DVD/RW SN208BB how to firmware-update?

just wondering if anyone has seen this issue and fixed:
TSST Corp/Samsung SN208BB is a reasonably popular DVD Writer for many notebooks. good reviews. mine has rev00 firmware.
when I try to update it, from any source, I get "wrong device" errors.

- could win 8.1 be improperly reading this? I seriously doubt.
- anyone run into this before? are the firmware updaters checking system bios and being thwarted by a OEM flag [this is Samsung laptop]??

solutions?

the unit works, sorta. under win 8.1 its annoying in that it gets polled by something every minute or so... constantly clicking, head seek, etc.
but otherwise seems to work

 

What version of Windows was originally installed on the Samsung laptop? I seem to recall you had some questions about 8.1 in another thread. The firmware flash should have been done under the original OS with the original device drivers for that OS.

 

8.0
why would it matter?
it looks to me like the update utilities run, discover, and bail saying the device intended is not the device installed.

imgburn discovers it correctly and everything seems to calibrate ok.

I checked for upperfilters and lowerfilters and none are in the registry. the registry entries appear to be generic to me, although Device manager marks it as SN208BB which I assume can only come from the device firmware. I tried "uninstalling" it via Device Mgr and let it reinstall, it came back the same.
there are no errors in the Windows Event logs associated with the unit.

stumped. very puzzling

fwiw - Samsung either hides/obfuscates drivers etc for this unit, or their website is broken... in fact for any member of the family. apparently they want to use their "Samsung updater" for all such issues, or Windows update. the latter doesn't play firmware to my experience and the Samsung updater... I can't really tell if it is functioning or not. its there, its in the program list, it will throw up a GUI but no data. Also I must say, compared to many many other threads of woe on "upgrading" Samsung notebooks to 8.1... I'm in great shape. this is just an issue that always bugs me: I want the optical to be running with all the firmware enhancements and there have been at least 6 releases since 00 for this unit

 

When I search for that model number here, I get 0 results for "SN208BB". Please verify the number.

 

It's a UK model, Digerati. http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAMSUNG-SN208BB-Writer-black-SN208BBBEBE/dp/B0039JV7AG

Maybe this? ASIN: B0039JV7AG
forget that; I got two links that point back to the Amazon UK page.

Found something
http://www.samsung.com/ca/support/model/SN-208BB/BEBE-troubleshooting

 

UK is not the issue - correct model number is and it appears the correct model number is SN-208BB (with a "-") but there are 3 revisions.

 

right, and there are SB## firmware versions and SC [also if the search function is not very flexy, some respond to SN-208BB syntax, others no]
of the latter I have only witnessed two: SC00 and SC01

just idly wondering what the 'c' and 'b' indicate? a physically different ROM? regional diffs?

the only anomaly I see with the drive, and it may be with how Windows 8.1 manages, DVD's that just "play" without a hitch on other devices don't play without some manual tinkering. WMP can't seem to find any playable file on a perfectly good dvd... [one would think that pig would have been polished for win 8.1 ... "the last gasp of the PC" :-D]... even using the much better VLC and MPC, still takes some tinkering. have to drill down to the video folders and go from there.

also one other thing, which is the annoyance that first set me looking up 'wares: the thing is getting polled by something every minute or so, though the interval seems to change with what's going on network-wise... this irritant is well threaded out in websphere with lots of theories. it may be a samsung-using-samsung dysfunction. I seem to note that the random seek/drop does not happen if anything is in the drive - even a blank

 

The c and b may designate regions, but may also indicate the end brand as these appear to be OEM devices.