At this thread you can find NEC ND-6500A firmware binaries and related information.

TERMS OF USE

1) Posting questions/commends about CD/DVD media, write errors, software problems, etc will be deleted without any notice!
2) Before use any of the attached binaries, please BACKUP your current firmware and compare it with the posted below files. If you have something different please let us know!
3) Any use of the attached binaries is done AT YOUR OWN RISK!
4) I have read the following questions and understood competly the above terms of use!

Readme 1st

Q: What is NEC 6500A?
A: NEC 6500A is a 1/2" Height slim-line drive that supports 8X DVD+/-R and 2.4X DL writing speeds. It can be found pre-installed at several laptops but also sold seperatly at stores.

Q: With which utilities can I flash/extract the firmware from my NEC ND-6500A drives?
A: BinFlash supports flash/extract for ND-6500A drives

Q: How can I upgrade by NEC ND-6450A to ND-6500A?
A: The process is quite easy, please visit this thread!

Q: Where can I find NECDump?
A: Please visit this page and check at the bottom (signature)!

Q: Where can I find region free firmware for my 6500A drive?
A: Please visit TDB

Q: Will I loose my warranty if I decide to use any of the hosted firmwares?
A: As long as the drive's ID remain the same (ND-6500A), there isn't any problem with your warranty. If you mislfash, or after the flash, your drive is not working propearly or at all, then you have problem, since even with the NEC's official updaters, such problems are not covered from warranty, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Q: I have RitekG05 (or any other media) and I would like to know how i can burn them at 8X, which firmware will do the job?
A: Usually NEC is very strict supporting Ritek or many other media at the maximum available recording speed (at our case 8X), so its suggested to use NEC Dump and see if the media you want to use (or buy) is supported at the desired (8X) speed. Till today there aren't any modified firmwares for the 6500 drives...so stick with the official releases!

Q: My drive has 2.24 firmware but i can see below, 2.57 is this firmware better/newer? What is going on?
A: Don't panic, your firmware and 2.57 are both official firmware. Some drives are shipped from NEC with different firmware revisions (such as 2.57, 2.40), for different customers (laptop makers). All posted firmwares below are either extracted from physical drives or ripped out of NEC official windows flasher.

Q: Hey just found you looking around google, and my drive has different firmware revision or unknown firmware, what should I do?
A: First of all welcome aboard! Please use Binflash and extract/backup your firmware before using any other firmware. Compare your firmware with NEC Dump and if something is differnet (newer/older), sent us a private message....

Q: Hey!!! I had posted a question and cannot find it, why you deleted it?
A: Please read the terms of use and avoid posting questions NOT related with 6500 firmware subjects. Asking which media will work fine with your burner is so typical, use NECDump to see which media are supported at 6X/8X and use them! If you still think that your post shouldn't posted, private message us and we will see

NEC ND-6500A (only for 2.xx firmware revisions, 4.xx users please read below!)

NEC silent updates the stock firmware for the 6500 drives, meaning the posted below firmware, even have the same revision as yours (2.24) are newer or older, its advised to keep a backup before updating.

By using NEC Dump you can also compare the firmwares and see which one has the latest and most recent writing strategies and of course supported CD/DVD media.

Officially Released Firmware Binaries (Supports only DVD+R DL DVD-ROM Bitsetting) (Attached below )
* 222.bin (contains various dated files)
* 240.bin
* 257.bin
* 281.bin
* 223.bin
* 224.bin (contains various dated files)
* 2N0.bin (looks slight newer than 2.24, haven't tested if supports bitsetting)

Firmware Binaries Supporting Bitsetting (+R/+R DL)(Attached below )
* 202c.bin (contains various dated files)
* 203d.bin

You can find modified firmware (for example 2.24 with bitsetting at this page)

(in reply to emperor)

NEC ND-6500A (Only for 4.xx Firmware Revisions)

Many ND-6500A drives come with 4.xx firmware installed. All those drives have REVERSED ATA and all the 2.xx firmwares WON"T WORK! In order to convert a 4.xx to 2.xx you need to hardware mod your drive!

Special Package

* 6500Boot.zip (Needed to flash 6500 drives to reversed-ATA, needed with specific laptops)

Released Firmwares
* 460.bin (rather old firmware, contains two different dated files)
* 424.bin (the latest firmware as released from NEC)

(in reply to emperor)

NEC ND-6450A

Some new laptops include a renamed version of ND-6500A called ND-6450A. Both drives are identical, but NEC for OEM customer purposes, names those drives as 6450A instead of 6500A. Below you can find extracted firmwares as provided from other users. Keep in mind that you can convert your ND-6450A to ND-6500A, by visiting this page.

- Officially Released Firmware Binaries (Supports only DVD+R DL DVD-ROM Bitsetting) (Attached below)
* 236.bin (contains various dated files)

26/10/2004 Updated

- Added 2.23 bin

(in reply to emperor)

hi ,

I installed the 2.23 bin !! Everything works great. I have no DL media to burn but I guess it will work properly.
One question emperor....... As 2.23 is official firmware why I cannot find it in nec.de , nec.com etc ? I was curius about this .

Thanks !!!!!! ~~~~

(in reply to emperor)

Hi, i just got my 6500A drive on my dell 8600, i have no idea what firmware it's using, but i was wondering if 6500A can actually have the option of bitsetting for DVD+R5? I see that the new firmware offers bitsetting for DVD+R9, but not R5. Is that correct? The weird thing is that i just burned a DVD+R, and i used dvdinfopro to check the disc, and it says the booktype is actually DVD-ROM.....So 6500A automatically convert DVD+R to DVD-ROM??? i'm so confused. I read from somewhere that 6500A can't booktype DVD+R5, but how did i get DVD-ROM under my book type?

(in reply to emperor)

quote:

ORIGINAL: lefos72
One question emperor....... As 2.23 is official firmware why I cannot find it in nec.de , nec.com etc ? I was curius about this .

Well we have a good friend that sends them over, nec official website updates are rather slow...

(in reply to lefos72)

quote:

ORIGINAL: pullmyfinger
Hi, i just got my 6500A drive on my dell 8600, i have no idea what firmware it's using, but i was wondering if 6500A can actually have the option of bitsetting for DVD+R5? I see that the new firmware offers bitsetting for DVD+R9, but not R5. Is that correct? The weird thing is that i just burned a DVD+R, and i used dvdinfopro to check the disc, and it says the booktype is actually DVD-ROM.....So 6500A automatically convert DVD+R to DVD-ROM??? i'm so confused. I read from somewhere that 6500A can't booktype DVD+R5, but how did i get DVD-ROM under my book type?

Hi, i haven't used yet the 6500, which firmware are you used to burn the DVD+R media?

(in reply to pullmyfinger)

quote:

ORIGINAL: emperor
Hi, i haven't used yet the 6500, which firmware are you used to burn the DVD+R media?

I'm using firmware 202C which came with my dell 8600. So to repeat my question, does this mean my 6500A automatically booktype my dvd+R for me if my dvd+R disc appears to be dvd-rom under dvdinfopro? And in that case, why do i keep reading peopel saying that 6500A is not able to bitset dvd+R5? I'm very confused

(in reply to emperor)

Hello,

i am trying to upgrade a Gericom Webshox Per4mance (Bios 1.23) with a ND6500.
The Standardversion (GEN) was detected as master by the bios, but winxppro hangs while the "Knightrider"-light is on the bootupscreen.
If i disable DMA winxp boots up, but the perfonce is to low.

I have reflashed the ND6500 to Reverse-ATA mode.
The Bios detects now the Drive as Slave, but the WinXP behaviour is the same.

I did also a clean install of WinXPpro without a Servicepack, with sp1 and also with sp2, but all the same.

A bios-update for the notebook is not available.

The NEC-hotline told me about 3 different Firmware-Versions for the ND6500
CS (Master) (delivery)
Reverse-ATA (Slave) (6500BOOT/6500Main) and
Fix Slave (????).

Fix master is not possible.

But the guy told me not, HOW can i flash the Fix-Slave-Version.
He told me, go to your distributor. He knows how it works.
But my distributor doesn't know how he has to flash it.
He knows only one version of 6500BOOT and 6500MAIN and this flashes reverse-atas.
He is not able to put in any parameters to change anything.

Is it really possible to flash FIX-Slave ?
How ?
And how can i reflash it to GEN-Version?

Greetings

Hardy

(in reply to pullmyfinger)

quote:

ORIGINAL: pullmyfinger
I'm using firmware 202C which came with my dell 8600. So to repeat my question, does this mean my 6500A automatically booktype my dvd+R for me if my dvd+R disc appears to be dvd-rom under dvdinfopro? And in that case, why do i keep reading peopel saying that 6500A is not able to bitset dvd+R5? I'm very confused

I see, your drive is recognized as 6500A or ? Can you backup that firmware and send it over? Its quite possible that your firmware auto-bitsets DVD+R to DVD-ROM

(in reply to pullmyfinger)

Hi sorry i was gone for a couple of days. Moderator, how do i backup firmware? since i never had to download anything. And yes, it does recognize my drive as 6500A, is that not normal? When i bought it from dell it was supposed to be 8X Double Layer DVD+-RW drive....

Anyways, when i checked under nero the options for my drive, there is an option that says "write in DVD high compatibility mode (at least 1 GB will be written)" so i guess this is the setting that's enabling me to booktype my DVD+R. You think that's correct? Thanks

(in reply to emperor)

pullmyfinger, just usin Binflash (http://binflash.cdfreaks.com) and use the dump function, then email me to further supply us the firmware

(in reply to pullmyfinger)

Hello,

i have you send a pm, on my siemens notebook i have fw 2.40 (NEC6500) and i have the bin file. how can i send you the fw to compare with the others.

hagncola

(in reply to emperor)

(in reply to hagncola)