Optical drive driver: cannot tell if Dell site has more current driver

XPS L502x
Optical drive is: PLDS DVD+-RW DS-8A5SH

Device Manager reports the current driver as: 6.1.7601.17514

Dell support site lists available driver as: A02XD13

Dell's numbering scheme is entirely different from the one of my current driver, so how can I tell which driver is more current?

 

That's the Microsoft driver version, it probably never needs to be updated. I've got the same version on my Win 7 Optiplex.

The Dell download is firmware for the DVD drive, kinda like a BIOS update.

You can probably get the firmware version in Devvice Manager on the Details tab of the device properties dialog, just to the right of the Driver tab.

In the property list, choose hardware IDs. When I do that, I see several IDs that look like this:

HL-DT-ST_DVD+-RW_GH50N_______________B103_________

The part before the long sequence of underscores varies, but the B103 appears on three lines. In my case, that's the firmware version. I confirmed it in Roxio 2010, the Get Disk Information function shows manufacturer and model as
HL-DT-ST_DVD+-RW_GH50N

and firmware version as
B103


Nero probably has a function to read the firmware version as well. Also, the original version is probably on a sticker on the drive.

 

Ah, perfect! Yes indeed, Hardware IDs shows current version as XD14, so my XPS 15 shipped last November with more recent firmware than is available on Dell.com.

Thank you!