems to work properly on most boards right out of the box.
2. Any drive installed in an OEM pc would work.
3. It probably works on some problem boards when on a port by itself, but not with a hard drive. I have already seen that it works on my machine with another dvd drive. Most people buying one to install in their pc would put it on the second ide port with their old cd/dvd drive or by itself to replace that old drive.

That just leaves those of us who are unlucky enough to buy this drive to use on a problem board in an incompatible configuration. I would say that accounts for an extremely small number of drives compared to the total.