Sony drives current modifications

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Convert the Sony CRX-120E/40E to HP9300

- Why attempt it?

The Sony CRX-140E supports 8x writing, 4x re-writing and 32x reading. The HP9300 supports 10x writing, 4x re-writing and 32x reading. If you convert your Sony CRX-140E to HP9300 you will have increased writing speed (10x). The worst that can happen is that your drive will become useless. There is however a trick to convert the drive back to it's original state. Read more below...

- How i can do it?

First you must download the following files:

- HP9310 v1.0c firmware
- Sony dos-flasher (+ the 1.0n firmware) - from CD-R Server

Unzip the Sony firmware into a easy find directory ex: C:\FLASH. Put in the same directory the 9300_10c.bin-file. Now it’s time to flash. Boot from a disk, WITHOUT any CD inside or drivers. Go to the flash-directory.

Run the program like this: Updcrx21 9300_10c.bin /AT /M (Change the /M to /S if your cdr is “Slave”)

Shut down the PC. Reboot and check how the drive performs as an HP9300!

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FAQ

- I try to make the firmware hack and I am getting a "drive busy" error message. What i can do?

Are you sure that the recorder is empty CD? Remove any CD and re-try....

- I tried the firmware hack and the drive is broken/not working properly..How i can go back ?

First download this file and unzip all contents in a floppy disk. Reboot in pure DOS and type A:>d140e10n update.bin /M /2 /F /AT

where:
/M = master
/S = slave
/1 = primary IDE chain
/2 = secondary IDE chain
/AT = AT bus
/F = Force?

Some additional information: "....I just tried several more attempts at flash upgrading my drive and eventually one was correct. I believe the setting of the parameters may have been incorrect. After trying several different combinations, I found this sequence worked. "d140e10n update.bin /2 /s /at". My burner was on the secondary IDE channel and was set as the Slave. the AT switch was required but the /f was not..."

Ok. I am interested in doing the upgrade..What i should expect?

As users report:

- Writing at 2x, 4x, 8x and 10x is working, the drive can't write at 6x (ok, the "original" sony does the same before flashing).
- At 10x I can't write track-at-once, every time it failed with an mysterious error. all other speeds are working with track-at-one.
- At disc-at-once there are no limitations, full sucessfull writing at 10x and slower. no coasters produced at all.
- Overburning is not supported, but it can write 80min medias. The "original" Sony does the same.
- The LED isn't working correctly anymore. That's because the HP9300 gots two leds and the sony only has one. If you put a media in the HP it shows with one led (like plextor) that there is a media inserted. the other led for writing action isn't available at the sony device.
- It works fine however, read speeds are about 10x and it takes 3 times as long to detect and spin up a cd in the drive.