New firmwares available
The following Firmwares have just been added to our site:
- Optiarc AD-5170A Firmware 1.14
- Optiarc AD-5170S Firmware 1.13
- Optiarc AD-5200A Firmware 1.05
- Optiarc AD-7170A Firmware 1.05
- Optiarc AD-7170S Firmware 1.03
- Optiarc AD-7173A Firmware 1.04
- Optiarc AD-7173S Firmware 1.03
- Optiarc AD-7200A Firmware 1.06
- Optiarc AD-7200S Firmware 1.06
- Optiarc AD-7201A Firmware 1.06
- Optiarc AD-7201S Firmware 1.06
- Optiarc AD-7203A Firmware 1.06
- Optiarc AD-7203S Firmware 1.06
All firmwares are available in unmodified versions and with bitsetting and RPC1 patches.
The only firmware that has been tested so far is the AD-7173A firmware with bitsetting and RPC1 patch. In order to flash an AD-5170A, AD-7170A or AD-7173A on an SI-0680 controller in Windows, I found a way to force a device to PIO mode which is required for the afore mentioned drives. There is a registry setting that allows changing the max. allowed IDE mode for a device attached to the SI0680. It is located under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PnP680\ProblemDevices. Here you can add a string value (type REG_SZ) with the name of your drive and the value “MaxMode = PIO-3″. In order to add these values, you can use one of the following commands:
For the AD-5170A:
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PnP680\ProblemDevices /v "Optiarc DVD RW AD-5170A" /t REG_SZ /d "MaxMode = PIO-3"
For the AD-7170A:
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PnP680\ProblemDevices /v "Optiarc DVD RW AD-7170A" /t REG_SZ /d "MaxMode = PIO-3"
For the AD-7173A:
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PnP680\ProblemDevices /v "Optiarc DVD RW AD-7173A" /t REG_SZ /d "MaxMode = PIO-3"
After adding the registry entry you will have to reboot. If none of the devices attached to the controller is used you can also remove and re-detect the controller in device manager. If you finished flashing, you should remove this registry entry again and reboot your machine.
After flashing “Optiarc AD-7173S” 1.03 firmware with bitsetting and RPC1 patches,
wrong book type is detected for DVD+R discs. In particular for Verbatim DVD+R
MCC 004 000 (00h) media book type is DVD-RW-DL (even for blank disc).
Comment by Semen — September 3, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7173S firmware 1.03 with bitsetting and RPC1 patches
With this firmware book type for DVD+R media is DVD-RW-DL.
Comment by Semen — September 5, 2008 @ 2:41 pm
Are you running software like Alcohol or Daemon Tools that hide these values from applications?
Comment by Liggy — September 8, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
Yes, I am running Alcohol but this option is turned off.
With previous 1-02 firmware with bitsetting and RPC1 patches
book type was correct. I tried twice. After flashing back
1-02 firmware book type is correct. With 1-03 firmware with RPC1 but
without bitsetting it is also correct. For 1-03 firmware with RPC1 and
bitsetting patches book type is DVD-RW-DL for DVD+R even on blank media.
After writing on this disc, book type is then detected DVD-RW-DL on
any DVD+/-RW drive. Old DVD-ROM drives don’t detect such discs.
Comment by Semen — September 12, 2008 @ 11:30 am
Just now I’ve removed Alcohol, rebooted the computer, flashed 1-03 firmware
with bitsetting and RPC1 patches, again rebooted the computer.
And all is the same – book type for DVD+R (Verbatim DVD+R MCC 004 000 (00h))
is DVD-RW DL.
Comment by Semen — September 12, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
Hello, I have a Plextor800A which is in fact a Optiarc 7170A but I cannot flash the 1.05 over the original firmware due to a different bootcode. I think the last firmware I can successfully flash is 1.NC. What can I do in roder to have the latest firmware. 1.NC is not detecting any empty media but is correctly booting from the latest ElTorrito versions, which is not hapening in Plextor800A firmware 1.00.
Thanks
Comment by iustinian — January 9, 2009 @ 1:29 pm
I already planned on providing tools to switch between the two bootcodes. However I’ve always been busy with all kind of stuff – except for this tool
But I have not forgotten about it.
Comment by Liggy — January 12, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
I’m having a devil of a time with the OPTIARC DVD RW AD-7170A factory-installed in a Mac Pro. The firmware files here keep giving me an error that coding ending in 36 expected but my drive end in 38. This drive cannot mount a whole series of disks, especially those produced by Kalypso, but I have tried on 2 other machines that mount them fine. hate to think that I need to replace the drive after less than 1 year! Any help would be very much appreciated!
Comment by tommysan — February 19, 2010 @ 4:18 pm