The Firmware Page

2100 @ 2500

A new 2500A 1.06 firmware is now available for a more general release. The work is related to things previously discussed in the following Request Firmware thread. http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=21903

Please review that thread before asking questions that have already been addressed. Do not ask about bit setting or 8X4All, these things may or may not happen, but bugging us about them is sure to annoy us and will be counter productive.

The patch, which combined with the RPC1 and Rip Lock patches, allows the 2100 drive to burn -R/RW media. The 2100 is normally only able to burn +R/RW media.

The download now contains the binary, a DOS flasher and a short README.TXT file. The flashing requires a boot to Real DOS. Your drive will report as a 2500A, so your recording software will need to support that.

http://tdb.rpc1.org/#ND2100A

Brother Vlad

Thank you for creating this firmware. Honestly, all the time and effort that the two of you put into this board and the firmwares is just beyond incredible--and it really is greatly appreciated.

After all the dream of converting 2100 to 2500 becomes a reality! Excellent work of reverse-engineering. Viva the Dangerous Brothers!

I'm a nubie and I want to upgrade the firmware on Dell 8300 of the NEC-2100A.

Basic question...

Do I download the "RPC1 and Rip Lock firmware"
or the "BETA 2100A to 2500A"

I'm looking at this page: http://tdb.rpc1.org/#ND2100A

Thanks for your help.

If you use the "RPC1 and Rip Lock firmware", then you will be making the drive region free and removing the rip speed lock, but you will not be converting the drive to a ND-2500A.

Thanks for the reply.

So does that means I need to do both? First use the "RPC1 and Rip Lock firmware" and then upgrade with the "BETA 2100A to 2500A"?

No, of course not. The nature of firmware is that one is completely overwritten with another whenever you flash a drive.

how do i boot in real DOS mode if i am using windows xp? I don't have a floopy disk drive is there a bootable cdrom ISO?

This is gonna sound like a stupid question but basically this new firmware "changes" your NEC 2100A to a NEC 2500A.

So all apps will see it as beigna NEC 2500A and you'll be able to burn DVD- and DVD+ ???

I know stupid but will clear thing up for me.

Also what speed should we expect when burning or does it depend on the media.

Cheers, Krizto.

Yes, but it is not changed in such a way that you can flash the drive with an unmodified ND-2500A firmware.

OK, just flash them with these "custom" firmware's like the one the Brother's have come out with ???

Any 2500A firmwares we patch from here on out will have the 2100@2500 patch so they will work on a 2100 as well as the 2500. So that means 1.07 or whatever NEC releases next.

Brother Vlad

Sounds good to me. Well I'll install the drive this weekend however what do I need to do in order to perform the firmware upgrade, do you have a link to a site with basic instruction Brother Vlad ???

Many thanks, Krizto.

Please check the README.TXT http://tdb.rpc1.org/#ND2100A

If you need a DOS boot disc XP can format floppies with MS-DOS on them.

Brother Vlad

You guys are beyond awesome.

This rocks! Thank you so much. I am so happy with my new NEC 2500a.

Guys, I have a DELL 8300 WIN XP, but no Flex Disk.

I have a boot CD but because the c drive is NTFS, DOS can not access it (limited to FAT).
How do I start the flasher from DOS, and be able to make a backup of the orginilal FW ??

ALso: how does one find out if the DVD is Prim/Sec and Master/Slave ?

I know the Dell 8200 sets the 2100a DVD drive to chip select mode and I would like to flash the 2100>2500 bios to the drive what is the correct syntax for flashing the drive when it is chip selected rather than set to either master or slave?

Thanks for your help - by the way anyone who needs a bootdisk for dos can download from www.bootdisk.com

The term is cable select, but the drive is still a Master or a Slave.

You'll have to try backing up the current firmware with different options until you find where the drive is located.



Brother Vlad

Hi there. I know this is an old topic, but it hit top of the list at Google, so I hope you can help.

I just bought a Dell with the NEC 2100. Rather [*oops*] off that it wouldnt record -r, I searched a way to flash, and found this page.

VERY useful, with dead easy instructions, so I gave it a go, and from what I could tell, it worked.

However, when I rebooted, XP still considered it a 2100, and my burn software still wouldn't write to my shiny -r disc

Is there any reason this might happen? Any other way of getting it to write -r? Any help appreciated.

If you flashed it correctly it will report as a 2500A. What exactly did to type in to flash the drive? and how did the flasher respond.

Brother Vlad

Well, I formated my USB key to make it bootable and booted into MS-DOS using it, and CD'd to the right directory.

From there I followed the readme to the letter. And it appeared successfull. it ran through about 3 stages, and scrolled up to 100% (I can't remember the names of the stages) and afterwards came up with a Complete message or something along those lines.

It still works absolutely fine with + R. However, still only reports a 2100. Even when I run Nero Drive Info it calls it a 2100. It simply doesn;t make sense :-/

Any further ideas?

I could try it again... I'm just worried about how these flashes will affect the "Region Change" count. Will they decrease each time I flash?

Hmm... I'm confused now.

Thank you!

I own a DELL 8300 and was very frustrated when I found out I could only use DVD+ disks on my NEC 2100. I am by no means a PC guru, but I was able to get it flashed and now can burn to DVD- disks.

I read a lot of questions from people having similar problems as I did. Some of this info is already in this thread and others, but maybe it can help someone.

1. I have XP and no floppy drive. Go to bootdisk.com and create a bootable cdrom. It's pretty easy if you go to the link for "Bart's Way". Make sure that your system bios sees the cdrom to boot from first. Mine didn't and caused me a lot of grief until I figured that out.

2. I have 2 DVD drives and had no idea which one was "-sec -mas" etc etc. I still don't really, but trial and error as was already mentioned. When you flash the correct one it will spit out a bunch of stuff, first erasing and then burning a couple of times. If you just get the prompt back, you didn't do the right one (I ran into this and it still said NEC 2100 and I thought the whole thing was bogus, but tried again, using other options - mine being "-sec -sla" and this time it worked).

Anyway. Thanks again. I'm burning like mad now. If you have a Dell Dimension 8300, and having problems I can try to help based on what I ran into.

seeing as you cant boot into dos with xp, how can i use the firmware.

The Windows flasher should be available to beta test soon.