Major problem with my NEC 1100A, can't burn at 4x anymore!

[dvdsrkewl]

Hey everyone,

I recently picked up a pack of Memorex 4x DVD+R discs for my NEC 1100A drive. This combination used to burn at 4x all the time with no problem. Unfortunately now it only burns at 2.4x!

I recently installed Nvidia's new Nforce2 drivers for my Asus A7n8X motherboard because I was having network problems, could this be the cause?

I used Windows XP System Restore and set it to a point before I installed the drivers to no avail, Nero is still reporting 2.4x is my maximum burn speed.

Help!

[jtommyj]

Be sure UDMA is enabled in the IDE channel the burner is on. I haven't had alot of lick with the Nvidia drivers on my Abit NF7-S so I rolled back the IDE driver to the Microsoft driver and it worked fine.


If you do a search there are a few posts with directions on how to roll back and re-install the ide channel driver. Try IDE.

Tom

[GangstaMo]

Well ,i hav been that NEC baby for the longest while,no problem,but it
only burns at 2.4x, i think Dell site hav an update to burn at 4x..

u can try that,if nothing else work..

[dvdsrkewl]

I tried to System Restore to no avail. Is ther anyway to manually install the drivers?

Edit: Roll back the drivers works, but it still doesn't allow me to get back to 4x write speed! I'm actually pretty computer literate but I can't figure out how to restore 4x speed, or if it's definitely the mobo drivers or not, can anybody help?

[-jsl-]

What firmware does your drive have?

[GKar]

Assuming that your drive is an 1100a (4x) and not a 1000a (2.4x), you might want to download DVDinfopro and see if you got a batch of CMC disks instead of Ricoh's. CMC's I've used sometimes did burn at 2.4x.

[dvdsrkewl]

I think you nailed it man. I downloaded DVDINFOPro and under the media descriptor tab it says Media ID 2.4 (3300), when I pop in some other discs it pops up as 4x.

Assuming I'm doing it right, I think this is the problem!

PS - How crummy that they're labelled 4x and have 2.4x max, is there anyway to change this?

[-jsl-]

Update the firmware.

[dvdsrkewl]

Updating the NEC 1100a's firmware will allow 2.4x discs to burn at 4x?

My drive is already capable of burning at 4x, I don't see what updating the firmware will do. You might be right, but I'd like verification from someone else that this works as updating a firmware can sometimes cause more problems that leaving it alone.

Clarification please

[-jsl-]

What is your current firmware version?
What is the manufacturer id/media code of the discs?

I think your running an old firmware in your drive that doesn't have the media code of your discs implemented and your drive will then use a generic write strategy and NEC drives also default to the lowest speed available for the format (ie 2.4x for DVD+R/RW). The available write descriptor will hence show up as only 2.4x in DVDinfo or any burning software even if the discs really are 4x or 8x.

[Machine514]

I have the same drive and ran into the same problem and I just updated the firmware and it worked like a champ.

I have it if you need it.

-Machine

[GKar]

I think you nailed it man. I downloaded DVDINFOPro and under the media descriptor tab it says Media ID 2.4 (3300), when I pop in some other discs it pops up as 4x.

Assuming I'm doing it right, I think this is the problem!

PS - How crummy that they're labelled 4x and have 2.4x max, is there anyway to change this?

Go here to update your firmware, make sure you download the correct one for your drive. It may or may not help, be careful you can screw up your drive.

http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php

[dvdsrkewl]

I just upgraded my firmware to 1.90 from (I think) 10FD.

I still get a 2.4x burn speed from the Memorex 4x disc in DVDInfoPro. Did Memorex screw up or are there more things I can try?

[GKar]

Have you tried the latest, 1.A3? If your drive on the device tree is _NEC ND-1100A:

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=301

[dvdsrkewl]

Tried your suggestion; turns out the firmware 1.A0 - A3 won't work with my drive. It says device not found when I try to run the program and doesn't allow me to click "Flash"

[-jsl-]

You can extract the last 634*888 bytes from the firmware update .exe file, save it as .bin and flash with TDB's DOS flasher.

If flashing in DOS sounds too complicated you can flash with the 1.91 version here. It's older with worse media support but your Memorex discs are probably CMC MAG.F01 and it's included in the firmware and should work @4x.

The 1.A* versions burn DVD+R with DVD-ROM book type though which gives a higher compatibility than the DVD+R book type the 1.9* versions use.

[dvdsrkewl]

Upgraded again to 1.91 from 1.90 and it worked, they're now displaying as 4x discs!! Thanks to all those who helped me!

I'm still interested in getting better media support with the 1.A* firmware. Not sure how it's possible to extract the .bin from the exe. file but I'm curious. I'm from the DOS era so I'm not scared, but I don't think I have MS-DOS anymore so I'd need to know what's a good, free alternative to it.

[-jsl-]

You can use a hex editor and delete everything from the start of the exe file to 905ffH pos (so that the file starts with h1A3 in ASCII) and save the file as .bin.
Or you can simply just download it in bin format here

Then download TDB's ND-1100A DOS flasher here. Put the files on a floppy and reboot with a DOS boot disk (if you don't have one you can download the necessary files here).

To flash you write:
NEC1100A -sec -mas -flash NEC11_1A3.bin
if your drive is on secondary master. If it's primary you write -pri instead of -sec and if it's slave you write -sla instead of -mas.

[GKar]

You can go here to download the flashtool from top of page and choose a firmware, try rpc2 (original) 1.a17 (1.32), it was tested, unless you want to try a region free one...it will keep you from needing to use a hex editor. Use the one from the _NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A catagory. Bottom of page shows dos command line instructions.

http://etna.rpc1.org/nec/index.html

[Bdim]

for anyone interested, i just overclocked my hp 300n drive (an nec 1100a) to 1300a using hacked firmware 1.0b. it removes rip-lock, regionfree, but no bitsetting. since 1.0b is the latest firmware for the 1300a, it recognizes most of the new media out there and burns at 4x no problems so far using prodisc r02 (4x dvd+r) and the s03 (4x dvd-r). so far it burns prodisc s03 (4x dvd-r) well. no read errors and speed read tests were clean using dvdinfopro. the disc playsback fine on my dvd player as well... now, i'm burning + and - media on this drive.
if you want to give it a shot on yours go here to read more about it...

flash at your own risk...

[caliburn]

I have this same problem with my NEC 1100a. It came with my Dell Dimension 8300. I flashed with the Dell recommended firmware, latest version 10GE, but all 4X labeled DVD+R's still only burn in Nero 6 at 2.4X. There is no option to even change it to the faster 4X.
My question is, having read that dvdsrkewl had success upgrading his/her drive with the 1.91 software, would I be doing irrepairable damage to my drive if I tried to flash with this firmware?
Thanks for your help.

Caliburn

[GKar]

At the top of the page of the Etna firmware page read the disclaimer:

http://etna.rpc1.org/nec/index.html


It does appear that there are specific firmwares for different versions of the same drive. I would download DVDinfopro and find out the maker of your dvd media and compare it to the list here:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

You may need to try new media.

[Jason B]

I have an HP 300n.

It's showing 4x burn speed in nero when burning a dvd, but it's talking 25 min, instead of 13 like it used to...

This is what happened. I was burning dvd's fine using DVD Shrink. It would take exactly 13 min to burn a dvd, 4.4 gig. I have a new HP computer that writes dvd's at 4x.

I recently updated the aspi with this:

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/driverdetail.jsp?sess=no&language=E
nglish+US&cat=/Product/ASPI-4.70&filekey=aspi_471a2.exe

I also updated my chipset drivers for my motherboard, but I don't think this caused the problem.

My PROBLEM now, is when I burn a DVD at 4x, that's my max speed, it now takes about 25 min, instead of 13. This is drving me nuts. What can I do to fix this?

This is very strange.