I used windows to upgrade the firmware to 1.03. Once you go past 1.01
to 1.02 or 1.03 you can't flash it back to 1.01. You can flash back to
1.02 from 1.03.
I have not tried cdrecord at all yet except for cd-r media so I can't
say whether I also exhibit any problems.
If you let me know what circumstances you have a problem I can try to
duplicate here.