[ocilent1]

Just thought I might tell you guys that LG has updated their firmware and released instructions on how to bring your CDROM 'drive back from the dead' once Mandrake 9.2 has had it's way with it.

Get eveything you require at the Lg Service website.

1) Firstly, click on Product Support
2) Then click on Device Driver
3) Finally, click on CD-ROM

Then follwow the instuctions according to the model of your drive.

[illogic-al]

Quote

[Cooker] dead lg drives are not so dead

From:
Brook Humphrey <bah@webmedic.net>  (Mobile PC Medic)


To:
cooker@linux-mandrake.com


Date:
Yesterday 10:50:34 pm

I copied this from pclinuxonline but I thought others here would like to see
this

LG offers a solution for their sub par devices :

Go to : http://us.lgservice.com/
Choose Product support, then Device driver, CD-ROM and "Emergency download for
Physical Dead Drive from Mandrake Linux 9.2"
There is a Dead.gif file explaining the way to reflash the drive.

Does it work ?

[tyme]

ocilent1, on Nov 12 2003, 09:37 PM, said:

...once Mandrake 9.2 has had it's way with it.

pssst...it wasn't technically mandrakes fault ;) the command that caused the problem was a pretty commonly used command, and should not have been permitted to have that side effect. LG was really the one at fault...

[auslander]

Well, i attempted to replace the firmware for my defunct drive (8482B). didn't work. followed the instructions to a 'T' (msdos 6.0 boot disk, etc, etc) and the firmware software says it can't find the cdrom device. even put the drive in a different machine and tried it. same results.

THANKS FOR NOTHING LG!!

if anyone got it to work, let me know.

i spoke too soon. after RE-reading the first posting, i must have missed the GIF file. i will redo and update the board after i am done.

well, followed the 'gif' instructions but step 3-6 did not produce any results for me. the drive did not power on when pushing the eject button. attempted to flash the firmware but same results as above. so my comment still stands...

THANKS FOR NOTHING LG!!

This post has been edited by auslander: 13 November 2003 - 04:47 PM

[zeb]

Someone on linuxfr succeeded to do it, and has posted the way to do it in clear words (but in French). It is here in French :

Quote

-> Sur le site de LG ( http://us.lgservice.com/ ) :
- Se munir du fichier Dead.gif
- Se munir du flasher correspondant à ton cd (le fichier zip contenant xferlg.exe et le firmware)

-> Faire une disquette de boot dos 6.0 (je l'ai prise là : http://utils.skull-t...sks/boot600.exe )
- copier xferlg.exe et le firmware sur la disquette

-> Eteindre son PC
-> Brancher le lecteur CD sur la deuxième nappe ide MAIS ne pas brancher le cable d'alimentation du CD ! Je pense qu'il vaut mieux ne pas avoir un autre disque sur la deuxième nappe ide.
-> mettre le jumper du CD comme c'est marqué sur Dead.gif
-> Allumer le PC (oui, le cable d'alimentation du CD n'est toujours pas branché) et booter la disquette DOS
-> Quand la disquette a booté appuyer sur le bouton eject du CD et tout en gardant eject appuyé, brancher le cable d'alimentation du CD (oui, c'est du hotplug), la led du CD clignote un court instant puis reste allumée
-> Relacher le bouton eject apres que la led se soit arretée de clignoter
-> lancer xferlg [le nom du firmware sans l'extension .lge]
-> Eteindre le PC
-> Remettre le jumper du CD dans sa position d'origine (master ou slave)
-> Ca marche !

I shall post a translation if you cannot read it :)

This post has been edited by zeb: 15 November 2003 - 04:05 PM

[zeb]

- Create a boot floppy disk dos 6 (http://utils.skull-t...ks/boot600.exe)
- Copy xferlg.exe and the firmware on that floppy

- Shutdown your PC
- Connect the CD drive on the second IDE cable BUT do not plug the power cable !
- Put the jumper on the CDROM drive as indicated in Dead.gif
- Turn on the PC (the drive has still no power cable) with the floppy disk
- When the floppy has finished to boot, press the eject button of the drive, and connect the power to the CDROM drive while the eject button is still pressed : the led blinks and then is continuously on
- Stop pressing the eject button after the led has finished blinking
- Run xferlg [name of the firmware without the .lge extension]
- Turn off the PC.
- Put the jumper of the drive in the correct position (master or slave)

[ramfree17]

zeb, on Nov 15 2003, 03:19 PM, said:

- Turn on the PC (the drive has still no power cable) with the floppy disk
- When the floppy has finished to boot, press the eject button of the drive, and connect the power to the CDROM drive while the eject button is still pressed : the led blinks and then is continuously on

isnt that dangerous and not encouraged? or plugging in peripherals is only dangerous for more later operating systems than dos? :?

ciao!

[auslander]

dangerous or not, it WORKED!!!

zeb, many thanks. the instructions from LG were obviously bad. i used the steps you provided, and it worked without a problem. well, the only problem i did have was that it would not flash the firmware, saying 'could not find cdrom device' on the box that the drive is in. when i moved it to another box, it worked without any problems.

many, many, MANY, thanks. my drive is back.

:lol:

[j'michael]

OK, now it's MY turn. :wall:

Wish me luck!

[DragonMage]

I think the translated instructions should be put into the FAQ section, don't you think?

[j'michael]

I think so. I went there first.

But I'm glad to find them anyway, anywhere!!!

Thanks.

[nsp]

I followed the (translated) instructions as zeb wrote, and i also obtained an initial
message as auslander received (xferlg was unable to find the drive).

I changed the affected CD from secondary master to secondary slave, but
that didn't help me.

Any suggestions? I have a dell precision 450 and the affected CD drive is
model GCR-8481B. (using dell's upgrade package also resulted in the same error...)

Thanks.

P.S. One anomaly that occurred in the procedure, is that the LED display on the
CD drive did not blink, but just stayed on continuously once the power supply was
connected.

[auslander]

nsp,

that is pretty much what happened to me. light on drive came on and stayed on no blinking at all.

on the box the drive was originally installed, that is as far as i got. i was not able to update the firmware. attempted several times with the same results.

i then tried hooking the drive up to a different box and went through the steps again. this did the trick. not sure why, all i know is it worked.

good luck.

[tace]

Thanks for the english instructions they definitely helped.
I too tried several times in the Dell machine to get the flash to work and each time I got the device not found error. Tried it in an old Compaq machine and it worked without any problem.

It might be that the dell machines cannot be used to do the flash upgrade (on dead drives )
Maybe if someone has gotten it to work on a dell let people know. Other wise you may need to use a ‘normal’ system.

[rholder]

Had the same problem - in the Dell PC the drive died in during
Mandrake installation, the flash procedure posted didn't work -
the drive wasn't detected.
In another system, with my trusty Abit BH6 motherboard,
it did work and the drive is again up and running.
:D
Thanks for posting a working procedure so I could recover the drive!

By the way, I had read all about this problem when it was first
found out (in Slashdot.org), but when the time came, did it occur
to me that I had a LG CD-ROM drive in the machine I was installing
Mandrake on? DUH!

Ron Holder