Hi

I wanted to know if anyone had any success updating the firmware of a dw1640 in an enclosure. I was able to do it with my liteon 411s, but no success yet with my new benq drive! I hope i don't have to disconnect/reconnect everything just to update the firmware!

thanks for your help

Putting a high-speed DVDRW in external enclosure is like putting a wild animal in cage, they get sad and slow.

BenQ uses special designed firmwares for drives in external enclosures like the EW162I. To my knowledge there doesn't exist any "external" firmware for 1640 atm.

No word in your post how the external enclosure is connected, but there shouldn't be any problem flashing the drive/enclosure through USB if your ASPI layer is working (v4.60).

I got a BenQ 1640 in an external enclosure aswell....i went to benq site and d/l that BSJB firwmware and tried to update and it sed it worked....however i still can't burn anything yet....nero freezes at 1% and my burner just hangs....

Hi

thanks for the quick reply. I gave up on trying to upgrade my dw1640, One day I may do it by reconnecting my drives differently. with my "h" firmware I make perfect 8x burns in less than 9min! 96% quality according to nero quality check tool.

I hope you have more luck CloudStrife, your drive must be in a firewire or USB2 enclosure otherwise if it is a normal USB enclosure transfer rate isn't enough. Also be sure to have a USB2 cable and a computer who has USB2 port, older computers use USB (1).

good luck

BenQ drives from the pass to the present are very picky on external enclosurers. That's why they have special firmware for the external DW1620 (EW162I).

I have found that the BenQ drives work the best with a Prolific chipset. Stay away from Ali or Oxford. There is a great deal of information in the "Big External Case" thread...

I have 1640 inside an enclosure with prolific 3507c chipset. I can update firmware through both firewire and usb2 port.
But I can only do a quality scan through usb2 port, firewire port will crash the pc.
Has anyone get a burst rate over 26MB/s? I can only get 20MB/s through firewire, and 14MB/s through usb2. (I updated to the latest prolific firmware). I don't think it's my onboard connections since I was able to get burst rate over 30MB/s for a 4200rpm hard drive inside the same enclosure with same ide cable.
Right now I only burn at 8x using ty02 8x media.

I have only tested with a DW1620. I can't get over 21MB/s with internal UDMA-2 firmware. I switched to 47L9 external firmware (UDMA-3) and can reach 24MB/s. So it's the BenQ firmware. You will have to wait until BenQ releases an external 1640 and Xcross flash...

P.S. I can use other DVD drives that are UDMA-4 and get 24MB/s plus with the 3507...

yeh, the external case is usb2 with firewire....and the ports on computer are usb2 aswell....i tried to work it on my desktop and it still hangs at 1%.....could it be the caddie then??

i tried the 1640 in a desktop and it burned fine....so its got something to do with the ext. enclosure or the setup/connection...any help?

the ext. enclosure is generic....non brand...could it be incompatible? wat burner is compatible with all types of external enclosures??

All External Case are not created equal...

You MUST determine the ChipSet used in your external unit for any more help...

this is all i got on it....
http://www.blueangel.net.cn/other/en...lei=17&ming=26

Product Features

Features:
1.Name: 5.25" COMBO
2.Model No: BA-525UFA
3.IC: EPASS 8801B(1394),NEC(USB2.0)
4.Rate:1394(400Mbps) USB2.0(480Mbps)

Specification:
1.Suitable for: 5.25" CD-ROM, CD-R/W, CD-R, DVD-ROM
2.Interface: USB2.0,1394
3.Power supply: Adapter (Input:100-260V,Output:12V/2A,5V/2A)
4.Material: Al & Mg alloy


System Requirements:
Windows 98SE, ME, 2000,2003 or XP ,Mac OS 9.x/X, Linux 2.4.x or above

you need to open up your enclosure and look at the chip inside to see what type of chipset it is.

never mind. you have epass for firewire and nec for usb2. Your best chance to get high speed is through nec. never heard of epass.

Remove Adaptec ASPI if installed, it can interfere with USB/1394.

IEEE 1394a

Could you post more info about your firewire driver? I am using ohci driver by microsoft 5.1.2535.0?

Could it possible because of your writer? Isn't 5163d an external burner, therefore the firmware support is better?

Go to the big external enclosure thread and you'll see everything there.