I received this link from I/O Magic customer support when I emailed them regarding the external drive not burning as fast when connected to my computer as when connected to my husband's. Anyway, I haven't found a way to get to this page from their homepage and am hoping that this may help some of you!

Happy Holidays!

Suz

http://www.iomagic.com/Firmware/FirmwareDownload.html

Thanks for the link.... did you find a way to udpate your firmware yet?

Hi Zevia,

I haven't had any troubles updating my f/w to this point. I use WinDWFlash and the cvt files. Check the second sticky post in this forum for d/ls of the flashing program and the cvt files.

Good luck,

Suz

I checked out your link but did not see the B7P9?

I only see B7L9 and B7M9.....I am not sure what the difference in these versions.

I thought B7S9 was the latest?

This method is different than using the WinDWFlash and CVT files. What is the better way to flash a drive?

The link is foir G7xx firmware for the BenQ clone sold by IO Magic.

Is the I/O MAGIC a 1620 or 1620A?

You can also cross flash, from what I hear, to B7P9. It seems many people do this so the drive is no longer OEM.

Is this correct?

With all the reading I have been doing, I cannot recall the answer to your 1st question. I do know that the drive is manufactured by BenQ, that is unless you grab a BTC by mistake.
Whoops, just looked at the link to Io Magic & they state it as a "1620A"
& yes, you can cross flash the BenQ to B7P9 or B7S9 or 47L9 or G7M9 (using .cvt flies and WinDWflash) Once you are in the respective G,B or 47xx firmwares, you can flash using the official BenQ or, for the new G firmware the official IO Magic firmware.
You can also cross flash back from G to B or 47xx firmwares, again using WinDWflash & .cvt files.
An assumption; That what we are all looking for is, the firmware that gives us the highest quality burns with the best speed on the most available media. If I could find a firmware that on my burner produced consistant 98/99 scores on most of my media, well let's just say to the firmware writer & my BenQ!

So with knowing that the I/O MAGIC is a 1620A drive then does that mean it should have the G firmware? Then how do I got about it to make it a 1620pro drive with the B7P9?

From what I hear this is the best firmware to use for an INTERNAL drive, right?

Is there someplace that tells you the difference b/t all of these fw's?

Thanks for the help!

Well a good place to start is own a BenQ & then, to read this forum.
"Very important," learn how to do a "search" in this forum.
There is a lot of knowledge imparted here. You may discover that B7K9 has a faster write speed than B7P9 for certain media, but quality on the media you wish to use? New firmwares are being released by BenQ almost monthly. Each release has it's plus & minus aspects, better quality, slower writing, more capability on more media, faster burning speed, etc. Couple that with each burner responding within specs, yet slightly differently to the same firmware, and you can see you have your own quest of the Holy Grail lying before you. This is assuming that your basic computer system is in order, your software does not conflict & your drive functions properly. You can get help with those issues here too.
But to directly answer your questions,

1) When upgrading firmware, I would try the IO Magic G7Z9 firmware 1st.
With this caveat. Make sure your BenQ is functioning correctly from the start. Burn some discs with your existing software This is for warranty & to eliminate confusion with OS or software problems.
Debug system conflicts before you upgrade your firmware.

2) see this thread as a starting point for changing your firmware from G to B or??
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=118036

3) B7P9 seems to be currently the most popular firmware used for internal drives.

4) As for differences between the firmware releases, there are change logs, on each firmware released by BenQ, Just go to their Official site to read them. Just click on the Pencil icon.

G7z9?

I posted some scans in the G7Z9 thread.

Well a good place to start is own a BenQ & then, to read this forum.

**** I am doing my research ahead of time. I will soon have a BENQ 1620 come Christmas. I actually chose the 1620 over the PIO 108 after tremendous hours of research.

"Very important," learn how to do a "search" in this forum.

**** know how to do that, thanks

There is a lot of knowledge imparted here. You may discover that B7K9 has a faster write speed than B7P9 for certain media, but quality on the media you wish to use?

***** I am aware of this as well.

New firmwares are being released by BenQ almost monthly. Each release has it's plus & minus aspects, better quality, slower writing, more capability on more media, faster burning speed, etc. Couple that with each burner responding within specs, yet slightly differently to the same firmware, and you can see you have your own quest of the Holy Grail lying before you. This is assuming that your basic computer system is in order, your software does not conflict & your drive functions properly. You can get help with those issues here too.
But to directly answer your questions,

1) When upgrading firmware, I would try the IO Magic G7Z9 firmware 1st.

***** Really, I thought most jump to B7P9?


With this caveat. Make sure your BenQ is functioning correctly from the start. Burn some discs with your existing software This is for warranty & to eliminate confusion with OS or software problems.

***** What do you mean this is for warranty? I see that you can cross flash from G to B and back again. Please clarify.


Debug system conflicts before you upgrade your firmware.

2) see this thread as a starting point for changing your firmware from G to B or??
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=118036

***** Thanks, I have seen this previously.


3) B7P9 seems to be currently the most popular firmware used for internal drives.

**** That is what I will have an internal BENQ1620.

4) As for differences between the firmware releases, there are change logs, on each firmware released by BenQ, Just go to their Official site to read them. Just click on the Pencil icon.

***** Thanks, I did not know this. There are just so many things to keep track of with these units.

test123,
I apologize if I sounded patronizing. From your original questions I assumed you were just getting started, now I see you have made your purchase decision and are looking for more information.
So Let me see if I can answer you clearly,

You are right, from what I read & my own experience, most do jump to B7P9.

I am not absolutely sure, and would someone more knowledgeable please correct me, Cross flashing "could possibly void" your warranty. Although not specifically referred to in this paragraph, it still might apply:

"Please do take responsibility for what you do. If you "mod" (unofficially modify) your optical drive (e.g., loading an unofficial region-free firmware), you are technically voiding your warranty, because while such things may be fun and might improve performance, they are not sanctioned by the manufacturer. If you damaged your drive by "modding" it, please accept the consequences and do not send the drive in for a replacement, as that is unfair to the manufacturer and raises the costs for the rest of us."

Somewhere in this forum, I read a cautionary note about this.
But primarily, confirming your drive operates correctly from the get go, just makes sense.

My suggestion to try the G7Z9 firmware is exactly that, a suggestion. I have only seen one post on this firmware from rolling56, Thank you. Also, I do not think a re-badger can refuse an RMA if you upgraded with their firmware.

I have spent some time reorganizing my saved .png scans. Now I can start to evaluate from my own experience what firmware (that I have tried) burns best with the media I have. What I do notice is the patterns that are emerging. Once in a while there is an off burn, high or low, depending on firmware & speed burned at, that I would attribute to the media itself. Yet generally I see that certain firmware’s definitely work better on "my BenQ's" with certain media. At some point, I hope to share this. Perhaps others will do similar?

if u crosflash u can always go back so u don't have to worry about voiding your warranty

Do we get the option to save our current G firmware? Mine is G7C9. I do not see it online. I think I looked at IOMAGIC Site and see no Fw.

G7Z9 was created on 22 Oct 04
G7M9 was created on 26 Oct 04

G7Z9 is older firmware, apparently older that G7M9.

From the "Z" designation, it appears that they did not originally intend to offer firmware updates.

dishinit.....Thanks for the info again. It really takes time to have an appreciation for all these details.

Andrei....thats what I was referring to....if you confirm the drive works fine out of the box then flash to B7P9. Then later if you have to return the drive to CC then back-flash to the original if you can find a copy of the old FW. Is there a comparable G version for the B7P9 that will make it 4x DL and convert the 1620A to 1620pro? I have not been able to find this detail.

mpsan....what do you mean?

Inertia.....it sounds like someone got lazy when they were naming FW's or they had one to many b/c that is really going to get confusing when there is not a pattern to follow.

dishinit......"4) As for differences between the firmware releases, there are change logs, on each firmware released by BenQ, Just go to their Official site to read them. Just click on the Pencil icon."


******* Where is this pencil icon? Do you have a link? I looked on BENQ site here

http://www.benq.com/drivers/storage_drivers.html

but did not see any little pencils.

Look here:
http://support.benq.com/front/BenqMa...otId=undefined

dishinit....got it...Thanks!

B7P9=G7P9
B stands for retail
G stands for OEm

Funny thing on the Romanian Benq site, G is for the drives that don't have written "Benq " on the bezel

Same way for Lite-On OEM drives that use Lite-On's firmware.

I just wondered if I could save my old original IO Magic fw. But, I flashed to B7P9 and it is all GREAT!

My MKMA02 still show a quality of 50, but my INFODISCA10 shows 96!