NEC ND-3550/4550@4551, ND-3570/4570@4571, AD-5170/7170@7173, 5200/7200@7203 discussion thread

Hello everyone,

Well I go back to my original question (In an other thread).

Why does NEC ( or any other company) release drives with RipLocked firmware and NO bitsettings ?

They know what people want/use, stop making 25 damn models and release one with all the features

My 2 cents on the matter...

And I'm sticking with my NEC-3550a v1.05 stock firmware after reading this thread

I don't use bitsetting since I use DVD-R media

Please keep the posts on topic.
Some posts deleted.

Dear Liggy,

I would like to understand better about the tool nec_dude wrote:

the bootcode we have after we run this tool, is different from the original bootcode of the NEC 4551 ???

thanks a lot

p.s. I was liking a lot your pubblic message in The Firmware Page Forum

Sorry to come 'out of the blue' on this, but I've been following it for a while - I think this whole ordeal is mysterious to say the least. I bought an 4550 for my G4 just before the whole crossflashing ordeal kicked off on the basis that it was the fastest DVD Writer on the market and apeared to have some good reviews. At the time, I was unable to buy an ND-4551 and don't care much for LabelFlash anyway, but the point is, Liggy - if you weren't contacted by NEC or the patent owner for LabelFlash, why do you care if people crossflash their drives. I can understand some kind of moral when talking about software piracy, but we're not talking about $500 here, we're talking about $1-2. It's not eating into NEC's profit margins, they don't suddenly have to pay a licencing fee for a drive they sold as a 4550 when somebody crossflashes it.

If there was a genuine problem with LabelFlash licensing or whatever the problem is, you could come forward and tell us what it is rather than expecting us to 'trust you'. Quite frankly, I respect your work with the firmwares a lot, but I don't 'trust you'. I think you're acting like you're suffering from paranoia. A reasonable explanation or answer is all people want.

Edit: I also don't appreciate that fact that you appear to be lying -
There's clearly nothing wrong with 1.24, and I intend to hold on to my copy since I don't know what you are doing with new versions. I've flashed my drive with the old version a couple of times under OS X and once on a PC just fine. The only difference between the two versions from what I've gathered is the intentional non-support for flashing crossflashed drives who've just had their bootcode flashed.

You can't earn the respect of people then use it as an excuse to lie.

Someone else from CD Freaks WAS contacted about this crossflashing issue. If nobody had cared, I probably would have released this tool myself.

So you know the details about NEC's contracts with the patent holder? I'm interested in seeing these details.

I think I explained all my reasons as detailed as I'm able to. And if you don't trust me, you should not use my tools or firmwares.

No, I'm just saying that if NEC sell a drive as a 4550, they obviously don't have to pay the licencing fee. If I then choose to flash it to a 4551, it's no loss to them.

All the community wants is clarification from you. If you're willing to say that NEC or the patent holder contacted somebody and asked politely if you would stop distributing it, I'm fine (as I'm sure many others would be) with calling that the end of the issue. The only reason this has dragged on is because you're being so secretive about it. All anybody wants is answers.

None of that, please. Do not speak for us, and don't try to use the "community" argument. With a 2-posts count, you'e hardly a member of this "community". You're already making personal attacks on Liggy, which I really don't like, now you're trying to turn it into a "several against one" thing, I'd say you're really far out of the line here.

Liggy could have edited your posts, he didn't, I don't think such an attitude would come from someone we couldn't trust. Making unjustified personal attacks in a public forum, though, THIS rings an alarm bell in my head about the intentions of the poster.

Correct. You misunderstood. It's a loss to the LF license holder.Did you read Liggy's post #105? First sentence.

Maybe I'm not talking about THIS community. I don't really have enough interest in optical drives to participate here. I install a new drive every so often, when my old one starts to feel slow, and I burn a DVD or a CD occasionally. I have no interest beyond that point.

I'm not trying to offend or attack people here either, AT ALL, I just think this whole business has gotten out of hand. If you think this forum is the only palce this discussion is going on, you're wrong.

I saw post #105 quite clearly. I know somebody was contacted, but by who. If I said 'please stop crossflashing drives' to somebody on this forum, would you stop distributing tools to do it? no, because I have nothing to do with it. I want to know WHO and WHY, not some un-necesary enigma.

It not ours to wonder who or why, Liggy owes no one any explainations, we all
owe him a debt of gratitude for making our NEC drives something better.

OK. I did it too. I'm guilty too. I crossflashed my 4550 to a 4551 with the tool that I got from someone I won't ever mention, because I promised so (no, it was not Liggy himself or anyone connected with cdfreaks).

For now, what I'd like to know is:
- Will future NEC 4551 firmware upgrades, if any, work on my crossflashed drive? (Y/N)
- Even better, because I don't really need the LF: is it possible to reverse the crossflash? (Y/N) Do I need some tools that aren't available anymore for this? (Y/N) (No, don't mention the tools or anything else, just say yes or no. Problems are already big enough at the moment.)
- Or should I just leave my drive in it's current state and run away from any firmware up- or downgrade from now on?

Well...nec_dude posted on a forum in another site stating that his bootflash tool was independently created and it has nothing to do with one Liggy had created. Sure existence that Liggy had created such tool gave him the motivation to create one on his own. I think nec_dude is telling the truth.

These people have been providing free tools to everybody for
years, and yet without having never contributed anything to
these forums you dare coming here to complain and demand answers ?
Are you paying them for their work ? Do they owe you something ?
Statements have been made and Liggy has very patiently answered
some posts, so don't push it. If you're not happy with this don't
use their tools and go away, but you will not keep this spoiled
child attitude towards them here, I warn you.

Back on topic for a while:
as an owner of a 4550 i decided to give a go to the mod and it worked as promised
Only one thing wasn't as I expected, that is I wasn't able to apply DMA mode to the drive, only PIO even if it was selected in bios, windows etc

Could this be a mod problem? I mean, changing the bootcode can lead to this?

Now i'm back to my original 4550 (so yes, you can revert the mod) and the drive is correctly recognized as UDMA-2

As an extra info I used the "first" flasher seen on the scene

A.

Deleting the driver of the appropriate "IDE Controller" in device manager should solve this problem.

Actually i already did it, tried also to change controller driver but nothing
Well, it's ok

Crossedflashed the 4550 to 4551 recently - everything worked fine.
I notice a change in NERO CD-DVD Speed - media burnt with the 4550 showed a marker "aufgenommen mit NEC-ND4550" - while now with the 4550@4551 this space is empty... see enclosed pics.

Let's please stay on topic and show respect to our staff and members.

posts removed

Couldn't NEC release their own crossflasher 4550->4551 (a james bond type, this tool will autodestruct within 1 use ), charging the royalties (and maybe a little bit more) they pay to the labelflash companys? I guess it can't be more than 5 €... It would be better then people using these tools ... I would buy it !

it's not about the money... it's about the pleasure of doing it

Which bootcode you used? I guess Necbfl 1.1

Yes. Well, I could try the second one (BTFLASH) but as long as everything else is working fine I can live with that. I just was curious why this info (which burner used) has gone.

It's not about the money for you, but it is for labelflash's copyright owners

i payed for my 4550 more then a 4551 cost today...

Ok, I crossflashed my 3550 to a 4551 buttttt I have no use for labelflash or dvdram. I have a 1655 lightscribe which I used once to see what it was and not impressed. Also I have a LG 4163 that I have never used the ram capabilities. I do have a total of 9 writers and the 3550 came in as the worst of them all not bad enough to rma but not good enough to use. When crossflashed to the 4551 fw it became one of my best. I appreciate Liggy and Dee's work and do not at all want them in trouble but in this case it was writer survival because it was headed for the closet. This is my two cents worth since I do feel a little guilty, I am still using the drive. I also hope Liggy and Dee continue to support the other Nec drives since I have a 3540 I like very well using their fws. Please keep up the work you are so good at.