My drive was working fine with firmware B7K9 firmware, I then upgraded to B7M9 and the drive refused to detect my discs most of the time--ritek g02 4x (That's the only type of blanks I have, so I'm not sure if this was only a problem with the g02 or if other media would have had the same problem) and the computer wouldn't boot if a disk was in the drive. It did detect the disks twice in about 30 different tries, but one burn died in the middle and the second completed but wouldn't play back (an avi file) without skipping and hanging. Thinking maybe it was a bad flash, i reloaded the M firmware, but the problems continued.

I then downgraded to B7L9, and then my computer wouldn't boot at all, with or without a disk in the drive--It would always hang on the windows loading screen. I remember reading that the drive had a problem with the Nvidia IDE drivers (although, as stated above, the drive worked great with the K firmware) so I reinstalled the microsoft drivers but the computer still wouldn't boot with the 1620 installed in the computer.

And that's where it stands now--I can't flash the drive again because windows won't load with the drive installed. I do have an external usb2 enclosure somewhere and once I find it, I'll try to see if I can get the drive detected and try flashing back to the earlier firmware.

Q: Has anyone else had success with the M firmware and the g02 discs?

Q2: Do you think this is just a firmware bug or could it be a faulty drive? If it's just the firmware, should I just stick with the L firmware (assuming I can reflash my drive) until a firmware without the above problems is posted?

I noticed that a couple people in other threads had some similar problems with the M firmware and some types of media.

Anyway, I'll update this when I get some new results.

Did you flash it with a disk in the drive?

Allright, I've got by Drive reflashed with B7M9--I had to start my computer, when it froze at the windows bootup screen, I unplugged the power connector and quickly plugged it back in which allowed the OS to continue to boot--once WinXP loaded it detected the Benq bun then immediately froze again, I then had to unplug and plug back in the power connector again. I was then able to reflash.

However, I still can't burn any Ritek 02 media--only about 20% of the time, will the drivel detect the media and when I try to burn something it bombs out in the first couple of minutes.

I'll buy some different media and try that to see if it works.

Does anyone else have similar problems with this drive and firmware?

Also, I tried first to use a usb external enclosure, but no luck.