I just purchased an OEM Pioneer 106 drive, but the model number is DVR-106RD instead of the standard 106D, I tried updating the firmware but it says "Available target not found" and chkrw.exe can not find any drives, whats going on?

Plz help, thx

had any luck m8 ? plz lmk

boyleboyley@aol.com

Also having same problem anybody help?

Oh dear.

And I thought it was just me having this problem.
Hope someone can help us out, please.

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?p=77926

the drive is a rebadged ACER drive... the firmware forum is working on it...

Thanks for the reply Morninglight.
I am suprised that the 'official' upgrades won't work with it though. But the 'unofficial' ones are usually better anyway.
I'll keep my eye on the Firmware Forum site.
(It was the first place I looked).

Here are the official drivers for the 106RD v1.07:

http://home.publishnet.nl/~pewika/pioneer106rd_107.zip

use at your own risk!

The thing is why the official firmware at the pioneer site won;t work is that the 106RD are drivers that are sold to ACER, thus ACER needs to distibute the firmware... hardware should be 100% identical to the 106(D) drives.

I've gone a few rounds with Pioneer on this.

The folks in the US don't know anything about the RD version.

My beef is that regardless of where or to who Pioneer sold them, they're labeled pioneer on the outside as well as within the bios... and that makes this pioneer's problem.

I won't rest unitl pioneer offers official drivers and service support for these orphaned drives.

If I wanted to screw around with hacked firmware I would have bought an NEC ND1300A instead, I spent a few extra bucks to buy the brand name and find that pioneer is out of touch with end users.

All is not lost yet! I'm hoping that Pioneer will come to its senses and do something that gets disenfranchised users back into the standard dvr-106d fold?

Also, the Acer utility "cd_firmware_detect.exe" see the dvr-106rd as well as the nero drive info utility.

Why then won't nero express 6.0.0.6 burn a data dvd for me at 2x or at 4x using tdk dvd+r media??? And why won't Easy CD Creater v5.3.5.10 burn a dvd on it either???

The only thing that I can get to work on this is DVD- XCOPY and that's only half the reason I bought a DVD burner!

fingers crossed.
Eric

Go here:

http://flashman.rpc1.org/

The files are here to turn your Pioneer/Acer into a proper Pioneer. You'd also do well to read the thread it was in here:

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=18973

You'll get an error message when flashing, but it's normal.

Thanks FLASHMAN, and everyone else involved.

But what's the use of flashing it into a 106D?

the specs are identical... I would be happier if rpc1 would release a hacked firmware for the 106RD instead of flashing your drive to 106D and then a hacked firmware onto it...

the most obvious use of it is the fact that u wouldn't have to wait around for 106RD firmware to come along and can use the regular 106D firmwares from then on to update.

if the 106D and 106RD firmwares are the same except for the modelname...

Converting from a 106RD to a 106D gets me off the merry-go-round.

Right now, I feel very disenfranchised. The folks at Pioneer have been nicer than you can imagine, Acer barely knows this product exists and with the exception of a brochure on their website they don't know a thing about it. In fact, if you manage to find anything about the RD model on Acer's website, it links you to BenQ's website. And after all the bouncing around, I've yet to find any firmware upgrades for the DVR-106RD on Acer or BenQ's website. This makes me wonder if they'll ever support the drive? And since Pioneer creates the firmware upgrades for them, I feel it's just a matter of time before Acer/benQ decide the drive is solid enough and stop buying firmware from Pioneer.

The idea of hacked software makes me ill. I've seen bad flashes kill good notebooks and my stomach doesn't like the sudden burst of acid when your investment is thrown out the window. If I wanted to gamble, I'd take the family to Atlantic City and drop $150 into a slot machine.

This leaves me with two choices:

-Return the unit to the folks that sold it to me. OR
-Flash it to a 106D and follow the Pioneer trail I thought I was buying into...

Flashing it into a 106D is great except for three issues:

-I'm pretty confident I can do this if my heart doesn't stop in the middle of the process due to routine error message.
-I'm not wild about altering the device and would feel better if I knew where the utilities originated and if they are pure Pioneer, or someone’s hacked code.
-If I do successfully change it from an RD to D, what happens if the device smokes in a month or two? Will Pioneer, Acer and BenQ all abandon me further?

Words of wisdom are appreciated.
Eric,
Wayne, PA

sigh, i'll try this again: if u flash the drive to an "official" 106D, u can use any of the firmware and tools made for the 106D rather than trying to find something for the 106RD, which has less support.