Overclock your 32x or 40x Artec or Aopen to 48x!!!

[jase]

[TITLE EDITED SEE BELOW]

Reason I ask is as follows:

I've been having a look at the Artec 48x CDRW drive. The latest ones seem to have a firmware version which is a bit more media friendly (still picky but it seems to work to an acceptable standard with Ritek and Prodisc 48x media).

Meanwhile I've ascertained that it's highly likely that the 32x and 40x Artec drives (and therefore 32x and 40x Aopen ones as well as they are firmware-compatible) may be overclocked to the 48x firmware -- the circuit board and chipset are near-identical, and totally different to Artec's new 52x drive (which is quite an impressive piece of kit from first impressions).

The problem is I can't get the firmware for the 48x writer. If there was a hacked version of the Ricoh installer available that could backup the old firmware to a file even without a replacement one that'd be ideal, as would a version that installed firmware regardless of whether the ID's matched (as all Ricoh installers have a backup facility).

Anyone know where I can get one of these?

[jase]

Actually, it looks like I have a plan. The Artec fw is not necessary -- the C'Qve 48x is an Artec in disguise apparently, and I am going to try flashing the Artec 32x (which is already OCd successfully to 40x) with that. I'll let you know

[jase]

And yes it does work!!!

Have a look here:

http://jasejames.tripod.com/artec.htm

I have posted full instructions on how to do this, and also some test results. I was pleasantly surprised to be honest -- Acer 16x media written at 48x on an overclocked 32x drive and an average C1 error rate of just 0.94 (max 14). Really not bad, and it does also show that with this new Cy'Qve firmware the real 48x Artec might not be so bad after all.....

It would seem though that Artec have had a load of old 32x/40x drives in their factory and have repackaged them to 48x. Devious... I like it

[dhc014]

The pics don't work!!

[jase]

So they don't, cos they're pointed at my desktop lol. That'll teach me to write a webpage in Frontpage Express for "quickness"

Should be working now

[cfitz]

Jase, three words for you: portable network graphics (PNG). Maybe it was Front Page that converted them, but those pictures in .jpg format are 5 to 10 times more bytes than they need to be, and not as clear. This is particularly so for the CD Doctor graph, which I know started out life as a perfectly sharp 6-7 kByte .png file (as compared to the blurry around the edges 61 kByte .jpg version). While JPEG is great for photographs, PNG (and even GIF) are usually better for screen shots with their sharp edges and large runs of constant color.

Of course, I don't really mind if you prefer to use JPEG, but PNG or GIF will save you web hosting space and bandwidth transfer fees (if you have to pay at that level).

cfitz

[jase]

Hmph. Why is everyone criticising my inferior web-page skills when they should be acknowledging my l33t haX0r skills at hacking the drive?

Biatches, the lot of you

[dodecahedron]

Put the two .bin files and the Util in the same directory. Rename your drive's file to a.bin and the Cy'Qve file to b.bin. Load up the util, select your drive in the top drop-down menu and a.bin in the second. The name of your drive should appear in the grey box. You might want to back-up your existing firmware at this stage!!!

Press "Next". Then rename a.bin to a1.bin and b.bin to a.bin (thereby making the Cy'Qve file the one going into the drive). Then press "Start". When finish, reboot your PC and you're done!!!

very cool!

[cfitz]

Hmph. Why is everyone criticising my inferior web-page skills when they should be acknowledging my l33t haX0r skills at hacking the drive?

Biatches, the lot of you

Oops. I wasn't criticizing, just offering some helpful suggestions. But I should also have said "good job" on the hack!

cfitz

[jase]

Ach, I was only kidding but thanx anyways

[jase]

An update to all this is that I've tried an Aopen 40x with this firmware and although it does work, it is VERY noisy and has problems sometimes with the 48x section. I'm guessing from this that the Artec must have a slightly more capable transport mechanism than the Aopen which allows it to work better -- but both brands do work.

[cfitz]

Ach, I was only kidding but thanx anyways

I know you were kidding. But I still should have said "good job" anyway. You make a lot of good contributions to these forums in general so you deserve a "thanks" on those grounds alone, but it is even more true for extra contributions like this.

cfitz