Is there anything I can do to improve the read performance of my Benq 1620 DVD drive?

Would a "firmware update" perhaps help or is that just a windows thing?

The problem is that it is fussy about what disks it is capable of reading, in particular it often won't read RW disks made by my Lite-On DVD player/writer even though just about every other machine I try will handle these disks.

Thanks

You can try a firmware update but there is a chance you toast the whole thing with it.On the other hand if it doesn't work ok anyway.....

Well, I tried.

Followed this link http://www.driverslab.com/downloads/...0_XP/8619.html
to d/l a firmware update (DW1620/B7M9.zip), switched to windows & ran the extracted .exe file.

The program recognized my drive as an ATAPI DVD DD 2X16X4X16, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive which is exactly what Linux sees it as & then the firmware update program says "drive not supported" & exits.

Info sticker on the drive says it is

BENQ DW 1620.0C1
mfg Sept 04
S/N 40046 00816

Google turned up some reports that Benq 1620 performance may vary substantially from unit to unit so maybe I've just got a bad one.

For what its worth: I have a Benq 1640, it is identified as " BENQ DVD DD DW1640, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive".

Have a look there:

http://forum.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=141918
http://forum.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=206450