Optiarc BD ROM BC-5500S on M50VN or L50VN

Hello, I own an Asus L50vn (very similar to M50vn) and since I upgrade to Windows 7, 32 bit, many burning softwares (Imgburn, CDburnerXP...) do not recognize the BD-ROM.

I think it's a matter of firmware and here http://www.sony-optiarc.eu/supportse...s/bc5500s.html it's avilable version 1.06, where they also say it fix some Windows 7 issue.

However I can not upgrade my OEM version 1.C0 firmware, Sony-Optiarc say:
"Also note that our firmware updates are not compatible with those provided by OEM vendors (Sony Optiarc drives pre-installed by the PC manufacturers e.g. HP, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Apple etc.). You may damage your drive if you flash it with incompatible firmware."

I tryes anyway but i just got an error message, in fact they say:
"You can only update from Firmware versions 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1,04 and 1.05. Previous firmware version(s) other than mentioned here are probably OEMs and therefore cannot be updated with this file. Contact your PC manufacturer (FTS, DELL, HP....) if you require firmware updates for these drives."

So I wrote Asus and they told me:
"Asus doesn't manufacture that optical drive (nor did they write the original firmware for it) so they don't supply firmware updates.
Use the Sony firmware update."

It's amazing! So now what can I do?? Any suggestion? Maybe someone knows how to hack the firmware? I read on intenet I'm not the only one with this problem but no solution yet... And I think it's not me that I have to ask to other companies for new firmware, I bought a laptop from Asus so I expect to find updates in their website. I will personally ask to other manufactures when I will assemble a laptop by myself, am i wrong?? What kind of answer is that to a customer?

 

Maybe there's an upgrade to the firmware on the Asus website, the M70 uses the same drive and there was a firmware update for it, infact there was firmware updates for about 4 different drives listed.

 

Hello, I tried to look for a firmware upgrade for my BD player under the M70 but I can not find it. Can you please post the link??

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5648732&postcount=13

 

Thanks EIement - when I try and update my BC-5500S I get the message that the update failed after I attempt to flash the drive. Interestingly, the driver application downloaded from the Asus website seems to be the same as that on the sony-optiac site with out all the caution messages (I have a M70vm-C1 with this same drive)

Best..

 

So the firmware doesn't work, I have the M70vn-C1 but I'm still on Vista, I chose to upgrade the os drive to a 250g SSD and not worry about Win7 till they release Sp1, I noticed the firmware updates while downloading files, but simply cloned the new drive instead. It's working perfectly with the original drivers so I haven't updated the drivers yet.

 

I am using 32 bit Vista - PommieD are you watching Blu ray disks and not having software periodically lock up your notebook? Some blu ray disks do not lock up my Ausus M70Vm others don't...I am not sure what the issue is. Not planning on upgrading to Windows 7 right now. But would like to watch a BD movie on my multimedia laptop

Either way I think Asus should somehow provide a toolset or instructions that work for upgrading the drives they provide on their note books.

Still hoping for some help on how up upgrade the firmware on the BC-5500S.
Here is a thread at Asus which I found yesterday along with this one:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...board_id=3&model=M50Vn&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

 

You may want to try the following fix http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/070174b2-78ef-4f42-b855-f726b6f1e760

 

I ended up sending my laptop back to Asus under warranty and they replaced the BD DVD ROM drive - not even sure who manufacturered the drive - I just tried playing a few BD DVD and so far have not seen one problem.