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16321

September 20th, 2006 17:00

NEC DVD +-RW ND-6500A

 I have a DELL Inspiron Notebook with a NEC DVD +-RW ND-6500A  DVD player. Recently I purchased some TDK DVD-R 1-16x DVD's.  The DVD is a x8 player but I thought newer DVD's would be backward compatible. Obviously not..
 
The DVD player (ND-6500A) does not seem to recognizes these DVD's. I get a message indicating the DVD needs to be formatted. When I click to format I get an error message saying a fatal error message has occurred. Is there anyway I can update this DVD player so that I can use these DVD's??
 
If not, is there a newer version DVD that I can buy to upgrade the hardware in my notebook?
 
Thanks you so much for any help that you can give me on this matter. 

2 Intern

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14.4K Posts

September 20th, 2006 17:00

a few folk have posted similiar stories as yourself.

what I can say from personal experience is that the 6500 will work with verbatim x16 dvd-r disks.

1 Message

September 21st, 2006 17:00

Did you get any answers? I contacted tdk they told me that dvd driver needs updete?
Any suggestions?

6 Posts

September 22nd, 2006 15:00

I sent an email to NEC support but have not heard anything back from them. Thanks for the info on "needs an updated driver". I will go back to the NEC web site to see if they have any driver updates that can be downloaded from that site.
 
I will let you know if I find anything.

2 Intern

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2.5K Posts

September 22nd, 2006 23:00

You're confusing drivers with firmware updates.  All CD/DVD devices use the drivers built into Windows XP.  There are none from the drive manufacturers.
 
You can find firmware updates to NEC drives here, both official and modified.
 
Here is another source.
 
Note that using modified firmware may void the warranty on your drive.
 
Dave
 
 

2 Intern

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14.4K Posts

September 23rd, 2006 22:00

seems like your drive thinks the media is an unformatted cdrw which doesn't bode well.

you can try turning off dla by going into My Computer, right click your D drive>properties>DLA and disable it.

can I as if you've tried a verbatim x16 dvd-r as it works in my 6500?

6 Posts

September 23rd, 2006 22:00

Thanks Dave for the site info for updating the firmware. I also found the Dell web site for downloading these updates, the version was the same at both sites. I downloaded & installed the version for my drive.
Dell site is at:
 
Now when I place the x16 DVD into the drive it does recognize it but I get the following message when I try to read it :
  • DLA cannot use this blank media until it has been formatted. Would you like to format this media now?

I know the DVD's are formatted already. Do they need to be formatted again to the x8 speed/format?  I said to go ahead & format the DVD & then I was able to write/read to it OK. Is this request to format normal?
Thanks

33 Posts

September 23rd, 2006 23:00

Thanks davejohn for the firmware update sites. I recently updated my ND-6500A firmware from 202C to 203D. I was wondering if I could reverse this (203D back to 202C) using the 202C firmware from that update site. Thanks...

2 Intern

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2.5K Posts

September 23rd, 2006 23:00

The request is normal if you're using packet writing software, like DLA, InCD or DirectCD.  A blank DVD (or DVDRW) has to be formatted before you can drag and drop files to it.
 
It doesn't need to be formatted if you're using Sonic, Nero or Roxio to write a data or video disk.
 
Dave

2 Intern

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2.5K Posts

September 24th, 2006 10:00

Try it.  I've never tried it on a slim-line drive, but desktop NEC drives don't like going back when flashing from Windows.  You have to boot into DOS and flash from there.
 
Why do you want to go back?
 
Dave

33 Posts

September 24th, 2006 13:00

In 203D, my drive was making some grinding noises prior to making a CD copy from a CD-RW (audio) created on a consumer CD recorder. I just figured a workaround by disabling DLA before making this copy. Since there could be potential problems going back to 202C, I think I'll just leave this alone. Thanks for the heads up.

23 Posts

October 20th, 2006 05:00

How do you check your drives firmware version?
 
Thanks

2 Intern

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2.5K Posts

October 20th, 2006 19:00

Google "Nero InfoTool" or "DVDInfoPro". Either program will display the firmware version, as well as lots of other info.

Dave

23 Posts

October 20th, 2006 21:00

Don't have either of those. Only the Sonic apps that Dell puts on. Any other way of finding it. Thanks for the response
 

33 Posts

October 21st, 2006 00:00

For firmware, go to Device Manager, right click NEC 6500A for properties, click details...

2 Intern

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2.5K Posts

October 21st, 2006 10:00

Device Manager doesn't display the firmware version. Download one of the above programs, install it, and run it. They are free.

Dave
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