[PHoynak]

Does anyone know if the firmware update is available to download for the Mac yet? I can only find it for a PC and of course who would want to own a Pc.

[elzinat]

we would expect to see it here, but it isn't there, so we conclude it doesn't exist. Curiously they do have Mac firmware updates for their USB drives (which are both Mitsumi mechanisms), while the FW drives both use Plextor mechanisms. if the firmware SW comes from the drive manufacturer, as I believe it does, and Plextor doesn't like Macs, it might not be QPS's fault that they do not have this for us. just speculating...

Update: Just searched "firmware" at Plextor's site. Here are the results. I checked their download pages, and it seems they have NO Mac versions of ANY of their firmware for Any of their drives. I think we shouldn't blame QPS.

If you need the firmware update, you can take your drive, plug it into a pc, and install the firmware from that machine. (yes, I know it's a horrible thing to have to do, but there doesn't seem any other way at this point )

------------------
be happy!
-mac freak

[This message has been edited by elzinat (edited 03-09-2001).]

[Stogieman]

Plextor doesn't have the firmware update posted on their U.S. website but it's posted on their European website. Go figure. Here's the link:
http://www.plextor.be/English/technical/download2.html

I've downloaded the update (version 1.5) but did not install it yet. I'll probably do it tonight. I hope it speeds up the burn time in iTunes. It takes me 20 mins to burn a CD. With Toast it takes about 8 mins.

[elzinat]

Wow! thanks stogieman! how strange, that they should only have the firmware update available on their European site. it's on a special "Advanced Software" dl page (as opposed to their "STANDARD dl page"), which does not exist on the US site. hmmm....

anyway, now that we have it, a tip for people who might get confused by their d/l page:
In order to install new firmware, you need 2 files:
- the (non-drive specific) firmware upgrader program. latest version: 1.5
- a device-specific firmware binary file. latest version for PX-W8432T: 1.0.9


first info on the updater: I just ran the updater program, and it said it could not find any Plextor devices attached to my computer. [Both SysProfiler and Toast are happy campers at the moment.] Next to the updater program is a cryptic Config file, which seems to include an identifier of every drive type it can upgrade. Each identifier includes a city name. Here's ours:
----------------------------
[CD-R PX-W8432T]
IMGBLK=64
SIG=PLEXTOR MUNCHEN 000
SIGOFS=0x5FF1C
----------------------------
I'm going to try some stuff to get the upgrade installed, and post back later. If anyone else finds anything. please post!

------------------
be happy!
-mac freak