Hi all,

I am using a Dell Latitude D800 laptop. It came with a NEC DVD-RW ND-6100A drive which I flashed to become a NEC DVD+-RW ND-6500A so it now has + and - support. Then I upgraded the firmware from 2.22 to 2.24. The problem is I cannot view any DVDs. The DVD in question is region 0, and I have Regionkiller so it should not matter anyway - this shouldn't be a region issue. When I attempt to play the disk, all I see is a black screen, no audio, nothing. If I scroll forward the computer gets a system error and I am forced to restart. The DVD works on my DVD player connected to the TV.

Screenshot:

Please post topics related only to the Firmware releases and not various 6500 problems, use the main NEC forum instead!

2.N0 seems to have the same writing strategies as 2.24 but its newer dated so its OK to use, i don't know if supports bitsetting however...

(in reply to ptan54)

Sorry, I will post in the correct place.

(in reply to emperor)

It does NOT support bit setting Emperor, I'll stick with the 2.24 for now with bitsetting and riplock removed, it seems to have excellent writing qualities, both on single, and Dual layer.... doesn't rival my Plextor, but it's still very very good!

(in reply to ptan54)

hi,

first of all: I'm new to this forum so hello to everybody

Now to important part:
I would like to buy DVD+/-R DL recorder and every signs on earth and heaven tell me that NEC ND-6500A will be a good choise. However I am not quite sure if this burner will be working in my laptop without any problems - that's why I'm writing here to this forum.
I've read every single post in this thread and didn't find straigth answer because noone from you, who posted in this thread, has Acer TravelMate 290 series laptop (or at least noone admited that ). I have this laptop (exactly it is 291lci) with Toshiba SD6112 (DVD-R x2, DVD-RW x1 no +R(W) ), so I decided to change this optical drive to something faster and maching more media.
Does anyone knows if this NEC will work under my TravelMate ? (I mean that I plug-in the drive and BIOS recognizes it as UDMA-2 and so on) - from what I read here it looks like many laptops have huge problems with that drive.
Maybe you have experience what exactly model should I buy ... or something ?
My operating system sees Toshiba as Secondary Master UDMA-2 without any problems (hmm at least Linux sees it that way ... Windows tells that it's Primary Master however after closer look in Device Manager it stands as Secondary Master).
This laptop has MediaBay (it's extremly easy to hot-swappaded load out and load in the drive from this bay).

Hmm ... I think that I wrote all what is important... hope that somebody could help and give accurate answer.
Or maybe other DVD recorder ? ... is there anything better with this quality and ... price ?

thanx

(in reply to MP3Mogul)

marcyn, a good idea would be to email Acer or ask their technical support about this. Probably NEC 6500A will work just fine, the problem however would be it would need to work at normal or Reversed ATA mode.

(in reply to marcyn)

emperor, thank you for answer.
If this could be the only problem ... there is no problem at all (2.xx Vs. 4.xx bioses) right ?

BTW I'm wondering ... if my Toshiba works as Secondary Master (the only drive connected to Secondary Channel), wouldn't it be quite possible that NEC will be detected as Master either ?

I saw Acer TravelMate 291lci with NEC ND-6500A - but don't know if this drive was there orginally or owner bought this drive and repleaced the previous one

The only thing I'm concerned about is if there could be any unexpected difficulties (besides ReverseATA which should be no problem .. right ?).

thanx

(in reply to emperor)

i cannot give you an answer, since i don't have your laptop to test this, maybe other members can give some more ideas, but i believe all will work OK

(in reply to marcyn)

emperor, thank you for answer and I understand that you can't give me straight answer like: it will be ok for 100% ... or it won't work for 100% :)
That's why I send an email with this question to Acer, as you suggested before.
I hope that it will work OK. Let's hope that your believes and my hope will be possitive ;)
When (if) I'll get an answer from Acer Support Tech. I will post here what they replayed, maybe it will help other users of Acer notebooks.

BTW why nobody of you has Acer notebook .. huh ? :)

best
marcyn

(in reply to emperor)

Nope, HP Notebook here.

(in reply to marcyn)

All.. I jsut got a new laptop Inspiron XPS with the ND-6500A drive installed. I am trying to read a Dual Disc and it cannot. Is there a upgrade that I can install?

Thanks for any help!

(in reply to emperor)

hi,
I've promised that I'll post an answer from Acer ... if I'll get it.
Here it is:

***

Thank you for contacting Acer America. Acer tests the drives that ship with
the notebook only. Therefore we have no information on whether the drives
you mention will function in the notebook. There is no mention of this
notebook supporting reverse ATA. If you need a cd or dvd burner we suggest
purchasing an external drive that connects via USB. I'm sorry I am unable
to assist with this issue.

***

so .... I still know nothing ;)
but I'll try and buy this optic drive ... we'll see if it works OK.

--
best
marcyn

(in reply to hoffm11)

quote:

There is no mention of this
notebook supporting reverse ATA.

So there "IS" your answer it does not support REVERSE ATA, which means it is regular ATA and the drive should work fine as long as you don't buy the reverse ATA drive.

(in reply to marcyn)

MP3Mogul,
heh this answer was given for my question if this notebook require reverseATA ... so it may be "it does not" or "I don't know if it does (I didn't find that info)" :P - or at least I understand that this answer :)

However I truely hope and I'd say AM SURE that this laptop will recognize NEC ND-6500 as Secondary Master.
I have an option to check it before buying - today I menaged that "promise" from seller :)

I will inform you how it went ... as soon as I'll get this drive (maybe in 2-3 days from now).

--
sincerly
marcyn

(in reply to MP3Mogul)

Yes, please let us know.

The way I read that reply was that it "DIDN"T" support reverse ATA, so it was a normal connection.

(in reply to marcyn)

I bought Pioner DVR-109 ... because I couldn't find NEC ND-6500 with guarantee (I found only without it... it was too risky) - so ... I didn't buy even a slimline DVD burner (if buy slim ... I want only NEC ND-6500) :)
so .. case is closed for me

thanx and bye

(in reply to MP3Mogul)