NEC 3500 to 3520 through firmware

lordkv 2004-12-30 01:31:28 UTC #1

Now that the NEC 3520 is officially out and that it only adds better RW speeds, is it possible to flash our good old NEC 3500 to NEC 3520 through firmware?

XND1n01h 2004-12-30 01:42:52 UTC #2

I'm afraid not due to different hardware chipset, therefore it's completely impossible to flash to the newer drive, at the moment I would stick to my trusty NEC ND-3500AG as the beta firmware keeps getting better and better.

chef 2004-12-30 02:31:44 UTC #3

The same questions appear again and again from those who are not willingly or unable to use SEARCH.

pinto2 2004-12-30 03:01:06 UTC #4

Welcome to forum lordkv

chef, I think you better provide some liks or other information on this topic, then the answer you just did. You might be a moderator at other forum, but here on CDFreaks we try to help each other out in a friendly and "educational" way.

BTW lordkv, our 3500 drives might be mature but in no way old. And from the few tests I have seen, 3520 firmware still needs some polishing...

Silverblade 2004-12-30 04:10:14 UTC #5

It's not possible. They have different chips. Take a look at this page:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=11859

"The drive uses a new NEC D6364 chipset series, making it impossible to convert/update the previous ND-3500A models to this new ND-3520A."

pinto2 2004-12-30 04:56:28 UTC #6

I think we can all agree on that. This thread contains a lot of information and there is no need to look any further.

As Dee-27 already posted and warned, we shouldnÂ´t even try to flash 3520 firmware onto a 3500 drive.

But the definitive answer if the 3500 ever can be "upgraded" to specifications similar to the ones of 3520 is still a "unknown future".
I find this post by Liggy very promising...

Liggy 2004-12-30 05:16:20 UTC #7

But don't expect DVD-R DL writing for the 3500. That will probably be impossible to implement for anyone but NEC.

Quikee 2004-12-30 05:19:29 UTC #8

I don't think it's easy to force 3500 to write DVD+RW or DVD-RW at higher speed. However DVD-R9 seems imposible right now.
Off-Topic
I bought myself a Philips 1640 today.. it looks sweet!! :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

pcdoc 2004-12-30 05:35:54 UTC #9

Good point and very often stated.......... From the responses it appears a few folks enjoy answering the same question over and over again..... If you do a search for "Search", you'll find chef's comments to be a frequent response even from CDFreak's mods.

With that said, lordkv, welcome to Freaks.

Regards-

code65536 2004-12-30 07:10:23 UTC #10

Indeed.

Interestng... hadn't seen that post... I would not call that promising at all. When you see the words "new architecture" (I take it that this means a new CPU type and instruction set?) and "different compiler" you know that it really is 100% impossible for all practical intents and purposes.

code65536 2004-12-30 07:17:25 UTC #11

Interestng... hadn't seen that post... I would not call that promising at all. When you see the words "new architecture" and "different compiler" you know that it really is 100% impossible.

pinto2 2004-12-30 07:44:52 UTC #12

Woow, what do I se back from work. This thread is getting some substance.

BTW pcdoc, not all mods anwering with word "search" as you can see. :bigsmile:

lordkv 2004-12-30 09:53:34 UTC #13

I am sorry that I did not read the previous posts and asked the question. I am greatful to all the people who have replied. I recently bought NEC 3500A and just had this query. Like it is posted I guess I have a lot to learn about the forum. Anyway thanks guys your positive criticism will help me in the near future

100_10100 2004-12-30 11:10:37 UTC #14

Really, what does it matter if threads get repeated? I would encourage people to just go ahead and ask if they have a question. By re-asking questions we get more up-to-date info and input from people who might not have been on CD Freaks at the time of the original thread. Obviously, as someone else mentioned, there are plenty of people on this forum that like to answer questions whether they've been asked before or not. If you don't feel like answering, then just ignore the thread instead of using the "search" response. Everyone already knows that that feature exists.

TheDangerousBros 2004-12-30 11:37:17 UTC #15

Well they certainly use a different CPU, but Liggy's point would seem to be that the Write Strategy record tables share similarities. This might be important moving forward as NEC adds new MID codes because they could be back ported to 3500 firmware. Of course the more unique Write Strategy records you have, the more chance you have that one closely matches an unsupported MID. Time will tell.

Back porting the new features of the 3520 to the 3500, while desirable, is improbable.

Brother Vlad