As stated in THIS POST I bought a Sony 810A from newegg.com

Bein that this was for a work computer, my coworker who helps me manage the hardware here installed this drive on my brand new Dell Precision 390.

I had totally forgot to check the drive for the model # to make sure if it was an 810A (benq 1640) or 810A-R (1650)

so I opened up the computer and pulled the drive and on the bottom of the drive there was the main big sticker. The only two things that indicated anything significant was the model#: 810A and the manufacture date October 2005.

The other thing is that funky design on the top of the drive was a semi-clear plastic/rubber material.

I checked on sony's site and they have now the 1.0 D generation of firmware for the 810A model, the drive came with A loaded with 1.0 A.
Sony had no firmware for the 810A-R.

I guess I will have to take the chance and flash this, I think I will gamble on 1640 even though besides the visible/physical evidence it seems kind of unlikely it is a 1640.

Actually if you think about it the SONY 810A 1.0D firmware shouldnt beable to flash the 810A-R drive,
right?

thanks

Hi,They have. It is a kind of universal flasher that contains firmwares for both versions. Just have a look at the file size.

Michael

Look at this post

This kid killed his drive with official sony flasher, and I am sorry you may be wrong that it is a universal program LOOK AT THIS LINK
They have an individual .exe for each firmware, A,B,C, and D.

Judging from the manufacturing date (oct.-05) and firmware, this drive is a 1640 clone.

IIRC the first (and also the latest released) "double" firmware for 810A/810A-R is v.1.0e. Read this warning from TheDangerousBros, also repeated recently by ala42 .

Don't quote me on this, but as long as your Sony 810A drive comes with a firmware revision prior 1.0e, it should be safe with crossflash to DW1640.
Note though, your warranty will be voided.

First I must say that newegg doesnt have this drive anymore
But Tigerdirrect, through amazon has it for 45$, probably the -R though, it feels good, I think I might be the last person to buy a 1640 in the USA! just kidding, I am part of the 1620 generation so I want to scoop up some of the last Phillips/Benq drives, the last drives of what i thought was a european company in an Asian market.

Anyways the drive has 1.0A firmware to start, and I must appologize to mciahel, if you go on sony's site you can end up in two places
If you go to "browse by model" you will get the Updater that does the E firmware.
If you go to the Downloads section, then choose Firmware you will End Up Here and this is where the old D firmware is. I beleive this is how the guy in the other thread fried his 810a-r.

Well I am going to go ahead and flash to 1.0E and then crossflash to BSLB.

I am going to stop by Compusa today and if they dont have a 1655 or 1650 norwood for 50$ or less I will order the 810A-R from amazon. At least the sony's from are prettier, and handled better (compusa is a OCD nightmare)

"Well I am going to go ahead and flash to 1.0E and then crossflash to BSLB."

I have two 810A's, I flashed them to 1.0E a while ago, and have been reading all I can to see if it is safe to crossflash to benq1640, how did things work out for you??

This isn't really a new thing, it has been done many times before. As long as the manufacturing date is rather old (at least 6 months) then it should be safe to crossflash.

yup