Help! NEC ND-6500A installed on Dell Inspiron 8200 - shows up as Olympus S-DVD-100

[news.btconnect.com]

Hi all.

I have just installed an NEC ND6500A DVD Writer on my Inspiron 8200 laptop;
however in Device Manager it has installed as an Olympus S-DVD-100, and I
cannot get it to be recognised correctly. I can't find a proper ini file
anywhere for it, and NEC's website just says that you don't need one for
Windows XP, which I am using (SP2).

Can anyone help? Either with advice or an ini file?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

A) Is it working as expected otherwise?

B) Are you sure it is not a rebranded device? This is quite common.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[news.btconnect.com]

Hi Rick. Thanks for troubling to reply.

It does write CDs but I haven't been able to try DVDs yet.

No, I'm pretty sure it's not rebranded - it has the correct labelling and
all. It's an internal replacement drive; I'm certain that Olympus don't
make their own and that NEC do.

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

A little googling reveals that Olympus makes a firmware for the NEC drive,
so the labeling you are seeing may be due to that. It should be
inconsequential to use, I would be more concerned about whether or not it
does what you bought it for.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[news.btconnect.com]

Thanks Rick.

Hi,

A little googling reveals that Olympus makes a firmware for the NEC drive,
so the labeling you are seeing may be due to that. It should be
inconsequential to use, I would be more concerned about whether or not it
does what you bought it for.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[dw]

Hi all.

I have just installed an NEC ND6500A DVD Writer on my Inspiron 8200 laptop;
however in Device Manager it has installed as an Olympus S-DVD-100, and I
cannot get it to be recognised correctly. I can't find a proper ini file
anywhere for it, and NEC's website just says that you don't need one for
Windows XP, which I am using (SP2).

Can anyone help? Either with advice or an ini file?

Greetings,

I've just installed a drive with that same firmware in my Inspiron
8500. It is, indeed, the NEC ND-6500A and can be readily flashed to
it. I flashed it in DOS mode using the "nec6x00a.exe" and
"6500FAST.bin" files in this archive:
http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_file.php?site=tdb1&file=6500_223.ZIP

Simply follow the directions in the readme.txt file once you've booted
into DOS mode. Once I had navigated to the "nec" directory where I
unzipped the files, I simply typed:

nec6x00a -sec -mas -out Olympus.bin -flash 6500FAST.bin

This backed up the old firmware to the file "Olympus.bin" and flashed
the new one (quite quickly, I might add). After I rebooted, I had my
NEC drive I honestly don't know if the new firmware will improve
functionality, but at least I have something to work with now!

You can also try using the Windows-based utility on the NEC website.
The latest ROM on there is 2.24 and you can find it here:
http://support.necsam.com/optical/downloads/flashfirmware/readme.asp?ID=10

You'll have to read the disclaimer before actually downloading it. If
you don't feel like messing with DOS, then it won't hurt to try the
NEC util. The advantage of using DOS is that you can easily make a
backup of the Olympus rom in case things go awry.

Best Wishes and Happy Holidays,

dw

 

[news.btconnect.com]

Hi dw,

Thanks very much for your help. I'll try what you did and let you know
whether or not it works for me.

Happy Christmas to you too (and everyone else here).

 

[news.btconnect.com]

Hi again, dw!

I used the links you provided and found the correct bios for my NEC drive -
it now reports itself to Windows correctly and actually writes DVDs!

Thanks again for your help.

 

[dw]

Hey Steve,

I'm glad I could help

Peace to you and yours