yeah theyres a flash for the firmeware in the d\l section. But it didn't solve my probs...

Dell is giving out a flash-patch that doesn't seem to work with some configurations. It gives a "Memory Low"-message when flashing, and it gives no failure. Everything seems to be fine until you check with "CD Drive Properties" in ECDC. It still displays 1.08 which is the old version of the firmware. Dell Support has at this point not given a solution to this problem as far as I know.

I'm one of those who can't update my firmware from 1.08 on the NEC 7900A.  Do you know if Dell has found  a solution yet?  I have tried both the first firmware edition and the second that is on the downloads area now.  Neither worked.

Dell replaced mine.

Did you have an extra warrenty or something cause i got no help when i called

 

This is just a slight clarification of my last post...

This is for anyone who has ever tried to upgrade firmware on this drive from 1.08 to 109b without success. This upgrade does not work if you follow the instructions (at least on my Dimension 4400).

I was getting the same result as others. After booting with the floppy and answering yes to the update qustion(s), a message appeared on the screen claiming success a few seconds after the last "yes". However, after removing the floppy and booting into Windows XP, the Device Manager was still showing the firmware version at 1.08

The Dell firmware update download creates a floppy with the following files:

1) COMMAND.COM (DOS Boot, may be a hidden file)
2) AUTOEXEC.BAT (Echos a message, then calls NR7900.EXE)
3) NR7900.EXE (Checks current firmware version???)
4) FWLD799B.EXE (Actual firware update executable)

Apparently someone at Dell dropped the ball either with AUTOEXEC.BAT or with NR7900.EXE

One of these is supposed to call the actual firmware update executable file FWLD799B.EXE, but neither does.

To get around this, do the following:

1) Create the floppy as directed.
2) Go into Device Manager and uninstall the NR-7900A CD drive.
3) Reboot with the floppy as directed and answer questions appropriately to update firmware.
4) When the success message appears after a few seconds and returns to the "A:>" prompt, manually run FWLD799B.EXE by entering it at the prompt. The actual firmware update for the NEC NR-7900A will begin and take far more than few seconds (perhaps a minute, +/-). When the update is done, the system returns to the prompt and the light on the drive is flashing.
5) Pop out the floppy and press CTL-ALT-DEL to reboot into Windows.
6) Check Device Manager again to be sure Windows re-installed the drive. If not, do it manually.

You should now see "109b" in the revision field of drive.

- Michael (It is my Dell computer that should be named "WierdIssues"!)

P.S. Roxio was also causing other problems with the drive. After removing Roxio from my system and deleting the UpperFilter and LowerFilter keys in the IDE device class in CurrentControlSet, ControlSet001, and ControlSet002, then rebooting, I never had another problem with the NEC NR-7900A.