Does firmware get corrupted?

[INFRATOM]

I flashed a NEC 3520 with Liggy and after a while it looked sluggish and few days ago ceased to show dvd placed in the drive but it would show and play cd's. It would show a blank screen when explored the drive so could not use it. I re-flashed it with the same Liggy FW it came back to life with lightning rip speed which I have to check the whole thing make sure it didn't throw errors in.
Question:
1- Can firmware be corrupted?
2- How can I flash back to factory FW ( it doesn't recognized it as is ). Please give details

[SoCalMK]

I think it may depend on the type of firmware. I have never had an official firmware behave the way you describe in your post. But I am very familiar with your problem when it comes to "hacked" third party firmware. These seem to "fade" with time and I usually end up re-flashing at least once a year. If you're not using hacked firmware and still experiencing this problem, it may be a sign that your drive is starting to go.

[Poppa_Meth]

I've heard way too many reports of similar incidents with that drive using stock firmware. Unfortunately I've recently bought one. I hope mine doesn't exibit similar behaviour. I'm also running Liggy and Dee firmware. There should be some way to flash back to original with a third party flasher. Check out the NEC Burner board on cdfreaks.com.