Hi there.
I'm doing remote assistence on a Samsung Spinpoint drive that stays at BSY.
The "client" only have PC3K Express.
I've checked the drive and on the LOG window i get FIPS checksum error.
I've went to terminal and issue the "esc" to drop the drive to degug mode (dbg) and i've downloaded the ROM by terminal.
When i go to offset 70000 i see that it's cleared out, so i patched FIPS on the ROM but I CAN'T WRITE to ROM (i can only READ) with terminal.
Am i doing something wrong ?
On the menu of PC3K i can see Read ROM by terminal and WRITE ROM. Does it mean that the operation to write ROM using UDMA/EXPRESS only works with ATA access ?
I've tryed to write to ROM and then read again, by the reading is the same rom i started with, in other words, it didn't wrote the edited/patched ROM.

If the drive is stuck at BSY and ATA (on the express case the SATA0 connection) is not working can't i just flash ROM by terminal the same way i read from terminal ?

I'm assumining correctly that PC3K needs the ATA interface to be working to write ROM ?

The sollution for this case apears to be for the client to buy an external programmer so i can write the patched ROM file back to it.

Any way to write ROM using PC3K when ATA interface is stuck at BSY ?

I've done several ROM patching for fixing the FIPS issue, but i've allways used the external programmer (i'm Takanashi_Hina at Acelab Forum) .

http://acelaboratory.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=8126

The question is, can i programm the ROM using JUST PC3K if ATA is bsy ?

Regards.

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Dear Spildit,

Samsung drives will only allow EEPROM programming via the serial port interface. AFAIK they haven't got any ATA mplementation of the download microcode function, or at least, I don't expect it to be well understood on Samsung drives.
Either there's a problem with the serial communication link, or, most likely, your PC3K does not support EEPROM programming for that drive's family, which has come to be quite normal for newer Samsung drives.

Solution: Physical swap or external programmer, or waiting for an update.

Cheers

Ok !
Thanks for your reply !
I guess that i still have lots to learn !
Regards.

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Hi Spildit,

Have you rectified the FIPS problem ? Is the drive now working ?

Thanks for any update.