It all depends on what is being updated by the Firmware. There are updates for such things as to allow certain media to burn at a higher speed, capability with more media, Region removal and many others.
you only upgrade if you are having a problem with yours, and the upgrading filmare address that issue as upgrading your filmware has killed a few drives
Normally I would agree with what EricB said, but in this case I have to point out that there are updates that enhance your drives such as allowing a drive that originally would only burn at 4X to now burn at 8X or higher. Upgrading Firmware is a different animal than updating software. As with anything, sometimes there can be damage from updating, but this seldom. Take a look around this site and you will have a lot of knowledge at your fingertips. www.rpc1.org
