Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2023

[Billycar11]

Hold on there Mr. Orange let's stick to the facts here:

1. When compared to the 5.25" (I call them "full" sized apparently the technical term is "half" sized) drives the slim drive is smaller.

2: When compared to the 5.25" drives the slim drive is slower (8.0X big drive, 6.0X slim drive).

3. When installed in the Vantec enclosure of the matching size the slim enclosures USB port is way more fragile than that of the full sized enclosure - and if you force the cable into the slim Vantec it easily snaps off and you are hosed

4. Slim drive disc tray is also more fragile than that of the large drives - slim drive tray releases with a button and then must be operated by hand (don't slam the thing closed or yank it open!! On the flip side the trays on the larger drives are electronically controlled with a button - press once to open, press again to close.

5. Lastly, the LG BU40N slim drive is unique in that it's currently the only known drive that will occasionally completely fails to enforce the cardinal rule of optical drives. That rule is "do not destroy the physical media that you've been tasked with manipulating!".

The BU40N is currently the only known drive that has demonstrated it's ability to malfunction and leave the disc scratched to the point of usability! This has now been seen with firmware 1.00 and 1.03 so beware!

(This issue has just been escalated to the manufacturers with the goal of understanding and elimination of this behavior

i have gotten way more complaints of discs exploding on the desktop drives even before speed control. lg and asus for some reason think it is a good idea when it has trouble reading a spot it rapidly spins up and down idk why.

[brucehvn]

I have a LG WH14NS40 Svc NS50. I had updated the drive to the official LG firmware 1.05 using their flasher at which time the drive stopped reading any discs. I found this forum and the YouTube video for downgrading the firmware using the DE firmwares.

From Linux, I ran makemkvcon to try and downgrade to version 1.02, but forgot to put the "enc" command line param. It went through successfully, but after realizing my mistake, I rebooted and checked the drive again. MakeMKV still shows it with version 1.05, but now when I try and run makemkvcon again with the "enc" param (or without), I get the following:

Code: Select all

BRUCE-CUSA ~ # makemkvcon f --all-yes -d /dev/sr0 rawflash enc -i /home/bruce/Downloads/Downgrade\ Enabled\ Firmware\ V.2/DE_flash_HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_WH14NS40_1.02_NS50.bin

Reading input file /home/bruce/Downloads/Downgrade Enabled Firmware V.2/DE_flash_HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_WH14NS40_1.02_NS50.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Sending image in encrypted format
Current Drive ID: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH14NS40_1.05_212005061444_SIK93D7RF153
Ready to write drive flash memory. (auto confirmed)
Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
  98% .................................................
Write DRAM NG 05/26/03

Command produced error code 0x8f052603

Am I totally screwed now, or is there some possibility of getting this drive back? I feel so pissed because I knew I needed that param but just completely spaced out when I was typing it into the command line.

[mtotheb]

Hey guys, I just registered to say thank you! With the help from this forum I ordered a Hitachi-LG BH16NS55 (got delivered with manufacturing date feb 2020 and 1.04 FW).

Then I crossflashed it to the WH16NS60 1.02 with SDFtool_flasher and enc unchecked.

As far as I understood this is the sleepbug fixed most current firmware working with MakeMKV without any problems, right?

[Billycar11]

As far as I understood this is the sleepbug fixed most current firmware working with MakeMKV without any problems, right?

any WH16NS60 firmware has no sleepbug but it should work fine if your drive hardware is fine

[EncryptedEggs]

I just bought the WH16NS40 and it came with 1.05 firmware, manufactured in 2020. I'm seeing differing info across time so wanted to confirm: is this flashable?

[asmcom]

Hold on there Mr. Orange let's stick to the facts here:

1. When compared to the 5.25" (I call them "full" sized apparently the technical term is "half" sized) drives the slim drive is smaller.

2: When compared to the 5.25" drives the slim drive is slower (8.0X big drive, 6.0X slim drive).

3. When installed in the Vantec enclosure of the matching size the slim enclosures USB port is way more fragile than that of the full sized enclosure - and if you force the cable into the slim Vantec it easily snaps off and you are hosed

4. Slim drive disc tray is also more fragile than that of the large drives - slim drive tray releases with a button and then must be operated by hand (don't slam the thing closed or yank it open!! On the flip side the trays on the larger drives are electronically controlled with a button - press once to open, press again to close.

5. Lastly, the LG BU40N slim drive is unique in that it's currently the only known drive that will occasionally completely fails to enforce the cardinal rule of optical drives. That rule is "do not destroy the physical media that you've been tasked with manipulating!".

The BU40N is currently the only known drive that has demonstrated it's ability to malfunction and leave the disc scratched to the point of usability! This has now been seen with firmware 1.00 and 1.03 so beware!

(This issue has just been escalated to the manufacturers with the goal of understanding and elimination of this behavior

i have gotten way more complaints of discs exploding on the desktop drives even before speed control. lg and asus for some reason think it is a good idea when it has trouble reading a spot it rapidly spins up and down idk why.

This is very serious problem concerning the BU40N. It is no joke when this drive is destroying customers valuable 4k discs. I look forward to hearing from you Jonghotti on your discussions with Hitachi LG.

Hopefully we can find a solution?

Regards Asmcom

[brucehvn]

I have a LG WH14NS40 Svc NS50. I had updated the drive to the official LG firmware 1.05 using their flasher at which time the drive stopped reading any discs. I found this forum and the YouTube video for downgrading the firmware using the DE firmwares.

From Linux, I ran makemkvcon to try and downgrade to version 1.02, but forgot to put the "enc" command line param. It went through successfully, but after realizing my mistake, I rebooted and checked the drive again. MakeMKV still shows it with version 1.05, but now when I try and run makemkvcon again with the "enc" param (or without), I get the following:

...

Am I totally screwed now, or is there some possibility of getting this drive back? I feel so pissed because I knew I needed that param but just completely spaced out when I was typing it into the command line.

I thought I was using the firmware pack from the beginning of this thread, but I was actually using some other downgrade enabled bin files. I was able to successfully flash my drive with Billycar11's firmware 1.02 from this thread, but the drive would still not recognize any discs.

I had ordered a new drive just in case and it came yesterday. It's the same drive, LG WH14NS40, but manufactured in Sept. 2020 with firmware 1.05.

When I pulled the old drive out, I see it was actually manufactured in 2013 and came with firmware 1.01. I'll probably put it in an enclosure and play with it some more. What are my options for an older drive like that? Should I attempt to put 1.01 back on and see if it starts recognizing discs? I don't see any label specifying NS40 or NS50, but when I was flashing it with the LG installer, it said it was an NS50.

[EncryptedEggs]

I just bought the WH16NS40 and it came with 1.05 firmware, manufactured in 2020. I'm seeing differing info across time so wanted to confirm: is this flashable?

It is: I saw viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634&start=540#p103656 and went straight to HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936, and all is well.

[Billycar11]

I just bought the WH16NS40 and it came with 1.05 firmware, manufactured in 2020. I'm seeing differing info across time so wanted to confirm: is this flashable?

Yes

[bobby121418]

Could be try regular Blu-ray and a dvd if possible that has a different laser
No this would not be related to firmware I don't think

Just tried a Blu ray disk and works fine!
Any other suggestions please?
Could it be an issue with the disk or the drive?

Ok, thus is weird, now I tried to open the disk just in Windows with MakeMKV off and now it seems to read the disk. Entering MakeMKV it is also reading the disk although I am seeing some Scsi errors with Medium Error messages.

So, I have tried a different 4K movie disk and that has worked fine. The drive did detect some read errors but overall the movie was ripped.

I also managed to get a new copy of my original movie, the one that the drive was not detecting at all, and this second copy has the same problem. The drive does not detect it.

Could there be an issue with the drive or is it this particular movie disk?

Has anyone see 4K disks not being read at all when using a slim BU40N?

[Billycar11]

So, I have tried a different 4K movie disk and that has worked fine. The drive did detect some read errors but overall the movie was ripped.

I also managed to get a new copy of my original movie, the one that the drive was not detecting at all, and this second copy has the same problem. The drive does not detect it.

Could there be an issue with the drive or is it this particular movie disk?

Has anyone see 4K disks not being read at all when using a slim BU40N?

Bobby I have seen just about everything with these drives fire exploding discs scratches both desktop and slim.
Just exchange the drive if it's give you this much trouble it's really that simple.
But overall I have had much better luck with the BU40Ns

[garmin123]

I thought all was working well with patching the WH16NS40 last week. I used the sdftool_flasher.exe with the latest firmware HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS40-NS50-1.05-NM00600-212005061331.bin and sdftool_flasher reported that it completed okay. The firmware version was the same in MakeMKV, but that's what I expected since this firmware is marked as 1.05

I purchased a 4K disk (The Mummy) and put in the 4K version. It didn't see the disk, so I downloaded the firmware version of what I thought was the correct version to read 4K disks, DE_flash_HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BH16NS40_1.02_NS50.bin. I flashed the drive using the SDFtool_Flasher.exe which again told me it completed successfully but MakeMKV still reported it as 1.05.

I rebooted the computer and it's still the same version:
OS device name: E:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH16NS40
Revision: 1.05
Serial number: --------------
Firmware date: 2120-05-06 14:40
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 64

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible (with patched firmware)
Drive platform: MT1959
Harware support: Yes
Firmware support: No
Firmware type: Original (patched version available)
Firmware version: 1.05
DVD all regions: Possible (with patched firmware)
BD raw data read: Possible (with patched firmware)
BD raw metadata read: Possible (with patched firmware)
Unrestricted read speed: Possible (with patched firmware)

So obviously I'm doing something wrong, but it's not clear why the SDF_Tool is telling me things are updating fine when it's clearly not.

Any ideas?

[Coopervid]

Shut down PC completely. Reboot by pushing the button on your PC.

If not successful try again.

[garmin123]

Dang. I just figured out for the initial flash you have to tick the enc? box if it has the original firmware on it. Here's what I have now.

Drive Information
OS device name: E:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BH16NS40
Revision: 1.05
Serial number: ----------
Firmware date: 2120-05-06 13:31
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 64

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 1.05
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

And now it appears that it recognizes a 4K drive with the patched 1.05 firmware:
MakeMKV v1.15.4 win(x64-release) started
Using LibreDrive mode (v06.2 id=------------)
Using direct disc access mode
Loaded content hash table, will verify integrity of M2TS files.
Downloading latest HK to C:\Users\------- .MakeMKV ...


I had never seen a post discussing that checkbox, but when I hovered over the function explanation popped up. All appears to be well, and the drive read the entire directory structure in just a few seconds.

[Coopervid]

The issue was located between the keyboard and the screen.

This was highlighted several times. But maybe you didn't read it. If you have buddies who want to try this you can also link to my guide which starts from the beginning and is more precautious.

https://forum.redfox.bz/threads/guide-f ... dvd.79023/