I recently flashed my NEC 3500AG with the TDK 2C8 Firmware. Subsequent to the flash, I did not oberserve any significant performance improvement. However, the flash did spawn several annoying issues that I have not be able to find a solution to:

1. Windows takes noticably longer to start-up (added about 30 seconds to my boot time)
2. Inserting a CD/DVD will often cause Windows to "lock-up" where I can still move the mouse, but explorer will not respond to commands (menu/icon clicks, etc)
3. DVD burning is not any faster - it took upwards of 30 minutes to burn a 4GB DVD with Nero on Premium DVD-R Media (Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-R)

System Specs:
Abit IC7-Max3 Motherboard
Intel P4 3.0c (Northwood) (Often @ 3.75GHz, but not now)
1GB OCZ PC-4200 DDR
NEC 3500AG
2x36GB WD Raptors in RAID-0
250GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10
160GB Hitachi SATA
ATI Radeon X800 XT PE


I have also tried taking the 3500AG to DMA from PIO to increase performance, but have not be able to do so sucessfully - I have to set the 3500 to slave, which then allows me to change it to DMA, but Nero instantly crashes when in DMA mode.

Any suggestions would be awesome. There is a very good chance that I may have missed a step in the "flashing" process, so thanks for your help and patience.

The slow performance is down to your drive being in PIO mode, I suggest you uninstall your IDE channels from device manager and any third party IDE controlers and then reboot the system for it to find & set up the IDE correctly. Make sure you are using an 80wire IDE cable to assist the DMA MODE which should be Ultra DMA Mode 2 for the 3500.
Uninstall Nero and any other burning apps and just reinstall the aplicatiuon you need

(in reply to falltime)

I don't think the problem here is the used firmware, you can always try to use the latest 2.19, checking the DMA status is another idea

(in reply to Flash)

I know I have a 80-wire cable. I just reinstalled Windows XP Pro (SP2) to try and resolve the issue. No success. I've uninstalled both IDE channels numerous times and on the first boot after the uninstall I do get "Multi-word UDMA 2", but the second I reboot again it reverts back to PIO. AHHHHH.

(in reply to emperor)

Ok, it's a bad drive . I swapped it with a 2500a, and it defaulted to UDMA 2 no problem. Whats the deal on the warranty for these drives?

(in reply to falltime)

Return the drive and ask for a replacement

(in reply to falltime)

Having nearly the same problem with　my　3500．　Flashed with 2.19 on WinXP SP2 with 74G raptor and as the PC is booting up Windows screen comes up and starts loading the icons in the lower right hand corner and then the PC shuts down and trys to boot again. Is the drive defective or do I need a different cable? Any suggestions would be appreciated。

(in reply to emperor)

2.19 caused major problems in me. Power calibration errors in cd writing, major faults in DVD writing, DVD writing takes longer to complete that with 2.18, sometimes weird sounds in lead in). Is it possible to downgrade to 2.18 without losing my warranty? What should i do? return the drive?

(in reply to seenbuddy)

i went back to official 2.18 and i get Power Calibration Error all the time. Should i sent the damn thing back? pls help

(in reply to alfa 156)

Alfa do you have problems in both reading/writing?

(in reply to alfa 156)

no, not reading. Mostly writing

(in reply to emperor)

strange, stick with 2.18 unless something new comes out

(in reply to alfa 156)

i sent the damn thing away, i bought a plextor.
To all you guys in the NEC forum and to emperor a big thanx, you have been all great and informative a LOT, i'm gonna be moving to the plextor forum.

Thank you all, keep up the good work.

(in reply to emperor)

(in reply to alfa 156)