At this thread you can find NEC ND-3520A 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 3520A?
A: NEC enters the high DVD re-writable race with 3520A, since supports 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW among with DVD-R DL writing features

Q: Can I transform my 3500A to a 3520A?
A: Definatly not, the 3520A uses different hardware than 3500A, don't try it!

Q: What are the main differences between 3500A and 3520A?
A: First of all, the two drives have different hardware and different specs:

NEC 3500A: 4X DVD+RW, 4X DVD-RW
NEC 3520A: 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW

NEC 3500A: No DVD-R DL
NEC 3520A: 2X/4X DVD-R DL (Expected to come with firmware upgrade around March of 2005)

Q: Where can I find region free firmware for my 3520A 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-3520A), 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 16X), so its suggested to use NEC Dump and see if the media you want to use (or buy) is supported at the desired (16X) speed. There are several modified firmware for the 3520A users, but are not suggested to use, unless from experienced users.

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 3520 firmware subjects. Asking which media will work fine with your burner is so typical, use NECDump to see which media are supported at 12X/16X and use them! If you still think that your post shouldn't posted, private message us and we will see

B) Utilities
Q: With which utilities can I flash/extract the firmware from my NEC ND-3520A (and OEM) drives?
A: BinFlash supports 3520 flash/extract functions, it can be used to use any of the following firmware binaries!

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

NEC ND-3520A (only for 1.xx firmware revisions)

Firmware binaries supporting only DVD+R DL DVD-ROM Bitsetting
* 104.bin (contains various dated files)

Firmware binaries supporting autobitsetting DVD-ROM
* 124.bin
* 125.bin
* 126.bin

Patched versions of official firmware (RPC1+Riplock) can be found over the TDB

(in reply to emperor)

NEC ND-3520AW (only for 3.xx firmware revisions)

All ND-3520A users can use the 3.xx builds since supports the long awaited DVD-R DL burning feature!

Firmware binaries supporting only DVD+R DL DVD-ROM Bitsetting
* 302.bin
* 303.bin
* 304.bin (Suppports PI/PIF and DVD-RL burning)

Firmware binaries supporting autobitsetting DVD-ROM
* 322.bin

MadDog 16XDVD9A2 (ND-3520A OEM)

Firmware binaries supporting bitsetting
* 1F1.bin
* 1F3.bin

(in reply to emperor)

Memorex DVD16+-DL4RWnD2

Firmware binaries supporting bitsetting(?)
* 1A3.bin

how do u do bitsetting?

(in reply to emperor)

CDSpeed, DVDInfoPro

(in reply to coolest35)

I know this will sound lame, so bear with me. I just got my 3520a, and im new into this whole bytesetting thing. I know people switch DL to dvd-rom so standalone dvd players can play those discs, but why would I want to change anything but DL, that is already supported on my current firmware, 1.04? Whats the catch? ;) (dont mind just posting a link to a guide or a post, I ready to read up whatever I have to).
Thanks.

(in reply to emperor)

with your 1.04 you cannot bitset DVD+/+RW media, just the 1.25 firmware, it will autobitset them to DVD-ROM!

(in reply to Subbie)

I have looked at several versions of firmware using NEC Dump 1.1 and noticed that some have duplicate media ID's but with different max burn speeds?? Looks like the first entry is used -- can I force the drive to use the second ?? If not, how do I delete the extra entry ??

(in reply to emperor)

hi, i'm new to all this firmware flashing stuff...

just wondering, does anybody use sound forge 7.0? or acid pro 5.0? neither of these sony products will detect my ND3520A (OEM) drive when i want to use the 'extract audio from CD' option.. i've tried reinstalling the applications, and also applied the latest 1.25 firmware over the 1.04 it came with, and looked out for any random options that i might have needed to enable, but still no luck! other than that the drive works fine with everything else, just not the main thing i want to do with it!

(in reply to hcj)

you cannot...until NecDump allows it

(in reply to hcj)

quote:

ORIGINAL: emperor

you cannot...until NecDump allows it

ok... whats necdump?

(in reply to emperor)

hcj: Which duplicate MIDs do you want to delete or force ?

(in reply to hcj)

In NEC3520_125 bin the entries OPTODISK001 @ 1x and then the OPTODISK001 @ 1x, 2x.

I would like to delete the first entry.

(in reply to Quikee)

Well I looked into the firmware... but this 2 OPTODISK001 exactly the same... One ends with 0x20 the other with 0x21. I think this is something like rev. 0 and rev. 1 of the discs. If you would delete one the default strategy would be used... making it even worse than before. =)

(in reply to hcj)