Problems with my nd-3550A

flowens 2006-05-07 08:09:50 UTC #1

hi all

I am new to this forum, I stumbled here via google and hopefully you will be able to help me. I am new to all the terms here so please explain so I can understand what to do.

My newlybought, nec nd-3550a version 1.5 , drive is acting strange. When I first bought it I burned a normal cd with it and it worked. But when I tried to burn a dvd, the drive recognises the disc as a cd with 0 bytes free space. And I cant burn. The disc was a Fujifilm dvd+R 8x. I used both nero and alcohol 120%. So I went and bought a new disc a TDK DVD-RW 4X Singlesided. But the same happened with it. I tried reinstalling windows, because I thought that maybe it was software related.

After the reinstallation I can now write the TDK disc, but still not the Fujifilm. I flashed the drive to 1.6 in hope that it would solve my problems, but it got worse and now I cant read or write both the discs. I have another dvd drive which can read the discs.
Please help me.

Dee 2006-05-07 10:02:33 UTC #2

Welcome to the forum.
Checklist
Make sure UDMA mode is enabled for the drive in Windows device manager and in your system BIOS.
Make sure you have an 80 conductor IDE cable to connect the ND-3550.
Remove any packet writing software, such as InCD. You may also try uninstalling Alcohol.

Can the drive read a pressed DVD Video?

You may also like to read our NEC FAQ for more info.

flowens 2006-05-07 11:33:24 UTC #3

thanks for the welcome.

Can you explain what UDMA mode is, and how to enable it in device manager and BIOS.

I do have a normal ide conductor

Right now after the reinstallation of windows, I have no other related software installed besides nero 6

And the driver can read other dvds aslong as they are not empty.

I have read through the faq, but couldnt find anything to help me.

thanks for the help so long

flowens 2006-05-07 11:42:06 UTC #4

sorry for doubleposting

chef 2006-05-07 12:42:11 UTC #5

http://www.real-knowledge.com/dma.htm

flowens 2006-05-07 13:19:15 UTC #6

ok, I have it connedctd with a ide conductore cable, and I already had umdaa mode avtivated on both primaery and seconday. But for the bios I dont know how to do it.
Still no good. :sad:
thanks so far

chef 2006-05-07 13:53:02 UTC #7

In the BIOS, there would be a subsection where you can set prefs for the IDE channels/controller.

flowens 2006-05-08 10:41:19 UTC #8

hi again,

I did enable the udma in bios, but it didnt fix anything.

richwillal 2006-05-08 20:38:45 UTC #9

You're not the only one...

I have one that will write but not read. I'm verifying now with Nero CD-DVD Speed, but so far it registers 99.9% bad sectors on ScanDisc. This is a new pressed DVD. I have no issues with the 3540A in the same box. Anyone see this before?

flowens 2006-05-09 11:01:08 UTC #10

yay breakthrough

I found out that if I use nero and ignore the problem, that it reads cds as empty dvds, I can burn it anyway and it works.
So I can burn discs with nero and they work. but I still get the info that they have 0bytes free space. Strange.

Thanks anyway for all the trouble.

TimC 2006-05-09 11:06:42 UTC #11

If you're getting that 0 free bytes from Explorer or My Computer & properties then just ignore it. It'll always do that with blank discs. Hopefully I've understood what you meant.
Also ignore the fact that Explorer will see it as a CD Drive. Again it always does that.