Thanks for the reply. I'm about ready to give up on this thing. Have gone every route including the ASPI layers (4.60). Have run the drive all by itself as master on my secondary ide, tried as slave on primary ide and just about every other combination there is. Tried booting from DOS with boot disc drivers. Nothing works for it. I have two other burners (Plextor 8X & NEC 24X) and they are recognized immediately when I run them using the same configs. Same is also true for two DVD ROM's that I have.

Have concluded that its just a bad drive and will see if I can get this one exchanged hopefully without any trouble.

Thanks again for the helpful reply...

(in reply to Michael Lee)

Hi BillyBob,

when you write that everything seems fine in bios, do you mean that the drive is recognized in bios? if so, a couple of things could be confusing the OS. Can you detect and remove old drivers that may have been loaded for your previous drives? Are you using the Burning software that you were using for your previous drives?

Removing the old drivers rarely fixes the problem but who knows?
Using the software for the previous burner could mean that it needs an update to recognize the newer drive. EZ cd creator and Nero need to be updated and most likely any other.

please post if replacing the drive works, thanks

(in reply to Michael Lee)

Its not recognized anyplace. When I mentioned the BIOS, it was for the settings. Drive does not show up there or in device manager.

Have been using the latest version of NERO which I keep up to date. The Khyperdrive came with NERO EXPRESS which was is an older version of what I have on my machines. (have tried this on two machinesl, one of which is a brand new DELL 4550.)

It could be that I'm missing one little step someplace biut I don't think so. This is just to much hassle to go through in order to get something to work. I expect all equipment to work right out of the box (which it sometimes doesn't). If it doesn't then I expect some good answers from the products "Tech Support" which Khypermedia hasn't got except telling me 3 times to update windows (which is something else I keep totally updated on a regular basis)

Washing my hands of it and will see if they'll send me a replacement for it. [xx(]

Thanks for your efforts.

(in reply to Michael Lee)

i would agree with you, not in bios is not a good thing! The nice thing about the Khypermedia is that they also show on the outside of the box which drive is in each package. Just my personal opinion, I would opt for the box that indicates "KHCRW482448" over the one that says "4824P". The 4824P is based on the mediatek chipset and the KHCRW482448 is based on the ricoh chipset. I have had several 4824P's and they are picky about the media you feed them. I have one aopen 48x12x50 based on the ricoh chipset and it does much better writing to the inexpensive CD-R media that I tend to pick up for free after rebates. namely the CMC Magnetics CD-R's. I wish I new more about the KHCRW482448 drives because after a firmware flash to version F.FZ it becomes a 522452 drive and says that it now supports Mount Rainier. I don't know if it really does though. So many things to consider for a drive that is free after rebates... good hunting...

(in reply to Michael Lee)

I bought this drive at officemax.. From what i gather its a Benq 48x24x48x drive they offer..

Questions I have are this... I uncheck autopilot in Nero and i get all the speeds possible up to 48x.. I burn the cd's at 48x and it works perfectly.. However, I have to do this every time I open nero.. Is there a way to permanently UNCHECK this autopilot preference..

Also Should i update my firmware?? I have the D-LC firmware - whatever came on the drive.. It works alright the drive.. Can I upgrade to the 52x drive by just flashing with the 52x F-FZ driver? or do i have to upgrade to D-SC b4 i go to the F-FZ...

I had a 24x TDK b4.. and frankly when burned with that drive i felt i could do more while burning than i can with this drive.. Probably b/c im burning at a quicker speed now.

Anyway- im debating whether or not upgrading to the 52x with a flash.. But i don't know if its worth it..

Anyhelp would be great..

Jeff

(in reply to Michael Lee)

CAN I UPGRADE/OVERCLOCK MY KHYPERMEDIA 48X24X48 DRIVE TO A BENQ 52X24X52 DRIVE?

OK, a lot of people are either really confused or are not reading the previous posts thoroughly.

SOME of the KHypermedia 48x24x48 drives (temporarily offered for free after rebate at OfficeMax) can be flashed to a BenQ 52x24x52 drive.
Here's what you need to flash to 52x24x52:
KHypermedia 48x24x48
*** AND ***
an original drive firmware revision of C.xZ (x is variable, it can be any letter)

These D.xC drives CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT be flashed to the BenQ 52x24x52 firmware revision F.FZ under ANY conditions.
If you have a D.xC drive, you should stick with the 4824P firmware upgrades.

REMEMBER
There are TWO types of KHypermedia 48x24x48 drives
1) Original Firmware: C.xZ
This drive is NOT a 4824P, it's assumed to be based on a Ricoh chipset that can support the 5224W firmware update.
2) Original Firmware: D.xC
This drive seems to be a 4824P with a Mediatek chipset. Please don't flash this drive with the 5224W firmware update!

(in reply to Michael Lee)

I have extracted the firmware binary file from BenQ's KRC.exe for the 5224P. I used this binary and MtkWinFlash to update and upgrade my 4824P drive that came with D.IC firmware. It does not matter if you got the drive under the brand name Cendyne or Khypermedia or whoever. Once you flash it with the KRC.bin file it is now a 5224P and you can update the firmware after that using the firmware updates K.xC from BenQ's website. This is not as easy as updating the other BenQ 482448 drive with the C.xZ firmware as mentioned above but the results are similar. The only bummer is that it still does not support Mount Rainier. Thats why I suggested picking out the Khypermedia drives that have the model number KHCRW482448. If you need the KRC.bin file, drop me an email...

(in reply to Michael Lee)

quote:

---

Originally posted by cptsnoopy

I have extracted the firmware binary file from BenQ's KRC.exe for the 5224P. I used this binary and MtkWinFlash to update and upgrade my 4824P drive that came with D.IC firmware. It does not matter if you got the drive under the brand name Cendyne or Khypermedia or whoever. Once you flash it with the KRC.bin file it is now a 5224P and you can update the firmware after that using the firmware updates K.xC from BenQ's website. This is not as easy as updating the other BenQ 482448 drive with the C.xZ firmware as mentioned above but the results are similar. The only bummer is that it still does not support Mount Rainier. Thats why I suggested picking out the Khypermedia drives that have the model number KHCRW482448. If you need the KRC.bin file, drop me an email...

---

Thanks cptsnoopy,
I had success flashing my drive (4824P w/ vD.xC firmware) using the .bin you provided (vKRC.bin). However, I ran a speed test with Nero CD Speed (after the flash), and the drive started burning at 22.57x, rose to about 45x (at about 60 minutes), then sharply dropped to around 34 (at about 62 minutes), rose to 40x (at about 64 minutes), and went steady at 40x to the end.

Is this because of the firmware? If so, I think I'm going to flash the original firmware back.

Thanks for your help,
-David

(in reply to Michael Lee)

subject: upgraded 4824P to 5224P speed test performance

I found that when I used my CMC Magnetics CD-R media (the stuff I get for free after rebates...) I would either be limited right off to 32x or 40x or it would speed test as canydavid describes in the previous post. If I used the Prodisc CD-R media that came with my drive it would do a speed test with no slowdowns or any hint that it would fail. It would normally finish at around 52x to 53x with an average write speed of around 39x to 40x. I have not burned this prodisc CD-R yet so I don't know what it will actually do. If I get some real media and try it I will post the results... It is this drives pickyness about the media that has lowered my opinion of it. My Aopen 48x12x50 burns the CMC Magnetics media at 48x without problems. I have not used my Khypermedia with vF.FZ firmware more than a couple of times and so far it seems to do much better with the cheap media...

If anyone needs the DRC.bin file to flash back to 4824P, please email me...

(in reply to Michael Lee)

My overclocked Khypermedia 52X works pretty well. I am using I/O Magic 48X blanks (CMC made freebies). I don't see much difference between that and the name brand disk disk like Fuji or TDK.

(in reply to Michael Lee)

i went to circuit city today to pick up some maxell CD-R 40x at two for one. no dice, sale started sunday and has been sold out within a day or two. so, i'll continue to be cheap and wait for the next sale.

(in reply to Michael Lee)

I successfully upgraded the firmware to F.FZ on the Khypermedia drive and the drive seems to burn OK. I was thinking it might be a good idea to have a backup of the original firmware but couldn't locate it on Benq support site. I think it was C.FZ or possibly C.CZ. Are any of the original firmware versions available for download?

Thanks

(in reply to Michael Lee)

I have the ricoh chipset. I flashed the 5224w firmware and now nero says I my maximum write speed is 16x! What is the deal?

(in reply to Michael Lee)

Hi notallan,

Please post the name of the previous firmware before you flashed and if you can get to it what date your drive was made and its model number. also please post the name of the firmware revision you flashed to it. thanks

(in reply to Michael Lee)

The cd write speed depends on your media. A slow media is not going to give you 52X but rather what the media is rated for. Try using faster media to see if it makes a difference.

(in reply to Michael Lee)

I heard it will only save a few seconds to upgrade to 52x. If I flash it to 52x will there be a higher chance of screaw ups? Also, is there another positive reason to upgrade instead of just the fact of obtaining 52x?

(in reply to Michael Lee)