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Zubir · Aug 15, 2005, 10:24 PM

Anyone else here had an optical drive that works, but albeit in a flaky manner? The Pioneer 109 I have in my DA works, but sometimes it takes an annoyingly long time to spin up. When I had the drive in my PC to update the firmware, it wouldn't read some disks at all. I'm running the 1.55 firmware. Is the drive just bad, or is there anything that can be done to make it run correctly?

graffix · Aug 16, 2005, 09:17 AM

That's bizarre... it sounds like a bad drive to me.

I just put a 109 in my FW800 dually, and it works great. I crossflashed it with the A09 firmware (the retail version of the drive) and it performs even better since it unlocked the rip speed (12x vs. 4x).

Also, you don't need to put it in a PC to flash it, since there's a program called DVRflash that will do it on your Mac. If you're afraid of the terminal, you can use the GUI front end (DVRflashX). I used the command-line utility since I was crossflashing with different firmware.

The current firmware is also 1.57... I don't know if that would make a difference in your case, but it could help. To get the maximum performance from the 109, it's recommended that you have an ATA66 bus with an 80-wire ATA cable, otherwise its performance will be degraded.
I'm not sure of the bus speed in your Digital Audio, but it's just something I thought I'd mention.

Good luck.

davidflas · Aug 17, 2005, 01:25 AM

I'm about to buy one of these drives from Newegg, does the firmware version show up in system profilier?

graffix · Aug 17, 2005, 01:31 AM

Yes, it does.

You might also consider Other World Computing for the DVR-109. They're only $67.99 plus $5 for UPS 2nd day... not too shabby of a price.
Plus they have both the black and tan bezel drives, so you can take your pick of color.
They're a great outfit (and I'm not affiliated with them at all).

Nivag · Aug 17, 2005, 05:41 AM

i've got firmware 1.57 on mine and it works a treat in my QS, maybe try the later firmware and see if that helps.

•syzygy• · Aug 17, 2005, 01:07 PM

Will this DVD/CD drive work on a G3 Blue & White?

graffix · Aug 17, 2005, 01:15 PM

According to the drive compatibility database at xlr8yourmac this drive should work fine in your B&W.

Zubir · Aug 22, 2005, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by graffix

That's bizarre... it sounds like a bad drive to me.

I just put a 109 in my FW800 dually, and it works great. I crossflashed it with the A09 firmware (the retail version of the drive) and it performs even better since it unlocked the rip speed (12x vs. 4x).

Also, you don't need to put it in a PC to flash it, since there's a program called DVRflash that will do it on your Mac. If you're afraid of the terminal, you can use the GUI front end (DVRflashX). I used the command-line utility since I was crossflashing with different firmware.

The current firmware is also 1.57... I don't know if that would make a difference in your case, but it could help. To get the maximum performance from the 109, it's recommended that you have an ATA66 bus with an 80-wire ATA cable, otherwise its performance will be degraded.
I'm not sure of the bus speed in your Digital Audio, but it's just something I thought I'd mention.

Good luck.

The ATA bus in the DA is ATA33, so that may be the problem.