Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
On SCO OSR 5.0.6 with the 'wd' driver I use a Plextor PX-708A ATAPI
drive to write backups to DVD+RW media.
The firmware on that drive is several versions behind the current
one, and I'd like to upgrade it.
The Plextor(USA) web site has only Windows firmware upgrade programs.
The Plextor(Europe) web site doesn't have anything that I can get to
work on OSR 5.0.6.
I've created an MS-DOS boot floppy and copied to it the *.exe firmware
upgrade Windows program from Plextor.
If I boot my SCO box from the MS-DOS boot diskette and execute that
Plextor *.exe program will it do what I want?
I'm guessing that it will, because the Plextor drive is on the first
(and only used) ATAPI thingie in my box.
I'm asking only because I don't want to screw up a good thing in
order to try to get a better thing.
Bob
--
Bob Stockler +-+ [email]bob@trebor.iglou.com[/email] +-+ [url]http://members.iglou.com/trebor[/url]
Author: MENU EDIT II - The BEST Creator/Editor/Manager for filePro User Menus.
Fully functional (time-limited) demos available by email request (specify OS).
Re: Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
"Bob Stockler" <bob@trebor.iglou.com> wrote in message
news:20050801020500.GA1394@trebor.iglou.com...[color=blue]
> On SCO OSR 5.0.6 with the 'wd' driver I use a Plextor PX-708A ATAPI
> drive to write backups to DVD+RW media.
>
> The firmware on that drive is several versions behind the current
> one, and I'd like to upgrade it.
>
> The Plextor(USA) web site has only Windows firmware upgrade programs.
>
> The Plextor(Europe) web site doesn't have anything that I can get to
> work on OSR 5.0.6.
>
> I've created an MS-DOS boot floppy and copied to it the *.exe firmware
> upgrade Windows program from Plextor.
>
> If I boot my SCO box from the MS-DOS boot diskette and execute that
> Plextor *.exe program will it do what I want?
>
> I'm guessing that it will, because the Plextor drive is on the first
> (and only used) ATAPI thingie in my box.
>
> I'm asking only because I don't want to screw up a good thing in
> order to try to get a better thing.
>
> Bob[/color]
The *.exe Windows firmware upgrade program is, in fact, a Windows
binary and will not run from MS-DOS.
However, the Plextor Europe website offers an MS-DOS firmware
upgrade program at
[url]http://www.plextor-europe.com/download/ftp1/PXUpdate.zip[/url]
which contains pxupdate.exe, a DOS executable.
You must also download the latest firmware binary (1.10) at
[url]http://www.plextor-europe.com/download/ftp1/708A110.zip[/url]
which contains 708A110.bin, a firmware data file.
They've conveniently left out instructions in either ZIP file, but
I'd assume they want you to copy both files to a bootable
MS-DOS floppy, boot from the floppy, and run
pxupdate 708A110.bin
from the command prompt.
The Windows version required a 32-bit aspi driver to be present
on the system. I hope the DOS version doesn't have that requirement
because I don't know where to find one (but they do exist). I'm sure
the program will let you know if you need to install one when you
run it.
The alternative is to install the drive into a Windows system and
run the Windows version to update the firmware.
Bob
Re: Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
Bob Bailin wrote (on Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 02:41:59AM +0000):
| "Bob Stockler" <bob@trebor.iglou.com> wrote in message
| news:20050801020500.GA1394@trebor.iglou.com...
| > On SCO OSR 5.0.6 with the 'wd' driver I use a Plextor PX-708A ATAPI
| > drive to write backups to DVD+RW media.
| >
| > The firmware on that drive is several versions behind the current
| > one, and I'd like to upgrade it.
| >
| > The Plextor(USA) web site has only Windows firmware upgrade programs.
| >
| > The Plextor(Europe) web site doesn't have anything that I can get to
| > work on OSR 5.0.6.
| >
| > I've created an MS-DOS boot floppy and copied to it the *.exe firmware
| > upgrade Windows program from Plextor.
| >
| > If I boot my SCO box from the MS-DOS boot diskette and execute that
| > Plextor *.exe program will it do what I want?
|
| The *.exe Windows firmware upgrade program is, in fact, a Windows
| binary and will not run from MS-DOS.
|
| However, the Plextor Europe website offers an MS-DOS firmware
| upgrade program at
| [url]http://www.plextor-europe.com/download/ftp1/PXUpdate.zip[/url]
| which contains pxupdate.exe, a DOS executable.
| You must also download the latest firmware binary (1.10) at
| [url]http://www.plextor-europe.com/download/ftp1/708A110.zip[/url]
| which contains 708A110.bin, a firmware data file.
Thanks, Bob. I downloaded those two files and extracted their
contents, but there's not enough room on the boot floppy to
copy the *.bin file to it, much less both of them. I used the
UNIX on my Windows system to make listings of them:
MS-DOS Boot Diskette:
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 93040 Jun 8 2000 COMMAND.COM
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 0 Jul 28 15:13 CONFIG.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 17175 Jun 8 2000 DISPLAY.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58870 Jun 8 2000 EGA.CPI
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58870 Jun 8 2000 EGA2.CPI
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58753 Jun 8 2000 EGA3.CPI
-r-xr-xr-x 1 bob Everyone 116736 May 15 2001 IO.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 21607 Jun 8 2000 KEYB.COM
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 34566 Jun 8 2000 KEYBOARD.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 31942 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD2.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 31633 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD3.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 13014 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD4.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 29239 Jun 8 2000 MODE.COM
-r-xr-xr-x 1 bob Everyone 9 Apr 7 2001 MSDOS.SYS
------
565454
Firmware Upgrade:
-rwx------ 1 bob None 983040 Apr 15 09:42 708A110.bin
-rwx------ 1 bob None 29088 Nov 2 2004 PXUPDATE.EXE
------
1012128
=======
Total: 1578582
| They've conveniently left out instructions in either ZIP file, but
| I'd assume they want you to copy both files to a bootable
| MS-DOS floppy, boot from the floppy, and run
| pxupdate 708A110.bin
| from the command prompt.
[snip]
| The alternative is to install the drive into a Windows system and
| run the Windows version to update the firmware.
I was hoping to avoid that, but - unless there are files I could do
without, and remove from the boot floppy - that looks like my ony
alternative.
Bob
--
Bob Stockler -+-+- [email]bob@trebor.iglou.com[/email] -+-+- [url]http://members.iglou.com/trebor[/url]
Author: MENU EDIT II - The BEST Creator/Editor/Manager for filePro User Menus.
Fully functional (time-limited) demos available by email request (specify OS).
Re: Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
Bob Stockler wrote:
[color=blue]
> I was hoping to avoid that, but - unless there are files I could do
> without, and remove from the boot floppy - that looks like my ony
> alternative.[/color]
Can't you boot from the boot disk, then swap the update disk into
your floppy drive to run the update program?
JS
Re: Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
Bob Stockler wrote:[color=blue]
> On SCO OSR 5.0.6 with the 'wd' driver I use a Plextor PX-708A ATAPI
> drive to write backups to DVD+RW media.
>
> The firmware on that drive is several versions behind the current
> one, and I'd like to upgrade it.
>
> The Plextor(USA) web site has only Windows firmware upgrade programs.
>
> The Plextor(Europe) web site doesn't have anything that I can get to
> work on OSR 5.0.6.
>
> I've created an MS-DOS boot floppy and copied to it the *.exe firmware
> upgrade Windows program from Plextor.
>
> If I boot my SCO box from the MS-DOS boot diskette and execute that
> Plextor *.exe program will it do what I want?
>
> I'm guessing that it will, because the Plextor drive is on the first
> (and only used) ATAPI thingie in my box.
>
> I'm asking only because I don't want to screw up a good thing in
> order to try to get a better thing.[/color]
The author of cdrecord has a SCO binary for a Plextor firmware utility.
I have not used it. Get these two files, or peruse the directory
yourself.
[url]ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/firmware/plextor/pxupdate-1.39-i586-sco-sysv5uw7.1.3[/url]
[url]ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/firmware/plextor/PXUpdate.txt[/url]
I did a dogpile search for "plextor firmware upgrade unix linux" to
find this. The first link in the list was to plextor.be which had a
link to the cdrecord page. From there I selected firmware, then
plextor.
Re: Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
Bob Stockler typed (on Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 01:32:55PM -0400):
| Bob Bailin wrote (on Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 02:41:59AM +0000):
|
| | However, the Plextor Europe website offers an MS-DOS firmware
| | upgrade program at
| | [url]http://www.plextor-europe.com/download/ftp1/PXUpdate.zip[/url]
| | which contains pxupdate.exe, a DOS executable.
| | You must also download the latest firmware binary (1.10) at
| | [url]http://www.plextor-europe.com/download/ftp1/708A110.zip[/url]
| | which contains 708A110.bin, a firmware data file.
|
| Thanks, Bob. I downloaded those two files and extracted their
| contents, but there's not enough room on the boot floppy to
| copy the *.bin file to it, much less both of them. I used the
| UNIX on my Windows system to make listings of them:
|
| MS-DOS Boot Diskette:
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 93040 Jun 8 2000 COMMAND.COM
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 0 Jul 28 15:13 CONFIG.SYS
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 17175 Jun 8 2000 DISPLAY.SYS
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58870 Jun 8 2000 EGA.CPI
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58870 Jun 8 2000 EGA2.CPI
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58753 Jun 8 2000 EGA3.CPI
| -r-xr-xr-x 1 bob Everyone 116736 May 15 2001 IO.SYS
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 21607 Jun 8 2000 KEYB.COM
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 34566 Jun 8 2000 KEYBOARD.SYS
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 31942 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD2.SYS
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 31633 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD3.SYS
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 13014 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD4.SYS
| -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 29239 Jun 8 2000 MODE.COM
| -r-xr-xr-x 1 bob Everyone 9 Apr 7 2001 MSDOS.SYS
| ------
| 565454
| Firmware Upgrade:
| -rwx------ 1 bob None 983040 Apr 15 09:42 708A110.bin
| -rwx------ 1 bob None 29088 Nov 2 2004 PXUPDATE.EXE
| ------
| 1012128
| =======
| Total: 1578582
|
| | I'd assume they want you to copy both files to a bootable
| | MS-DOS floppy, boot from the floppy, and run
| | pxupdate 708A110.bin
| | from the command prompt.
Make a second floppy containing 708A110.bin & PXUPDATE.EXE.
Boot from your MSDOS boot floppy, then sawp in the second floppy and see
if you can run the command Bob mentioned.
--
JP
Re: Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
Roger Cornelius typed (on Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 12:01:38PM -0700):
| Bob Stockler wrote:
| > On SCO OSR 5.0.6 with the 'wd' driver I use a Plextor PX-708A ATAPI
| > drive to write backups to DVD+RW media.
| >
| > The firmware on that drive is several versions behind the current
| > one, and I'd like to upgrade it.
| >
| > The Plextor(USA) web site has only Windows firmware upgrade programs.
| >
| > The Plextor(Europe) web site doesn't have anything that I can get to
| > work on OSR 5.0.6.
| >
| > I've created an MS-DOS boot floppy and copied to it the *.exe firmware
| > upgrade Windows program from Plextor.
| >
| > If I boot my SCO box from the MS-DOS boot diskette and execute that
| > Plextor *.exe program will it do what I want?
| >
| > I'm guessing that it will, because the Plextor drive is on the first
| > (and only used) ATAPI thingie in my box.
| >
| > I'm asking only because I don't want to screw up a good thing in
| > order to try to get a better thing.
|
| The author of cdrecord has a SCO binary for a Plextor firmware utility.
| I have not used it. Get these two files, or peruse the directory
| yourself.
| [url]ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/firmware/plextor/pxupdate-1.39-i586-sco-sysv5uw7.1.3[/url]
That's a unixware binary, and Stockler's running OSR 5.0.6.
| [url]ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/firmware/plextor/PXUpdate.txt[/url]
--
JP
Re: Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
Jean-Pierre Radley wrote:[color=blue]
>
> Roger Cornelius typed (on Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 12:01:38PM -0700):
> | Bob Stockler wrote:
> | > On SCO OSR 5.0.6 with the 'wd' driver I use a Plextor PX-708A ATAPI
> | > drive to write backups to DVD+RW media.
> | >
> | > The firmware on that drive is several versions behind the current
> | > one, and I'd like to upgrade it.
> | >
> | > The Plextor(USA) web site has only Windows firmware upgrade programs.
> | >
> | > The Plextor(Europe) web site doesn't have anything that I can get to
> | > work on OSR 5.0.6.
> | >
> | > I've created an MS-DOS boot floppy and copied to it the *.exe firmware
> | > upgrade Windows program from Plextor.
> | >
> | > If I boot my SCO box from the MS-DOS boot diskette and execute that
> | > Plextor *.exe program will it do what I want?
> | >
> | > I'm guessing that it will, because the Plextor drive is on the first
> | > (and only used) ATAPI thingie in my box.
> | >
> | > I'm asking only because I don't want to screw up a good thing in
> | > order to try to get a better thing.
> |
> | The author of cdrecord has a SCO binary for a Plextor firmware utility.
> | I have not used it. Get these two files, or peruse the directory
> | yourself.
>
> | [url]ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/firmware/plextor/pxupdate-1.39-i586-sco-sysv5uw7.1.3[/url]
>
> That's a unixware binary, and Stockler's running OSR 5.0.6.
>
> | [url]ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/firmware/plextor/PXUpdate.txt[/url][/color]
He pointed that out in mail. There is this though, which, although a
couple of revisions out of date, does appear to be for OSR5:
[url]ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/firmware/plextor/pxupdate-1.27-i386-pc-sco3.2[/url]
--
Roger Cornelius [email]racpop@tenzing.org[/email]
Re: Upgrade Firmware on Plextor Drive
"Bob Stockler" <bob@trebor.iglou.com> wrote in message
news:20050802173239.GA9221@trebor.iglou.com...[color=blue]
> Bob Bailin wrote (on Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 02:41:59AM +0000):
>
> | "Bob Stockler" <bob@trebor.iglou.com> wrote in message
> | news:20050801020500.GA1394@trebor.iglou.com...
> | > On SCO OSR 5.0.6 with the 'wd' driver I use a Plextor PX-708A ATAPI
> | > drive to write backups to DVD+RW media.
> | >
> | > The firmware on that drive is several versions behind the current
> | > one, and I'd like to upgrade it.
> | >
> | > The Plextor(USA) web site has only Windows firmware upgrade programs.
> | >
> | > The Plextor(Europe) web site doesn't have anything that I can get to
> | > work on OSR 5.0.6.
> | >
> | > I've created an MS-DOS boot floppy and copied to it the *.exe firmware
> | > upgrade Windows program from Plextor.
> | >
> | > If I boot my SCO box from the MS-DOS boot diskette and execute that
> | > Plextor *.exe program will it do what I want?
> |
> | The *.exe Windows firmware upgrade program is, in fact, a Windows
> | binary and will not run from MS-DOS.
> |
> | However, the Plextor Europe website offers an MS-DOS firmware
> | upgrade program at
> | [url]http://www.plextor-europe.com/download/ftp1/PXUpdate.zip[/url]
> | which contains pxupdate.exe, a DOS executable.
> | You must also download the latest firmware binary (1.10) at
> | [url]http://www.plextor-europe.com/download/ftp1/708A110.zip[/url]
> | which contains 708A110.bin, a firmware data file.
>
> Thanks, Bob. I downloaded those two files and extracted their
> contents, but there's not enough room on the boot floppy to
> copy the *.bin file to it, much less both of them. I used the
> UNIX on my Windows system to make listings of them:
>
> MS-DOS Boot Diskette:
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 93040 Jun 8 2000 COMMAND.COM
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 0 Jul 28 15:13 CONFIG.SYS
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 17175 Jun 8 2000 DISPLAY.SYS
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58870 Jun 8 2000 EGA.CPI
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58870 Jun 8 2000 EGA2.CPI
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 58753 Jun 8 2000 EGA3.CPI
> -r-xr-xr-x 1 bob Everyone 116736 May 15 2001 IO.SYS
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 21607 Jun 8 2000 KEYB.COM
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 34566 Jun 8 2000 KEYBOARD.SYS
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 31942 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD2.SYS
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 31633 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD3.SYS
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 13014 Jun 8 2000 KEYBRD4.SYS
> -rwxrwxrwx 1 bob Everyone 29239 Jun 8 2000 MODE.COM
> -r-xr-xr-x 1 bob Everyone 9 Apr 7 2001 MSDOS.SYS
> ------
> 565454[/color]
For future reference, the only files required on an MS-DOS boot
floppy are IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM. If you delete
the rest, you might just have enough room left for the firmware upgrade.
[color=blue]
> Firmware Upgrade:
> -rwx------ 1 bob None 983040 Apr 15 09:42 708A110.bin
> -rwx------ 1 bob None 29088 Nov 2 2004 PXUPDATE.EXE
> ------
> 1012128
> =======
> Total: 1578582
>
> | They've conveniently left out instructions in either ZIP file, but
> | I'd assume they want you to copy both files to a bootable
> | MS-DOS floppy, boot from the floppy, and run
> | pxupdate 708A110.bin
> | from the command prompt.
> [snip]
> | The alternative is to install the drive into a Windows system and
> | run the Windows version to update the firmware.
>
> I was hoping to avoid that, but - unless there are files I could do
> without, and remove from the boot floppy - that looks like my ony
> alternative.
>
> Bob[/color]
Bob
