Should I upgrade firmware, and how?

[mikewillnot]

I have a Gateway 700X with an OEM combo DVD burner in it. The burner, they say, is "HLDS (Hitachi-LG Data Storage), Model GMA-4020B." I have problems, esp lately, that make me think I might have a firmware issue. DVDinfo says I have A05. Neither Gateway or Hitachi websites have anything I could find, but I see other sites like THIS (http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php) that have various upgrades available, including A07 and A08, which seem to be for this model, as in THIS (http://forum.firmware-flash.com/viewtopic.php?t=14195&highlight=gma4020b) post. The whole business makes me extremely nervous though. This site & forum usually has excellent advice. Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. THANKS.

[atreides93]

I don't know if anyone will recommend you burn the flash because noone wants to take the blame if it screws up your drive.

If I had that drive and I saw that post you linked to, I might consider it. But only if I was having problems.

[Imperial Zeppelin]

Flash firmware only if you're sure you have a problem. I just flashed my Pioneer 105 for giggles and now I'm regretting it. Everything was working fine with the 1.30 firmware and I had a fine flash to 1.33, but now suddenly, I can no longer write discs that my Sony set top player can read, even though I'm using the same media and burning program that I used with 1.30. Now I'm going crazy trying to figure out a way to downgrade, but that's a tough nut to crack.

Burner Firmware Rule 1: "If it ain't broke, DON'T fix it."

[Doom9]

Burner Firmware Rule 1: "If it ain't broke, DON'T fix it."
Actually, normally a firmware upgrade improves things. You might not notice it now, but in a few months or a couple of years you might not be able to read a disc again because the drive's write strategy wasn't really optimal for a certain disc, and a newer firmware ugprade could'vd fixed that. Personally, I wait for the RPC-1 patch and if there are no serious problems reported I upgrade. I think I skipped the 1.33 firmware and went directly to 1.40 on my A05 (or whatever is latest).

@mikewillnot: what kind of problems are you having?

[mikewillnot]

The problems are described pretty well in THIS THREAD (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60404). Thanks for the input and conversation. Is this Doom9 himself?

[atreides93]

The best situtation is to have a readme file telling you what the new firmware does or what has changed from the last version. If those changes are important then its definitely worth doing.
I write firmware for a living, and I would usually recommend people have the latest version installed...but if everything is working ok, I'd probably have less headaches if you just left the current version running just in case I introduced a new bug in the new firmware version :(

[mikewillnot]

Thanks for the good suggestions. In this case, with the Hitachi, the only readme info I could find was in japanese. Oh well. I installed the upgrade, to A108, and it seems OK; certainly no worse than before. I still have the original problem.