I've got a dual G5 that came with an Apple SuperDrive that was branded as a Sony DW-Q28A with firmware KAS7. I became aware that this "Sony" drive was actually a rebranded LiteOn SOHW-1693S. The LiteOn drive had many firmware updates after the Apple drive was issued that added support for many more types of media, and better burn reliability.
The LiteOn firmwares were in the series starting KS01 and increased through KS09 and then KS0A and finally KS0B (the current version). I believe the Apple firmware (KAS7) would be about the same as LiteOn KS07 in vintage, roughly 5 updates behind. One reason I embarked on this was many of my newer DVD discs would only burn at the slowest 1x or 2x speed even though they were much faster media. Plus, I was having many coasters (bad burns) that seemed more related to something in the speed control of the burn (i.e. firmware) than a possible bad optical unit. When the OEM Apple drive with Apple's KAS7 firmware was tested in a PC it tested poorly. I recently embarked on to upgrade this firmware, which was done by placing the G5's SuperDrive into a Windows PC since all the firmware flash programs are Windows only. I downloaded the current LiteOn KS0B and patched it to give full media support and added functionality using OmniPatcher, and then used HexEdit 3.3 to change the "KS0B" back to "KAS7" so that it would appear identical to the original firmware so that I wouldn't loose my "Apple Supported" status in OS X, even though I don't think that matters in Leopard now? It upgraded fine and now I have a hybrid with the latest possible firmware that supports the most possible media types (331 types of discs), and it appears to be the OEM version just in case I ever boot with Tiger or Panther. There is also a small program that can change the unit to rpc1 (DVD region free). I took a Sharpie and wrote on my drive "upgraded with LiteOn SOHW-1693S KS0B patched firmware rpc1" because Apple System Profiler continues to show it as the OEM "Sony DW-Q28A KAS7". If anyone has this model Sony DW-Q28A and would like to upgrade it with my patched version of the LiteOn firmware I can email you the Windows PC flash program with patched firmware and the rpc1 program. It's relatively easy if you have a Windows PC to place the SuperDrive into for upgrading. I make no guarantees, upgrading firmware is always slightly risky, and you might kill your unit. I've kept a copy of the original Apple KAS7 firmware (which isn't available on the internet AFAIK) as a precaution, so you probably could downgrade to where you started if you had problems. I haven't used mine enough to see if it's helped with my burn speeds or bad burn issues, but it reads all discs fine still. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to g3-5-list-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
