Hot-Rod Your CD-RW Drive

Anonymous Coward writes: "Currently almost everyone with a computer has a CD-ROM drive and also a big part of them have a CD-RW drive. But what if you want to spend less time on writing a CD-R ? You have to buy a new one, or, if you are a real geek, you just overclock it! Seems to be to good to be true ? It's not! Currently a lot of cheap manufacturers of CD-RW drives are using the same parts in their 32x,40x, and 48x drives and start to sell them at 32x, later to 40x and in end as 48x. and with a little upgrading of the firmware (totally legal) you will have a faster drive, because you remove its limits! It currently works on drives from Lite-On (who also makes drives for Memorex, TDK, Iomega, Cendyne, TraxData and Pacific digital all overclockable) And the list goes on as there are also overclock tricks for LG (32x -> 40x) and Sony drives (32x -> 48x). If you don't believe it, read all the reactions and the postings on the forums mentioned above!"

Firmware

[zapfie]

Upgradinging of the firmware, totally legal? Ackk. You can do whatever you want with your CD-R drive and it would be totally legal- you have first sale rights. I will be scared if we live in a country where people even have to wonder if modifying their own hardware is "totally legal" or not.

Re:Plextor?

[Luke-Jr]

If they don't play underclocking much, then how would rename/upgrading of firmware make it any faster?

Re:Firmware

[alienw]

The DMCA prohibits systems that break COPY PROTECTION. I don't know what planet you live on, but on this one CDR drives don't have copy protection yet. What the fuck does the dmca have to do with them?

Re:It wasn't new

[Reality Master 101]

And there's a good reason why the mainframe had a jumper, but the PC doesn't. IBM wants to sell you a future upgrade for the mainframe. They had no after-sale incentive for the PC, since they're just going to try selling you a new PC.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Beware DMCA

[Whammy666]

...with a little upgrading of the firmware (totally legal)

Since many CDs now carry copy protection (both for music and data) It's well within the scope of possibility, given the stupidity of the law, that tampering with the cd player's firmware would violate the DMCA since you could remove hardware blocks the prohibit RAW writes, even if all you intended to do was just speed up the drive.

The DMCA nazis would argue that anyone providing information on how to hack a CD player (regardless of intent) was providing a means to circumvent copy protection and hence was in violation of the law.

Keep in mind that you're not dealing with rational people here. This same group of nimrods want to restrict the use of sound cards in computers and make A/D converters a restricted item. Greed has taken over reason.

== All hail King Dubya and the rise of the 4th Reich==

Re:What are you thinking?

[Reziac]

Even tho as noted above, that 32x may really be a remarked 48x -- you can't know for sure. It may well be a for-really 32x, and tho you can get it to run at 48x, data integrity is now compromised.
So I agree, the risk is not worth the gain, especially when the price difference is trivial (LiteOn 32x, $65; LiteOn 48x, $80 -- that's the typical local clone dealer price). CDRWs write enough iffy disks that don't store well as it is -- why compound the problem?? It ain't worth saving 15 bucks.

Re:Beware DMCA

[darkwiz]

The DMCA nazis would argue that anyone providing information on how to hack a CD player (regardless of intent) was providing a means to circumvent copy protection and hence was in violation of the law. ...
== All hail King Dubya and the rise of the 4th Reich==


In case you've forgotten (or are just tuning in to this fight), the DMCA was passed during the Clinton administration. Bush had nothing to do with it (although it did pass the Republican congress). All meaningful degradations of fair use occurred then (the SSSCA/CBDTPA didn't get out of congress, so there has been no test of the administration's character on this issue)

The DMCA Nazi's, as you refer to them are comprised of both major parties, with few vocal dissenters on either side.

Pull your head out of your ass. It isn't W, or any particular party that is trying to screw you over - it is the entire system.

Further, the DMCA makes no statement about general modifications, only attempts to circumvent copy protection or violate intellectual property, so it would be inapplicable as you describe.

However, if the firmware was acquired in an illicit manner (ie: posted in violation of terms of EULA, leaked from the company, downloaded from another device), you could be found to be in violation of copyright.

Re:What are you thinking?

[mchappee]

>Would you just assume that the ability to burn
>a CD and then read it proves that everything is
>fine? Has anyone looked into the
>error rates of hot-rodded drives vs. those
>drives sold to operate at the higher speeds?
>Has anyone examined the long-term data
>retention of CDs burned at 48X in what was a
>32X burner?

Geeze dude, who do you think you are, Ralph Nader? It's just a flippin' CDRW, not a seat belt mod or DIY nuclear reactor. Take a pill. If things don't work out just get another. What do you think is going to happen here? Is a disk going spin up so fast that the inertia rips it from the drive, decapitating the user?

32x Lite-On CD-RW is $52.00 on Pricewatch. Not a biggie. Besides, it sounds pretty cool.

Matthew