LG BH16NS40 1.05 Firmware Will Brick Your Drive

[Ian]

I've been doing some media testing lately and was excited to see that, after years of no updates, LG had released the 1.05 firmware for the BH16NS40. Thinking that LG could release a new firmware without screwing it up, I went ahead and flashed my drive.

LG BD Firmware Update.PNG (99.53 KiB) Viewed 14896 times

This was a big mistake as it no longer recognizes any discs. I did some research online and I'm not alone. People have been complaining to LG about this problem since January and so far there is no fix.

http://lgcommunity.us.com/discussion/15 ... te-to-1-05

RIP BH16NS40. You've served me well for nearly 8 years.

[Dartman]

Guess I'm glad I haven't burned anything or updated mine in a long time. There's no way to recover it with one of the tools we used to always use?

[Ian]

Guess I'm glad I haven't burned anything or updated mine in a long time. There's no way to recover it with one of the tools we used to always use?

It looks like there might be but you have to boot into 32 bit Windows in IDE mode. I haven't had a chance to try it yet.

[Dartman]

Maybe it will work in 7 as well, haven't done any of it since I got mine to be able to rip 4k disks which it does, and burn them too.

[Ian]

It lives again! What a pain in the butt...

LG Bd fixed.PNG (48.6 KiB) Viewed 14322 times

[Dartman]

You use the tools from CD freaks that they have for downgrading firmware to get the 4k stuff working on newer drives? I got lucky and requested a drive with the early 1.02 firmware when I bought mine from New Eggs eBay channel. They actually sent me one when most were up to 1.03 and were locked from supporting 4k anything.

[Ian]

I'm not sure where the tools came from. I followed denis1234's instructions from the makemkv forum. Hardest part was finding an old computer that would let me put the SATA controllers into IDE mode.

[Dartman]

I don't think I have any IDE drive running now except for one in a external box that used IDE ports inside.