Failure to boot into XP with NEC 6750A DVD installed

[mistral7]

Toshiba Satellite A20 laptop with XP professional SP2. Installation of NEC
ND-6750A DVD unit presents a problem. Turning machine on, everything runs
just fine until we get to the start of XP boot - system freezes. Seems this
is a problem of compatibility or lack of DVD drivers for the DVD / XP
relationship.
Any clues?? Have been trying to solve this one for months.

 

[sdlomi2]

Toshiba Satellite A20 laptop with XP professional SP2. Installation of
NEC
ND-6750A DVD unit presents a problem. Turning machine on, everything runs
just fine until we get to the start of XP boot - system freezes. Seems
this
is a problem of compatibility or lack of DVD drivers for the DVD / XP
relationship.
Any clues?? Have been trying to solve this one for months.

I'd think that 6750 is a new hybrid between NEC and SONY(?)? And, I'd
think XP OS would not have had its drivers. These thoughts would cause me
to search online for latest driver and install the 6750 using said driver.
HTH, sdlomi2

 

[mistral7]

I'd think that 6750 is a new hybrid between NEC and SONY(?)? And, I'd
think XP OS would not have had its drivers. These thoughts would cause me
to search online for latest driver and install the 6750 using said driver.
HTH, sdlomi2

If this is a repeat of a post reply- sorry, but I got a "bad verb" error -
whatever that means, and the message vanished.

OK, thank you for your response. I have looked everywhere I can think of
for a suitable driver. NEC had a flash for the DVD firmware at one stage,
but it has since vanished - maybe it didn't work.. I wonder if Vista has
driver for this unit?
Perhaps Sony has a clue. I shall continue to seek a solution - there is
always eBay..
Merry Christmas, everyone

 

[Paul]

If this is a repeat of a post reply- sorry, but I got a "bad verb" error -
whatever that means, and the message vanished.

OK, thank you for your response. I have looked everywhere I can think of
for a suitable driver. NEC had a flash for the DVD firmware at one stage,
but it has since vanished - maybe it didn't work.. I wonder if Vista has
driver for this unit?
Perhaps Sony has a clue. I shall continue to seek a solution - there is
always eBay..
Merry Christmas, everyone

In this article, they mention that the firmware inside the drive,
controls whether the cable interface is set to master or slave.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f86/problem-nec-nd6750a-202674/

Rather than change the firmware, these guys butchered an adapter that
connects to the back of the drive, in order to control the mode it
runs in.

http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11665&hl=slave&st=0

Since your unit freezes when the boot starts, it could be caused
by both the hard drive and the DVD, conflicting on the cable.

There is a description here, of changing the drive from master
to slave, by flashing the firmware. The notes here say, that
the change only works one way, so you cannot change it back.
This is very dangerous. A soldering modification would be
safer.

http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/Bootflash/
http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/NEC-ND-6750A/

The trick then, is to figure out what the old drive was set
for, while it was in the laptop.

Before doing any of this, if you go into the laptop BIOS
screens, do you see both the hard drive and the DVD
drive, listed in the drives listing ?

I've never heard of this before. I only found this
information, while searching for info on ND6750A.
It seems a strange way to do something which is
so easy to do with normal jumpers on desktop drives.
And due to the danger, I'd want to see some evidence
that this is actually the problem.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f86/toshiba-tecra-slimline-drive-replacement-204560

Paul

 

[V Green]

In this article, they mention that the firmware inside the drive,
controls whether the cable interface is set to master or slave.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f86/problem-nec-nd6750a-202674/

Rather than change the firmware, these guys butchered an adapter that
connects to the back of the drive, in order to control the mode it
runs in.

http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11665&hl=slave&st=0

Since your unit freezes when the boot starts, it could be caused
by both the hard drive and the DVD, conflicting on the cable.

There is a description here, of changing the drive from master
to slave, by flashing the firmware. The notes here say, that
the change only works one way, so you cannot change it back.
This is very dangerous. A soldering modification would be
safer.

http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/Bootflash/
http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/NEC-ND-6750A/

The trick then, is to figure out what the old drive was set
for, while it was in the laptop.

Before doing any of this, if you go into the laptop BIOS
screens, do you see both the hard drive and the DVD
drive, listed in the drives listing ?

I've never heard of this before. I only found this
information, while searching for info on ND6750A.
It seems a strange way to do something which is
so easy to do with normal jumpers on desktop drives.
And due to the danger, I'd want to see some evidence
that this is actually the problem.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f86/toshiba-tecra-slimline-drive-replacement-204560

Paul

Good lord. And you say you've been fooling with this
for "months"?

Scrap the S.O.B. and get another drive that doesn't do this.
You should NOT have to remanufacture a device *just* to get it
to work.