Are you positive you have a NEC 3530A?  Is it in a Dell computer?  If so, you could try the flash utility and firmware available from Dell's website.

(in reply to umarkhn)

@RIOT:- Thank you so, so much for your post about how to use the binaries to update firmware. I'd just bought a box of Maxell DVD-R, and my drive wouldn't read any of them, it gave the "Illegal Disc" message for each one. So after almost 9 non-stop hours of searching (I don't give up easily), and frustation, I stumbled across your post, did what you said, flashed to vr 3.01 and now I have a box of usable discs, instead of expensive paperweights.

I just registered to say thanks again, you've probably saved me a wedge of cash in the long run :)

Oh and btw, firmwhare is made by tree dwelling gnomes, I've seen them in the mountains near Trondheim..

Thanks man :)

(in reply to umarkhn)

Glad I could help!

(in reply to DrewBledsoe)

Hi. I've got a NEC DVD RW ND-3530A. It was working fine until I bought a spindel of Philips 16x DVD-R.
I use Nero 7 and every time I try to burn any of them, it shows the "illegal disc" message.
As far as I know the reason might be the firmware version I'm using. Well, I downloaded firmware 3.01 from http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/NEC-ND-3530A/ and flashed it. But nothing changed.
Then I tried firmware 3.23 from the same site. My poor NEC started making some strange noises, so straight away I went back to the initial version 3.01.
Just tried firmware 104C. Doesn't work either...
I don't wanna take any more chances, until I'm sure it's gonna work.
So what would you suggest?
Would I have the same problem with any 16x media (although I've used TDK 16x DVD-R)?

(in reply to riot)

quote:

So what would you suggest?

Philips media is not good.  Try Verbatim.

(in reply to the_dude_10000)

It sounds like bad media to me.

(in reply to the_dude_10000)

It seems that table answers my question. Obviously I should have bought Philips DVD+R instead, Philips DVD-R media isn't mentioned at all here.
Nevermind, just ordered some TDK discs. These definitely work well for me.
Thank you very much, guys.

(in reply to riot)

Hi there,

Have had exactly the same problem with the dreaded 3.23 firmware:

By reverting the the original BIOS (either by getting into it and "Load Default" or by doing a more hard and risky reset of removing the motherboard battery and waiting for it to reset) the drive will at least be accessible. From there I was able to flash back to a more stable firmware!

Cheers,

mm

(in reply to umarkhn)

I am experiencing the same issues as Riot and meedermow. I tried to flash my NEC 3530 (from Dell) with firmware 3.23 and now my drive is not recognised anymore (even in my BIOS). Because of this I cannot reinstall the old firmware to the drive. I did both a hard and soft reset of my BIOS but without effect.

What to do??? Any help would be very much appreciated!

Eisselstijn

(in reply to meedermow)