A little while after purchasing my Lite On LH-2B1S-490C I updated the firmware fomthe original supplied to BD 2BAL06 - the drive is working fine without issues.

However I see there is a new firmware available for this drive - BD 2BAL09 which I would like to install. However the drive is detected as Lite-on BD B LH-AL06 since the AL06 firmware was installed which the new firmware updater thinks is not a 2B1S.

I have tried removing and reinstalling the drive but it always comes back with the same hardware ID - SCSI\CdRomSATA____LITE-ON_BD_B_LH-AL06 as found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SCSI\CdRom&Ven_SATA&Prod_LITE-ON_BD_B_LH-&Rev_AL06\5&18fa93d4&0&000.

Anone know how I can force the firmware update?

The SATA prefix infront of the drive name probably is the problem, looks like the problem described here. The SATA controller driver seems to add this prefix. Update the SATA driver to the latest version or connect the drive to a different SATA controller, onboard SATA is my best guess, in the worst case connect the drive to a different PC's onboard SATA controller.

Thanks, that was the issue exactly. FYI even the latest Jmicron (1.17.28.00) drivers have this issue, I had to use the Intel ICH9 port to do the flash.