I've been reading few threads around here for the past few days and I want to make sure I don't screw my drive up. I have a HP640 lightscribe drive which I flashed about a year ago. The current FW is BenQ DW1625 BBHA.

My drive is not performing well and I want to upgrade/flash to the latest compatable FW but I'm not sure which one is the correct one. I've tried a few but they all say "this drive is not allowed to be upgraded."

I guess my question is what do the last four letters mean as far as compatability and what's the best FW to use for this? How would I install it?

I dont care about region free, I just want something to allow me to write CD & DVD +RW -RW with LS. ANy help would be appreciated.

The latest FW for the 1625 is BBIA which
can be found here.
Simply extract the executable file and run it.
Follow the instructions, being sure there is
no disc in the drive, and be sure to reboot after
the upgrade is finished.
Since you are already using the 1625 fw there
is no need for the crossflash procedure.
Just run the flasher.

Thanks. Does that mean I shouldnt upgrade the drive to a 1650 or something more current?

The 1650 has a totally different chipset.
You need to do more research as to which
cross flashes you can do with your drive.
I don't have the answer, other than to
warn you that if you attempt the wrong
cross flash you will kill your drive.

I've been flashing the BCIC firmware to the 1625. I'm still shaking. What an idiot! Using BQFlasher. Drive was gone. No acess in Windows XP. BIOS was ok.
But flashing back to BBIA was negative with BQFLASHER. This program could not find the drive.
WinDWFlash brought sunshine to me. The drive is working excellent again.

Only, I can't use DL Profselect DVD's.
I'm still looking for recent firmware.

BCiC is the most recent fw for the 1625

Don't think so, BCIC is a DW1650 firmware.

BBIA is the latest DW1625 firmware, on BenQ EU's page anyway.

You're right Pinto BBIA is the most recent fw for 1625

I forget to say that using BCIC on a 1625 is changing the drive to a HP640c. But in windows it's dead.
Flashing back to BBIA with WinDWFlash works well, but no Dual Layer anymore. Then flashing once more with the BBIA executable works well. The Dual Layer compatibility is back.
At this moment I'm testing with MediaCodeSpeedEdit, on Profselect DL mediatype RICOHJPND00.
But burning failed with Nero 7.5.11