[OsakaBill]

For some time now I have been trying to acquire the 1.30 firmware updater for the Pioneer DVR-105 drive. I have attempted without success to:

• Contact Pioneer via e-mail and ask that I be sent a Mac compatible Firmware Updater.
• Contact Pioneer via telephone and ask to speak to a Mac savvy agent.
• Contact AMUG and download the file.

In the first two cases, I was told no such updater existed (despite reports posted on this web site). In the latter case, the link no longer worked and the individual whom I contacted at AMUG was unaware of the updater file.

I was therefore quite thrilled when I learned that the firmware update was now available on Pioneer's website. I clicked on the link and downloaded the file. The thrill of victory soon turned to the agony of defeat.

I have not booted into OS 9 for some time. What a mess! Since the last time I booted into OS 9, I added an ATi Raedon 9000. Since the proper ATi drivers were not installed and since my old nVidia drivers were installed, I was barely able to boot into 9 at all. I quickly deduced the problem, downloaded the most recent OS 9 drivers for the Raedon 9000, and rebooted.

Though the G4 booted, just fine, all was not well. I tried using the Firmware updater, unfortunately it did not work. The updater kept "unexpectedly quitting" with a "type 3" error. Then the Finder kept reported there was an error with one of my hard drives, data was lost, and I needed to run a disc utility to repair the drive. However, no OS 9 utility would recognize the drive. (NOTE: I have two 80 GB Maxtor 7200 RMP ATA133 drives connected to an ACARD ATA100/133 PCI card.)

I pulled up Apple System Profiler at this point and much to my horror, not only did ASP report that my drive partition was not mounted (despite being visible on the Desktop), it reported my new DVR-105 as a generic CD-ROM drive!! I restarted the PowerMac a couple of times, but the same scenario repeated itself—unexpected quitting followed by reports of damaged disks followed by whacked out ASP information.

At this point I shut down the PowerMac. I removed all cables and opened the case. I gave the case a complete cleaning. I removed all internal cables and reconnected them. I re-sat the RAM modules. Then I reconnected the power cable, USB keyboard/mouse, and the ADC connector to my monitor.

The boot into OS 9 was smooth. I ran Disk Utility and TechTool Pro. Both saw all my disks and reported no problems. I pulled up ASP and not only were all disks accounted for, but it correctly showed my DVD-R drive as a Pioneer DVR-105 with Firmware 1.2.1. YEAH!

Giddy with anticipation, I launched the Firmware Updater. Reality then smacked me down hard on the cold cement floor of life. The updater "unexpectedly quit" with a "type 3" error. It did this over and over and over again. I was not able to get the updater to update the firmware of my DVR-105.

[Eriamjh]

First: why do you want to run the FW update? Do you need it? If not, drop the whole thing. FW updates can completely trash working hardware. It may have happened to you already.

Second: You could try removing the drive and popping it into a PC and updating the FW from the PC using the PC FW updater.

Third: There is no step three.


Good luck.

[-Q-]

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
Third: There is no step three.

I have one, although it may actually be a 'step one'.

Make sure you've paired down your OS 9 extensions to the bare minimum--the installer may have a problem with one more of the extensions you loaded.

Also, if you can, put one of the HDDs on the built-in IDE chain if you don't already have one on there and remove the PCI card. The firmware may not like that card for some reason.

[OsakaBill]

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
First: why do you want to run the FW update? Do you need it? If not, drop the whole thing. FW updates can completely trash working hardware. It may have happened to you already.

Second: You could try removing the drive and popping it into a PC and updating the FW from the PC using the PC FW updater.

Third: There is no step three.


Good luck.

First, there are several issues with this drive and iDVD that are supposedly cured with the firmware update.

Second, if I had access to a working PC, I'd have to slit my wrists.

[Eriamjh]

Originally posted by OsakaBill:
Second, if I had access to a working PC, I'd have to slit my wrists.

PCs, while not preferred, have their uses. You have friends with PCs, don't you? Use them to your advantage (unless they'll berate you for using a Mac).