The Firmware Page

There is some confusion over the NEC ND1000A. I hope this post will help those who are reluctant to flash it.

I have a "Verbatim DVD+ Producer" branded drive which true to form turns out to be identified as a NEC ND1000A, Firmware 1.01. Manufactured in December 2002. The FCC ID of course claims it's an 1100A. Mine is a GNX, so it's genuine.

The drive installed a treat and worked reasonably well, with only one minor hiccup; occasionally Windoze XP would refuse to read DVD+RW written as Video DVD using Nero. Both Windoze and Nero complained there was no disk in the drive. It seemed to be transient and rebooting cured it. The disks were fine in other machines and all other CDs could be read. However I wanted to make the drive RPC1 because I have a bunch of region 1 and region 2 DVDs.

I read all the posts to see if anyone had flashed this drive. I couldn't find any specific results for the 1.01 ND1000A, though several people had dropped queries about it. Seemed no-one was comfortable flashing this particular drive, probably because of conflicting instructions.

I went to http://etna.rpc1.org/nec to find firmware. Here I was confused; my particular drive is not shown and the text refers to two sizes of firmware and two servo versions.

I dumped my firmware using the NEC1100A tool and examined it. I had the 620K firmware (first confusion, according to Etna's page I should have had 484KB for the 1000A). Well, maybe it was a transition model. I then looked at the WRT_str and discovered I had SP5_6 or servo 5. Second confusion - most of the firmware was specific to servo 7, and none of the standard NEC firmware was for servo 5. Hmmm. The Verbatim branding wasn't mentioned and it obviously wasn't one of the other OEM units.

I've flashed lots of drives and this one was still under warranty, so I could always take it back and moan that it stopped working. Being a blonde sometimes has advantages..! Besides, life isn't fun without a risk from time to time... I gritted my teeth and flashed the drive with 1EA07.BIN

Theoretically this should have caused me a problem, since my servo version was 5, not 7. First off I got an error message saying the drive wasn't responding or in a suitable state for the flash. I hit F3 and ran the command again, and it flashed right away.

I rebooted and everything's fine. The drive is now RPC1, it burns perfect DVD+RW, CDRW, CDR and reads everything I can throw at it. I only have 2.4x media, so I don't know if it runs at 4x for DVD+RW yet, but everything else is great. The odd intermittent non-reading problem has vanished too. I'm one very happy person.

So the conclusion is - ND1000A with 1.01 Servo 5 in 620K firmware will flash perfectly with 1EA07 and become RPC1.

Great Job Etna - thanks a million! You can be confident that this firmware/drive combination works just fine.

Sarah

Congrats on the flash mod. I too have an NEC-1000A that came in a Verbatim DVD+ Producer. Based on the FCC ID, I had been speculating that the drive was indeed an NEC-1100A capable of writing at 4X.

Should you have the time, would you be willing to write a guide on this mod? I.e, identification of hardware, detailed flashing procedure.

Many thanks.

I don't know if yours is the same, but the chances are that it is; NEC might well have shipped all Verbatim's drives from the same production run. There again...

First off I looked at the top of the unit. It claims to be Model ND-1000A, made in Malaysia in December 2002. The FCC ID is A3DND-1100A GNX.

I ran CDVDInfo and it reported the firmware as version 1.01

I went to http://etna.rpc1.org/nec and first downloaded the NEC1100A flash program which is at the very top of the page.

I made a boot diskette as detailed on Etna's page - click the link. I copied the flash program to the diskette and rebooted from the floppy.

I ran nec1100a -sec -mas -out original.bin to dump the firmware (all the details are on Etna's page; you might need to change the -sec to -pri and/or -mas to -sla if your drive isn't the secondary master). The original firmware was written to the floppy and I rebooted into Windoze.

I copied original.bin to the hard disk and examined it with UltraEdit32 but any hex viewer will do the business here. I searched for WRT_str as Etna suggests. I had SP5_6 so the servo version is presumably 5.

I then double-checked that original.bin on my HD was the same as on the floppy - probably not necessary but I wanted to be certain that I could reload it if everything went horribly pear-shaped. I used fc /b a:original.bin c:original.bin from a DOS window for this. If you don't understand that bit, don't worry, it's not vital to the flash process.

I deleted original.bin on the floppy because there's not enough space for the old and new firmware. The copy on the HD was safe.

I downloaded 1eA07 from Etna's page (first Drive section, bottom of the _NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A box - RPC1 free) and unzipped it. I copied the nec1ea0.bin file to the floppy and again fc /b checked it to be sure it was correctly written. Paranoia strikes... Really no need to fc /b but I wanted to be 100% comfortable that the file was correct.

Now although this firmware is for Servo Version 7 I decided to risk it with my Version 5 drive... I don't really know if the Servo Version refers to a software or hardware feature, but I couldn't find the information and I had backed up the original firmware after all. If the flash had gone wrong the drive might not have operated but it should still have accepted a reflash since the servo is a mechanical function. That was my rationale here. Like I said, you have to take a risk sometimes.

The machine was rebooted from the floppy and I ran:

nec1100a -sec -mas -flash nec1ea0.bin

First off it whinged that the drive wasn't ready or somesuch error. I just hit F3 and Return to try again, and the flash program ran.

I don't recall the exact text but the flash program reported something like this:

ND-1000A 1.0102112300
Writing to 512K prom
Erasing...
Burn...
.......................................82BA
Writing to 128K prom
Erasing...
Burn...
.......................................7730
Flash successful

I took the floppy out, rebooted, et voila - the drive now reports as an RPC1 ND1100A, firmware 1eA0 and it works beautifully. I use Nero for burning and it's fine.

I can't check if it writes at 4x since I don't have the media, but everything else is great. It burns CDR at 16x and DVD+R, +RW perfectly, I haven't made a single coaster since flashing it. Plus it reads and plays Region 1 and 2 DVDs, and both my Panasonic and Zenith standalone DVD players read the DVD disks I've burned.

As always in this forum I can't promise that the same technique will work with your drive and you flash at your own risk. I've flashed maybe twenty or so DVD drives for myself and friends and never had a failure (except when I was testing some Pioneer beta-code for >Nil, and I recovered that drive without much sweat) so I'm fairly comfortable with the whole process. The information I've just given you is mainly garnered from Etna's page so read that and double-check that I haven't typo'd anything.

Good luck!

Sarah

Wow, that is a very helpful post. Thanks!

hi Sarah

i agree with dhc014 a helpful post indeed
sticky! sticky!

Thanks metrogirl. While I have felt comfortable with MTKflash, I have been leary to experiment with flashing this NEC. If I can find the 4X media, this upgrade seems well worth it.

In the event of a bad flash, can the NEC drives be recovered as easily as those with the Mediatek chipsets?

This servo thing really has me curious. I have searched the FCC website and I can find only one listing for the 1100A. How can there be two servo types and only one FCC number?

Also, there is no listing with the FCC for a 1000A drive. So, are all 1000A really just 1100A?

Questions remain. Sincere thanks for the guide. Does anyone have more information on this servo issue?

I to have that same NEC ND1000A drive. Where do i go to see if my FCC ID matches the 1100A? Taking the drive out now to write down the number.


*UPdate I looked and it says A3DND-1100A GNX. So now what, read above i guess.

Mine now shows up as ND-1100A. I followed the instructs above. I too have no 4X media, apparently not thinking i would need it, or the flash did not upgrade the speed. It doesn't say anywhere on the blanks if they are 2or 4X.

Can I use the other flashes on etnas page like the RPC2 (original)'s for this drive that is now a 1100A? I don't care too much about free region stuff, i live in the US, or am i clueless on the free region stuff.

So far burned regular 2.4X Discs without any problem.

I can also confirm Metrogirl's experience as I have (had) an NEC ND1000A v1.01 GNX drive which is now an ND1100A!

Respect to the Metrogirl!

Were you able to burn at 4X though?

4x Burning is possible. I checked it out with the plextor Firmware.
http://forum.firmware-flash.com/viewtopic.php?t=14135
flashing has become more confortable since then.
I´ve checked nearly all oem firmwares from etnas page. For those who need bitsetting the HP Firmware is recomended.
TheAlchemist

I didn't have time or money today to pick up some 4X media. But it has been over 24 hours since my flash from 1000A to 1100A and i have burned 2 movies and a CDR without problem. ONly at 2.4X and not 4X, yet. Am i now able to use the other flashes for the 1100A drive listed above or should i just stay where i am at?

I have a nec nd- 1000a firmware1.01 bought 2weeks ago
and built in february 2003 in malaysia
fcc id :A3DND - 1100A

I make like sarah and my firmware dump (with util nec1100a.exe from etna) was 620kb and servo 5

So i trie with firmware 1EA07.BIN and success
i don't have error message like sarah

but my problem was to have compatibility settings to read my
dvd+rw on my dvd video player mustek m560

So i trie to flash with firmware 1.25 7 of HP DVDwriter300
that was then success

with nero i can now change book type and my dvd+rw
play well on mustek m560

I have'nt try with 1e01_7 to have rpc1 free because i have
an old dvdrom built rpc1 and i don't need it

i have not dvd r+ 4x media so i do'nt know if it is possible to write it at 4

thanks for etna, sarah and other people with theirs contributions

patrice

What exactly is the book type?

Tested with Ricoh 4 speed DVD+R discs and writes ok at 4 x speed - discs appear to work well.

Hi

For those who don't understand what book type is:

The book type is a compatibility setting that can be changed on the media.

e.g. if you write a DVD+RW you can change the book type to DVD+ROM this enables compatibility with certain hardware and older drives which might have trouble reading the media - this process doesn't always work as you will find some drives out there that still don't read it even after changing the book type.


Hope that helps.

Cecil

So far i have burned 5 Discs "TDK 4X Compatibles" at 4X or 3.9X depending on the program I use. Sonic's MYDVD 4.0 doesn't seem to recognize 4X media, so i switched to Ulead's DVD MovieFactory 2. It burns 4X Fine, DVDX COPY 1.52 burns 4X fine, and Nero 5.5.10.35 Burns 4X Fine. I would say success!!! I didn't hear the writer make any more noise like that of stress, and the CPU usage does not got up more than 1-2%.

Office Depot has a buy one get one free instantly for Verbatim DVD +R.

Two 15 packs for about $33 (total + tax)

Supposedly they're 4x.

They were out when I went to get some and they substituted a 25 pack of 4X Memorex DVD +Rs.

I tried to run NEC1100A to extract the old firmware but it got to abou 75 percent and then failed.

My DVD reports as the _NEC ND1100 but the sticker also says 1100A

Any ideas?

Is yours already a 4X?

No, it's a 2.4X

I read the info again and there are 2 size BIN files. Mine must have the smaller one. The NEC1100A program is probably expecting the larger one.
I bit the bullet and flashed it anyway. It seems to work ok. It reads DVDs.

The only 4x media I have is Memorex but Nero said it failed at 4x. It's burning right now at 2.4x. Seems to be doing ok. I'll probably try another brand media.

FWIW ... my drive shows the 1100 FCC ID but Jan-03 manufacture date.

Just did the reflash to 1eA07 as listed above, except working without a net as it were.

The machine has no floppy so I made a bootable CD with the EXE and BIN files on it, rebooted, and did the commandline to reflash without dumping/checking (cant do it to a CDRW eh?) ...

Worked like a charm no errors/probs/anything.

Dunno if I'll play with the bit-settings by reflashing or not...

Well, I flashed it, and now I get an error whenever I burn at 4x. With 321 studios express copy, my DVD player won't read the discs....... with ULEAD, it claims there is a finalization error right as it is finishing writing the disc. Any suggestions? I can't find the old firmware either, so I really don't want to have to buy a new drive......... either that, or I can just buy 2.4x cd's from now on and not have a problem