I am running a Ricoh MP7040S on a Tekram DC390 SCSI adapter. Following an upgrade of the Ricoh's Firmware, I got the following infamous message.

Fail to update.

*** NG ** NG ** NG ***

Turn OFF PC and Reboot it.

I tried every possible Firmware version but none of them would load correctly thereafter, even the original backup I did :(
Also the CD Recorder would announce itself as a "Program Loader 51.05 CDROM" instead of a "RICOH CD-R/RW MP7040S"
I was about to give up and trash the recorder when I figured it out !!

To actually flash it I had to disable the BIOS of the Tekram DC390 SCSI Adapter (Jumper on the SCSI adapter)! I was even able to upgrade to code MP7060S with Firmware 1.80 :) as described here :

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_modifications_ricoh_7060.shtml

Hope this helps
Cheers,
__
Eric