Drivers for dvd burners

I have a Samsung and LG dvd burner in my PC I was wanting to know if you need to install drivers for these dvd burners?

 

If you have XP no you don't have to install any drivers most off cd-rom and
and dvd-burner are plug-and-play.

Hope this help...

 

There usually aren't any special drivers for optical drives - I don't think there has been since DOS. Whatever is needed is built into your OS. You may need to load some software like Ahead Software's 'Nero Burning ROM' to use the burning features or a software DVD playing program (like Win DVD) to watch DVD movies but that's about it. If you bought the retail package of either drive, some software as mentioned would have come with it.

.bh.

 

you will need firmware though. google your burner models and update to the latest version.

 

Firmware is already in the drive, and should only be flashed if it resolves an existing issue and not just for the sake of it.

Windows, since 95b, has had native support for all optical devices, meaning you don't need to worry about drivers.

The only thing required is an ASPI layer for the burner to communicate with the burning software.

XP doesn't come with an ASPI layer, however most burning programs, like Nero for example, install their own ASPI file and don't rely on system ASPI.

Windows 9x comes with an ASPI layer included.

The only time you ever need to worry about drivers for optical drives is for SCSI drives, and for some DOS programs or games (which usually supply and install the required drivers anyway).

 

Insomniac et al.,

"Firmware is already in the drive, and should only be flashed if it resolves an existing issue and not just for the sake of it."

While that holds true for many devices, it is not the case for burners. Most burner firmware updates, besides fixing glitches, also include compatibility enhancements for various media and even new features or upgraded features (at least some recent Plextor updates have done so).
. So new firmware updates should be given a couple of weeks to shake out and find any newly introduced glitches and then go ahead and install them for your drives.

.bh.

 

I disagree. Don't go flashing any device, unless it resolves a problem you are having, or introduces a feature you want, or need (rarely happens). It especially holds true with hardware, if it aint broke, don't fix it.

 

I couldn't have summed it up better.

What is the point of flashing a drive if there aren't any problems?

For example, my LiteOn burner still has the original firmware, and it doesn't miss a beat, and I can use any media.

What would the advantage be by flashing? Nothing, it's just taking a risk for no improvement.


I've seen plenty of destroyed CD/DVD drives, motherboards and video cards where people think they just have to install whatever flash is available.

 

Personally I've never had a flash go bad except one time a long time ago on a mobo that was known (except by me) to have BIOS flashing issues (and that was brought in by a customer and not done by me). I worked in a confuser repair shop where flashing BIOSes was a several times a day thing - no problemo.
. But since then I have never flashed any BIOS except in naked old DOS mode - booted from a floppy.
. Just do your homework, find out if the piece of equipment has known flashing issues and don't attempt it except in a clean DOS environment and all should go well. Check to see if there is any "emergency flash recovery procedure", etc. I usually download the code twice and compare the files to make sure I've got a good one, then I flash twice (reboot in between) to make sure the code gets in there solid.

.bh.

 

I killed a motherboard with a bios flash, following instructions exactly. I've flashed my current motherboard with a newer bios--only to find it made things worse, not better.

Its not worth the risk.

There simply is no valid argument for flashing a device if it is working ok unless to add functionality you need or want.

 

In other words, if you don't gain anything by it, then why take the risk, no matter how prepared and experienced you are, or how small the risk is.

I only ever flash (hardware that is ) anything if it specifically addresses an issue I'm experiencing.