Problems Flashing Toshiba SD-C2502

Question

I have a Latitude C600 (bios A14) running XP. I recently purchase a Toshiba DVD/CD SD-C2502 from eBay and after installing it, regular CDs would not read but the DVD plays my movies just fine. By reading some of the posting here, I believe the new firmware (1D23) posted on the Dell site should fix my problem. Well, here lies the problem.

I followed the direction and created the bootdisk but when the system boots, the Flash Program states I have no ATAPI device and terminates with a "Drive Not Connected." Here is what it says:

(Primary)

0: (Master) Not ATAPI Device

1: (Slave) Not ATAPI Device

(Secondary)

0: (Master) Not Connected

1: (Slave) Not Connected

Interesting because when I boot to XP, the drive is their and can play DVDs but can read CDs.

Any help would be highly appreciated... regards!

totalrecall · Answer

I am also interested, although I was able to successfully do the firmware flash, at least I think so, I still can't get the drive to read CD's, yet it plays the DVD's just fine. Tired deleting the device and haveing Windows re-detect things, but that didn't work either.

Look forward as well to some advice.

Thanks

Mike

dg1261 · Answer

Wow, I thought I just had a bad drive... interesting to see others with the same problem.  I also have a Toshiba SD-C2502 that reads DVDs fine but won't read a regular CD.  I flashed the firmware (successfully) to 1D23, but it made no difference at all.  I just chalked it up to being a random bad drive and figured I'd just replace it when I got around to it.  But I wonder if the design of this model is problematic, and I'd better make sure to steer clear of replacing it with another of the same model?

Jimbo-Sr · Answer

Well it looks like you guys are a step ahead of me and was able to flash the new firmware. But sounds like we all in the same original boat... our CDs will not read but we can watch Braveheart all day long!

Someone must have seen this before. -- Dell? Anyone???

totalrecall · Answer

More background - Is it possible that some versions of this drive are only DVD, if that exists? Next, I have another Dell I had upgraded some time ago with a DVD Read/CD-RW drive, same bay configuration. I pulled it out of my other laptop and swapped it into this unit. The CD function worked right away. I had deleted the drive in question, so when I installed the new unit, it found everything with no issues and worked. So, why would that work for CD's and the other drive not do anything?

Hope this gives you some ideas

Mike

dg1261 · Answer

I've also been able to swap drives around and other drives have no trouble reading CDs in my laptop, so I know the problem is with my Tosh 2502, not with Windows or the laptop. BTW, my 2502 in other laptops doesn't read CDs, either--not in Win98, 2000, or XP, so it's also not a Windows driver issue.

I've never heard of any DVD drive that wasn't (supposedly) capable of reading CDs--does such a thing exist? I could be wrong, but thought all DVD drives were backwards compatible.

Sparky63 · Answer

Ok folks, here it is.     I was having the same problem with my C2502.  It would play DVD's all day, but would not recognize cd's, music, data or otherwise.  I looked up and down the net trying to find out how to fix the problem with no success.  I was successful at flashing the drive's firmware (on the third try, try it at least 3 times) before I tried this fix so I don't know if it made a difference or not.   Then it occured to me that it might just be an optical thing, dirty lens, so I tried a CD cleaner to no avail.  I then opened the drive caddy, and using a Q-tip and alcohol, cleaned the lens itself.  After manually cleaning the lens, I put the drive back in my system and it works like a champ.  The lens in this drive seems to be extra sensitive to dust, so before you throw that drive out the window, try the above.

dg1261 · Answer

I tried Sparky63's Qtip-and-alcohol advice, but it didn't make much difference. I can now get some CDs to start reading, but it stops partway through with a "no disk in drive" msg. Interesting that it's not an "unable to read" msg. Somehow, it thinks the disk it started reading suddenly disappeared.

I also tried flashing back to the 1D13 firmware, as well as a hacked XD23 firmware (the hack was for region-free DVDing, not for our problem). Neither made any difference (though I didn't really think it would).

In rummaging around the inet, I've come across a few other discussion groups with complaints about the same problem on the SD-C2502--DVD ok, no CD read. It's curious that all the complaints I've found were from late-2004/early-2005, but I haven't found anything earlier. The latest firmware (1D23) is dated 2002, so if this was a firmware issue there should have been more about it earlier.

The symptoms seem to suggest to me that it's a hardware problem, not firmware or software (driver). The SD-C2502 first hit the market in 2000, so if this was an original design defect, you'd think it would be well known by now. My best guess is that it's some kind of early degeneration of the hardware. Perhaps we'll begin hearing from other 2502 users as their drives begin to fail.

IAC, I don't think this is repairable--I'll just replace the drive but definitely stay away from refurb'd 2502's.

wongster3000 · Answer

It's a hardware issue not a software or firmware. I had the same problem with the Toshiba SD-C2502 with my HP zt1000 laptop. I swapted it with another Toshiba from my Sony Vaio PCG-X500 and it works perfectly. You can get a replacent DVD-Rom drive ( SD-C2712) from www.newegg.com for $48, or for $17 more you can get a CD-RW/DVD-Rom drive ( SD-R2612) for $65.

uruk-hai · Answer

I have a Latitude L400 (bios A09) running XP as well. In the past the original Torisan U200 CD-ROM works just fine in it’s external housing. Alternatively a Floppy Disk Drive replaces the CD-ROM. The same cable is attached to the Latitude L400. I upgraded the system and purchased the Toshiba DVD/CD SD-C2502 from eBay.
Once installed Windows explorer recognized the unit and the DVD is reported by Windows as working properly. However when Windows tries to explore, any type of inserted disk, the drive attempts reading the content for few seconds without success. No error messages is shown.

I also tried to boot from the Toshiba SD-C2502 by changing the system boot order, but the drive tries to read the disk (the small light flicker) but fails after e few swconds and Windows starts from the HDD.

I was thinking upgrading the drive firmware to the latest version and created the boot floppy to flash the SD-C2502 to version 1D23.

However and here is my problem, since the L400 have to have either the FDD or CD-ROM connected (but not at the same time) the boot floppy exits to the prompt with “Drive Not Connected”. Now how to proceed to be able to flash the Toshiba Drive on my Latitude L400?

I’m very thankful if I receive some hints what to do.
I will try to clean the lens.
Cheers

totalrecall · Answer

I finally had some luck getting the 2502 to read CD's.  After messing around with it for a long time, I stuck a CD in it and as it closed gently pushed the drive shut as it was closing.  It then worked with CDs.  Then it didn't after a while.   What it all seems in my case to boil down to, is the drive or the the alignment is not setup quite right.  When not working if I gently push on the right side of the front cover, it then will read the CD.  So who knows what the heck is going on.   I gave up at that point and bought the a used combo drive that seems just fine.   Mike

uruk-hai · Answer

Hi,
I got hold on the nessesary 'serial-to-FDD' cable and connected it to my Dell L400 (BIOS A09) laptop, to do the drive firmware upgrade (from rev '1011' 2000 Nov 8, to rev '1D23' 2002 Dec 26) on the Toshiba SD-C2502. However, It does not improve the CD-read capability. I have also tested the drive CD readability with Linux (Mandriva Limited Edition 2005). No difference compared to Windows XP. I cleaned the lens. Same dissapointing experience. I guess I have to live with that the Toshiba only can handle DVD-ROM regardless what the label claims on the drive. However, I'm rather sure that Toshiba would never ship a drive that could not read CD's in the original.
It's kind of difficult to accept that this issue is realted to some hardware detoriation, since DVD tracks are packed much closer which should be a more difficult for the drive than reading a simple CD-ROM. Finally some pure speculations:
-It would be an interesting experiment to run same tests on a laptop with Win 98 system.
-The issue may depend on which Dell laptops/BIOS version is in the other end to the drive.
Cheers
Bertil

dg1261 · Answer

... firmware upgrade (from rev '1011' 2000 Nov 8, to rev '1D23' 2002 Dec 26) on the Toshiba SD-C2502. However, It does not improve the CD-read capability ...
... I'm rather sure that Toshiba would never ship a drive that could not read CD's in the original. It's kind of difficult to accept that this issue is realted to some hardware detoriation ...

-It would be an interesting experiment to run same tests on a laptop with Win 98 system.
-The issue may depend on which Dell laptops/BIOS version is in the other end to the drive.

Already done--see my posts earlier in this thread.

I swapped drives around amongst 4 different laptops (three different models), and the 2502 didn't work in any of them. In contrast, the other drives worked in all four laptops.

I tried DOS, Win98, WinME, Win2000, and WinXP. It didn't matter. The 2502 read DVDs under all, and didn't read CDs under any of them.

I tried three different firmware versions. No difference.

Toshiba didn't ship a drive that couldn't read CDs--my 2502 used to read CDs, but doesn't any more. According to docs at toshiba.com, the 2502 first shipped in 2000. I spent hours scouring the web, and found lots of identical complaints about this specific model, but none older than the last yr or so. How can one conclude it's anything but premature hardware deterioration of this particular model?

Enderlais_HD · Answer

here is your complain from 2021 it did read cd's yesterday but stoped today i am now gonna try effry trick you guys sayd it workt. im gonna report what workt and what diden't.if annybuddy has anny ideas please tell me. by the way in device maneger it shows as DVD-ROM SD-C2502 but nothing with cd i don't know why that shows like that because i installed multipele games (Age of empires 2 and anno 1602) with the cd over that drive. did annybuddy find anny solution to that broblem?

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Problems Flashing Toshiba SD-C2502

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