ND-2500A ROM Flash Crash

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers NEC / Optiarc Writer
#1

Hi - I tried to flash my NEC ND-2500A rom (it was v1.06 I believe), and it died half-way through. I don’t have the error message it gave me. I believe it was the Hermie flash. Now the drive (external USB 2.0) won’t stop flashing it’s green light. Windows XP Pro still sees the drive (as a connected USB device) when I connect it, but since it doesn’t every stop flashing, I can’t use it with Nero or reflash it.

Am I completely hooped? Is there something I can do to “force-flash” it?

Thanks a million! (Should have bought a Plextor!)

#2

I guess your USB enclosure has some problems with the commands needed for flashing. Try to unplug the drive from your enclosure and directly attach it to an IDE port. You should be able to use Binflash or TDB’s DOS flasher to get your drive back to life again then.

#3

Why a Plextor? So you could have doubled your money loss when killing the drive?

Liggy’s right, just connect it directly to the IDE cable of a desktop computer. Preferrably as the only drive on the cable and make it master. Now you can use one of the dos flashers found on tdb.rpc1.org to revive it. This method can bring back to live even the most braindead NEC drives. But make sure you start your computer in DOS, using a DOS bootdisk or a prepared DOS bootcd. Make sure there’s no autoexec.bat and no config.sys on the DOS disk, because any driver that’s started automatically in the boot process can corrupt your flash.

Don’t try to use any DOS flasher in Windows’ DOS box! And don’t try any Windows flasher. They’ll work fine once your drive is alive and kicking again, but dead drives can (currently) only be revived in real DOS.

#4

That depends on how “dead” your drive is. If it detects a failed flash procedure, the drive enters safe mode and should be flashable even in Windows. Otherwise you need to pray and hope to bring your drive back to life again.

#5

Thanks for correcting me. 'Till now, I thought that a misflashed drive could only be reflashed in DOS.

#6

OK - I tried the Binflash GUI 1.02. It found my drive:

[G: _NEC DVD+RW ND-2100A 0.06]

I flashed the K25G3020.exe file (v1.07). But it craps out at “Sending firmware to drive at 0x0f8000” and says “Problem sending firmware to drive.”

I was hoping I didn’t have to crack open the case and slave 'n master around. Owning an external USB drive probably is the first clue I don’t like messing around inside the case. :slight_smile:

Is there any other flasher I could try (or find the .bin version), or should I plan a trip to the fix-it shop? Thanks again for the quick help! - Cliff

#7

Messing around in your case generally gets much better results. If you have an open drive bay, I’d put your NEC in your system. It REALLY isn’t that hard, just like switching a master and slave jumper takes about two minutes, less if you have good fingernails or a needlenose pliers. Sending it to the fix-it shop means you’re paying money for a solution you could do on your own. Also, an in-case drive generally provides better performance, especially if you’re multitasking while you’re burning. USB just doesn’t stand up to load as well as straight IDE does.

It’s a lot like learning to ride your bike when you were a kid --scary the first few times, but once you’ve done it a little and gotten some confidence, it gets easier every time, and you’ll never forget how.