I am considering buying the HP530I which from what I have read is actually a rebadged Lite-On 832S. Warranty issues aside does anybody know whether I would have a problem updating it with firmware for the Lite-On 832S instead?

Thanks.

530i? I've heard about the r, but not the i.

Go to http://dhc014.rpc1.org/howto.htm and download LtnFW. Use this tool to back up your firmware. Please zip up and send a copy of this firmware backup to me (see my sig for my e-mail address) or to dhc014 (see his website for his e-mail address).

If LtnFW is able to successfully back up your firmware, then your drive is indeed a rebadged LiteOn, and you should be able to flash it with a 832S firmware.

Here's the description of the unit from HP's webpage in case you're curious:

530i

Thanks for the instructions. I haven't bought it yet since I was hoping for an answer before committing to it.

24X CD-R? Seems like an NEC2510? But that had 32X CD-R, didn't it?

Well, the specs match that of the 832S. Plus, I just read a thread about someone buying a 530i, and it was internally recognized as a 530r with a LiteOn firmware. So I guess 530i and 530r are the same drive.

In any case, yea, it looks like that flashing the 530i to a 832S would most likely be possible.

Thanks for the feedback. For the person who mentioned that this was a double post could you provide the link where this was discussed earlier?

@Bhairav

The link that bodobodo provided didn't work for me. So I was getting my specs from a different page on the HP website: link. And on this page, it lists CD-R as 40x.

@bodobodo

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=102031 (starting from post #5)

Interestingly, the spec page that I found on the HP site lists 530ri and 530i as the same drive, and then the guy says that he bought an "i", the drive was labeled with "ri", and the drive identified itself as a "r". Eh. HP's naming schemes never made any sense to me.

Thanks again. I had read that topic but it didn't seem clear enough to me from that discussion that the firmware had been successfully updated. Unfortunately I'm new to Lite-On burners.

@Code2^16, the original link works for me, and it shows 24X CD-R and CD-RW speeds. The link you provided shows 40X CD-R speeds. Weird!

Anyway, the photo looks exactly like a Lite-On, so it probably is one.

Just as an aside if it is a rebadged 832S is the 832S a decent choice if I also want to do burn testing with Kprobe or would another LiteOn DVD burner be better suited to this task?

The 832S is a fine KProbing device. Until its recent retirement from my machine, I used to do all my scans using it.

Why not just buy a true LiteOn 832S and do away with the rebadge confusion?

I have an HP dvd530i - has anyone sent you the firmware to verify that it is truly a rebadged 832S?

As far as HP drives go, the model # on the box may display an i or an e; those stand for internal and external, respectively. Device manager (as well as various DVD other programs) will show the actual model number, such as 530r or a 310n.

Does anyone know if I can flash my HP 530i drive the with latest 832s firmware? What will the latest firmware give me that the original one does not?

The actual model number of the drive is 530r. The full output of Kprobe2 DriveInfo, shown is:

VID HP
PID DVD Writer 530r
F/W Revision VPS8
Date Code 2004/06/28
FlashROM Manufacturer ID C2
FlashROM Device ID 37
FlashROM Type MXIC(MX29LV008B)(+3.3V)
Region 1
Vendor Resets Available 4
User Resets Available 4
RPC Scheme Unknown
Interleaved DMA Not Supported
Command queuing Not Supported
Overlap operation Not Supported
IORDY Supported
IORDY may be disabled Not Supported
LBA Supported
DMA Supported
Multiword DMA mode 2
PIO mode 4
Ultra DMA Mode 2
Minimum Multiword DMA transfer cycle time per word 120 ns
Manufacturer¡¦s recommended Multiword DMA transfer cycle time 120 ns
Minimum PIO transfer cycle time without flow control 227 ns
Minimum PIO transfer cycle time with IORDY flow control 120 ns
Major version number ATA/ATAPI-5
SMART feature set Not Supported
Security Mode feature set Not Supported
Removable Media feature set Not Supported
Power Management feature set Not Supported
Burst Rate 25.00 MB/S

you can upgrade with THIS firmware.

you drive will then be a 832S.View Product Details

I read the txt file inside the firmware archive... does it really do what it says? Will it improve the quality of the burns in my drive (at the expense of some speed)?

It mentions using omnipatcher on the file before flashing. What customizations can be done and what are recommended?

Fast read & autobitsetting are crowd favorites. So is the "recommended tweaks" button. The OP readme should explain everything.

Thanks, I will download omnipatcher and give it a shot.

I tried the CG3E firmware on my dvd530i and my light now flashes orange instead of green when burning. I tried a generic (from e3Works) +R disc and it worked fine, but it failed totally to burn 2 TYG02 and one RITEKG03. With these medias, the progress bar was still on the 1% mark and the discs still burned to about one third of the way before giving the "bad disk error".

I flashed back to the orignial HP firmware and since then I burned about 10 TYG02 with excellent kprobe results (I'm not an expert in analysing these results, but it seemed prettty low on errors to me!)

I updated to the CG4E firmware and noticed that it made at least one noticible difference. When burning cheap (AML) DVD-R media I used to get errors reading the end of each disc, now I don't get any errors (using Nero and the verify files option).

Kprobe2 at 4x speed doesn't show much difference between the pre and post CG4E discs; the max PI of both discs are above 1000 (PI starting around 200 at the beginning and a LARGE mountain at the end). On the other hand, Maxell brand DVD+R media had a max PI of 8 using the HP firmware, I haven't burned one with CG4E yet.

Do these drives normally have problems burning DVD-R media? What is the best media to purchase for use on this drive?

i suggest resetting your EEPROM

What does that do?

it sets the learned media calibration data back to factory default.

Thanks for the information about resetting my EEPROM; I have not reset it yet because I am testing these discs at difference burning speeds.

I tried burning the same discs (AML DVD-R using the CG4E firmware) at 4x instead of 2x and I got better results from kprobe with the 4x burn. I got an average PI of 429, high of 970 vs average PI of 265, high of 896 (it spikes from under 700 to 896 right at the end).

Is this because I have not burned one of these discs at 4x and the EEPROM did not have calibration data for that speed? Or is it possible that these discs just burn better at 4x than 2x?