The Firmware Page

2.1.2.1 - Could you please tell me personally how to flash my drive?

NO!!!

You have to understand that patchers definitely can't spend their time replying individually to all the people who feel like they could do with some customized flashing help. I'm afraid we have much better things to do.

You must understand how frustrating it is to teach people about DOS mode, IDE slave/master, etc. over and over again, when this information is readily available on the net.

If you've never flashed a drive, trust me, all the information you need to do it right is already available to you without us having to add some more.

First, the readme files that usually come with the firmware upgrade are a very good source of information. If you don't understand what's being written in there, then there is an unfinished FAQ/HOWTO on my page, which hopefully should help you sort out most of the flashing process.

And last but not least, most of the questions you might have have already been answered in this great forum. A good search can get you far, believe me. Also, reading other's people post in the firmware flashing help section is the best way to get acquainted with the flashing process...

2.1.2.2 - Help! I want to flash my Pioneer drive!

Look on my page, dude, all you need is there!

2.1.2.3 - "O, Great Master Patcher, could you please add a speed increase/DVD+-|R support/noise and heat reduction/laser effects/toasting feature to my drive by modifying the firmware?"

DEFINITELY NOT!!!

You have to understand that:

1/ Most of the feature you ask for, like speed increase (or reduction), heat & noise reduction, DVD+R readability, DivX hardware decoding, etc... are either unfeasible (hardware limitations) or are really the manufacturer's job!
If you are not happy about the features of your drive you can: a) buy another drive with the features you are looking for or b) complain to the manufacturer so that they try to sort things out.

2/ We don't have the source code of the firmwares we patch. It's not like we were writing those firmwares!
Removing a Region Protection is fairly easy, but in 99% of the cases, adding a new feature would mean that we'd have to recompile a brand new firmware (and probably ruin a lot of drives in the testing process... Want to be a beta tester?). Not really something that we are keen on doing.
You people really have really to come back to earth and stop believing in Santa. Despite what you can see in Hollywood movies, you rarely guess what's inside a system you've never seen before simply by spending 5 minutes on it.
People who design drives are usually a team of very experienced people, with an awful lot of resources, who can spend months designing a model whilst having access to all the information that they want.
Do you really think that a single individual, with limited resources and working in his spare time can really replace engineers?

3/ Usually, what we are being asked for is pretty egotistic. If we were to spend weeks of our spare time working on your specific issue (an issue I'm ready to bet you wil have forgotten everything about in 2 years time), that would leave us with a lot less time to work on the more global issues like region protection, and would leave many waiting for a patch.
There are still a lot of drives that need to be patched, and instead of being given extra work, we could really use a little help you know...