Club CDFreaks - Knowledge is Power - View Single Post - HP DVD Writer to Benq DVD Writer Unleashed, all steps and info inside.

godsent · 15-01-2005

###Warning###: If you dont know what firmware is or dont know much about computers, DO NOT ATTEMPT anything in this post because you're prolly gonna screw up and kill your drive.

Recently I bought a Hewlett Packard DVD Writer Model dvd630i. I found out that that HP uses 2 manufacturers for their drives, which happens to be Benq and Lite-On. If you are the owner of a HP DVD Writer dvd630i, if u didnt know, u just picked a winner. There is 3 specific pieces of information u can find easily to ensure that u have the drive needed to Cross-Firmware your drive to a Benq DD DVD 1620, which are as followed:
1) Goto: Control Panel> System> Hardware> Device Manager and look up your DVD Drive, if it registeres in System Manager as a DVD630c, instead of dvd630i as printed on box your are ready to move onto the next step, if not dont bother reading the rest of this post.
2) Turn off your computer. Remove the drive and look at the sticker on the top of the drive. You will see a sticker which should have printed on the middle right hand side of the drive; "benq" followed by some chinese hand writing. If u found "benq", proceed to the 3rd check.
3) On the lower right hand portion of the sticker you should see a number as follows DVD8631/44. If that number is also present u can proceed to the next step.

Now we know your drive is capable of some new features. With the following steps your will update your drive to be capable of burning DVD-R media at 16x, burning at 12x and even 16x on some high quality 8x media, and writing at 4x on DVD+R DL 2.4x media.

Here is what you do. Take out any cd's/dvd's in your dvd writer. Go to this website,

http://dvdpro.club.st/firmware/BenQ_FW.htm

Download WinDWFlash.exe at the top of the page and below the cell where windwflash is there is another cell which starts with:

Model Name:
DW1620

In that cell you should see a link to a file called B7T9RPC1.cvt if you want a region free Firmware or B7T9.cvt for the straight region 2 firmware, Download that file. Once you have both files, extract them to any place convenient. Run windwflash.exe and select the file b7t9.cvt for non-region free or b7t9rpc1.cvt if u want the region free firmware, click flash and wait until it says done, should take no more than a min and a half. Once done shut down your computer completely like the program says and do a cold boot.

Congrats, you are now the proud owner of a Benq DD DVD 1620 Writer and the capability of burning:
DVD±R @ 16x
DVD+R 8x Media @ 12x or 16x depending on quality
DVD+R DL 2.4x Media @ 4x

Update: Forgot to mention, I did get lucky to get a 100 pack of the 8x DVD+R media that burns at 12x, and it works extremely well, tested 2 dvd's one with data and one with a copy of the Troy dvd. Worked Flawless, burn times 5-5:30 minutes.

Update: A reminder, switching firmwares voids any warranty with HP. Also if you happened to buy this drive in the month of december until january first like me you get a $30 rebate on the drive. $76 dollars on the drive, I honestly believe this is the best pc buy I've ever made.

15-01-2005	#1 (permalink)
godsent New on Forum Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 3	HP DVD Writer to Benq DVD Writer Unleashed, all steps and info inside. ###Warning###: If you dont know what firmware is or dont know much about computers, DO NOT ATTEMPT anything in this post because you're prolly gonna screw up and kill your drive. Recently I bought a Hewlett Packard DVD Writer Model dvd630i. I found out that that HP uses 2 manufacturers for their drives, which happens to be Benq and Lite-On. If you are the owner of a HP DVD Writer dvd630i, if u didnt know, u just picked a winner. There is 3 specific pieces of information u can find easily to ensure that u have the drive needed to Cross-Firmware your drive to a Benq DD DVD 1620, which are as followed: 1) Goto: Control Panel> System> Hardware> Device Manager and look up your DVD Drive, if it registeres in System Manager as a DVD630c, instead of dvd630i as printed on box your are ready to move onto the next step, if not dont bother reading the rest of this post. 2) Turn off your computer. Remove the drive and look at the sticker on the top of the drive. You will see a sticker which should have printed on the middle right hand side of the drive; "benq" followed by some chinese hand writing. If u found "benq", proceed to the 3rd check. 3) On the lower right hand portion of the sticker you should see a number as follows DVD8631/44. If that number is also present u can proceed to the next step. Now we know your drive is capable of some new features. With the following steps your will update your drive to be capable of burning DVD-R media at 16x, burning at 12x and even 16x on some high quality 8x media, and writing at 4x on DVD+R DL 2.4x media. Here is what you do. Take out any cd's/dvd's in your dvd writer. Go to this website, http://dvdpro.club.st/firmware/BenQ_FW.htm Download WinDWFlash.exe at the top of the page and below the cell where windwflash is there is another cell which starts with: Model Name: DW1620 In that cell you should see a link to a file called B7T9RPC1.cvt if you want a region free Firmware or B7T9.cvt for the straight region 2 firmware, Download that file. Once you have both files, extract them to any place convenient. Run windwflash.exe and select the file b7t9.cvt for non-region free or b7t9rpc1.cvt if u want the region free firmware, click flash and wait until it says done, should take no more than a min and a half. Once done shut down your computer completely like the program says and do a cold boot. Congrats, you are now the proud owner of a Benq DD DVD 1620 Writer and the capability of burning: DVD±R @ 16x DVD+R 8x Media @ 12x or 16x depending on quality DVD+R DL 2.4x Media @ 4x Update: Forgot to mention, I did get lucky to get a 100 pack of the 8x DVD+R media that burns at 12x, and it works extremely well, tested 2 dvd's one with data and one with a copy of the Troy dvd. Worked Flawless, burn times 5-5:30 minutes. Update: A reminder, switching firmwares voids any warranty with HP. Also if you happened to buy this drive in the month of december until january first like me you get a $30 rebate on the drive. $76 dollars on the drive, I honestly believe this is the best pc buy I've ever made.