Just Bought A NEC 3500 DVD Writer, Help Installing It Needed

[Ruudboy]

Hi all hope someone can help.

I've just bought a Nec 3500 dvd writer but its came with no instructions/leads/cables etc so i'm a little lost.

I must admit i got it for a bargain price so i didnt think i'd need the extra stuff... i thought it would be easy to install

Any help appreciated as its just sitting here at the mo doing nothing.

Cheers.

[Richard_G]

As you've only put the bare minimum in your computer details, can't help a lot. What do you have at the moment in terms of how many hard drives, do you have a CD-ROM drive or CD-RW? Where did you find a 3500 as it's been replaced by the 3520 but I suppose that is why it was very cheap!

[Richard_G]

Or I could have just said, set the jumper, bolt it in the case, connect the cables, job done!

[samijubal]

If you've got XP, all you need to do is slide it in an open bay and connect the power plug and the flat cable, windows will do the rest.

[Ruudboy]

Yeah sorry guys with the brief descripton.

Ive got a pc 'of the shelf' so to speak and it came with 1 harddrive, 1 Dvd Drive/Cdrw re-writer combo and thats about it nothing much else worth mentioning.

Ive got windows xp home also.

Bought this drive on the back of some good reviews here and it was pretty cheap.

Hope this helps.

[Bodyslide]

Remove the CDRW, put the NEC in its place. Make sure to match up the jumper settings on the back of the drive.

[Ruudboy]

Remove the CDRW, put the NEC in its place. Make sure to match up the jumper settings on the back of the drive.

That simple is it.

So it will just replace my current one no probs? seems too easy!!

[samijubal]

I'd leave the drive that came with it if there is an open bay. Just set the NEC to master and the other to slave. The NEC isn't the best reader, the other drive may be a better reader.

[Ruudboy]

I'd leave the drive that came with it if there is an open bay. Just set the NEC to master and the other to slave. The NEC isn't the best reader, the other drive may be a better reader.

Hmm ithink thats what id like to do really but i guess that means some cabling ( which i dont have) and a opening in the front of the pc case which i dont have either unless i take out my existing dvd/cdrom drive.

Bit of a novice at this as you can guess!

[samijubal]

Most cases are made for 2 drives, are you sure there isn't an open bay? If there is then the same cable that connects to the old drive should have a second connecter for the new drive.

[handyguy]

Get the right firmware from nec.com too.....I think that its 2.18 & use the right media.

[Ruudboy]

Most cases are made for 2 drives, are you sure there isn't an open bay? If there is then the same cable that connects to the old drive should have a second connecter for the new drive.

Yep your right samijubal, there is a second bay i think as i've just popped out a plastic opening i didnt even realise it was there

Again your right regards the cabling too, however it seems to be missing 1 piece of cabling to make it exactly like my dvd rom is at the moment.

handyguy, i downloaded that firmware but it says it isnt for 3500 OEM drives, which i think i have.

Complicated this pc lark

[Blazey]

If you're running XP I would suggest setting the jumper to Cable Select. There is probably a PDF at NEC's site with a diagram. My NEC would not burn at top speed without errors when set as a slave. You will also probably need to tell the PC that there is a new drive installed by changing that in the bios. PM me if you need help.

[Richard_G]

As Blazey says, you could set it as Cable Select but that may not work unless your existing drive is already set as that. I would suggest you set the jumper on your new drive as Master (MA) and change the jumper on your existing one to Slave (SL). This will ensure your burner is set as Master. If it is set as Slave, as has already been mentioned, you may only get very slow burns.

It is unlikely that you'll need to go into the bios, it will almost certainly be set to automatically detect the drives.

You will be one cable short. You have the IDE data cable (the wide flat one with an extra connector on it) and a power cable (a large 4 pin plug with a red, two black and a yellow wire going to it). What you won't have is the audio cable (a thin one with a small 4 pin plug on it). This is only used to feed audio from the drive to your soundcard (or onboard sound) when you are playing audio CDs so won't be needed on a burner. You just won't be able to use it to play audio CDs.

Don't bother too much about updating the firmware. Unless your drive has been sitting around for months and months, it will probably already have the latest. The firmware update will only be needed if you try and use disks that are so new the drive doesn't recognise them. A friend of mine bought a 3500 when they first came out and he hasn't had to update his yet. Only do it when, and if, it becomes necessary.

[handyguy]

"It is unlikely that you'll need to go into the bios, it will almost certainly be set to automatically detect the drives. "

Well, mine was not. Took me a bit to figure it out, but it did work that way, just couldn't get it out of PIO mode, but once it was on AUTO, it was fine.

[Ruudboy]

I did'nt really want to bring this to the top again so sorry in advance.

Ok, after spending some proper time trying to fit my 3500 i think i've managed it

Lots of trying this and that cable into both my 3500 and original dvd rom but all's well i think because it shows up in My Computer as drive F and Xp says found new hardware.

I'm just wondering though, how do i know which is the slave/master out the two? Probably a simple anwser to this but hey im clueless

[samijubal]

There is a jumper on the back of the drives that you need to set. Here is how the NEC site says to determine if the drive is master
start>>settings>>control panel
double click on system icon
navigate to the device manager
click the plus to the left of the DVD/CDROM icon
double click on the NEC DVD/RW drive icon
if the location is:
0 the drive is master
1 the drive is slave