Any way to upgrade firmware for Pioneer DVR-K06 DVD-RW drive?

Question

Finally got around to replacing the factory SuperDrive in my Mac mini the other day. The original drive NEVER worked right out of the box -- would read some CDs but not others, always barfed on burning DL DVDs, etc. My last experience with getting a mini fixed under warranty (mobo on my 1.42 G4 took a dump after a few months) involved two three-hour round trips to the nearest (and I use the term loosely) Apple Store for service. It was cheaper for me to just replace the optical drive in this one than to do that drive again.
Anyway, enough complaining. The replacement drive has firmware v1.01 and I would like to get it up to the latest available firmware to take advantage of any compatibility, stability, etc. fixes since v1.01. Problem is that I can't find any software that supports flashing the K06 drive. Hope someone here has a solution. I don't have a Windows machine with appropriate connectors to hook the drive up to or I'd go that route ... plus I'd much rather do it on a Mac just on principle ... plus I don't want to have to disassemble the mini again.
Any solution?

Answer 1

Hello Sang,
I have Sun Ultra 40 Workstation which comes with Matshita DVD-RAM drive.
Mine has D100 firmware and I find other people who has the same drive on different system have D101, D200, D201 firmware.
So does anyone know how to contact Sun to get the latest firmware for my DVD-RAM drive?
I did contacted Matshita for this matter and they tell me to contact Sun.
I did review the Full Components List for the Ultra 40. The only DVD drives listed (Part No. 370-7970) are Panasonic UJ-485 and Teac DV-W28SLA-093. Both aren't capable of reading or writing DVD-RAM.
In some countries Panasonic uses Matshita as brand name.
I did a search on SunSolve with the keywords DVD firmware.
Sun supplies only firmware updates for two DVD readers: Toshiba DVD 1401 (fixes: unable to boot from Solaris 8 DVD) and Toshiba SD-C2732 (fixes: returns incorrect data).
I was unable to update the firmware of the SD-C2732 (Sun part) with the Sun patch. The drive was attached to an Ultra 10 (with an adapter). I ended attaching the drive to a PC and using a DOS boot floppy with the Toshiba flash program and the Sun firmware.
Regarding you problems with the drive: Have you tried another brand of media. The Ultra 40 is under warranty (GA date was February 14, 2006).
Use the contact information from your other thread.
If you search the net for firmware you can locate sites that offers region-code-free firmware for several drives. Usually they provide a flash program (requires creation of a DOS boot floppy). Using these programs/firmware voids your warranty. Maybe you can not revert the firmware upgrade.
These slimline drives have no jumpers, the installed firmware (of the drive) determines if the drive is master, slave, uses cable-select (CS) or reversed CS.
Michael