CDRLabs.com

I downloaded it and read the readme. It said not for OEM. What's up with that? Has anybody loaded it on an OEM yet? Is it OK?

Thanks,
Slim
Who is still on 2.16

I was on my second 3500 from newegg for 10 minutes before flashing to 2.18. Trust me the 2.18 is fine. The big difference is the ability to burn cheaper media at 8X. TY 8x+R will burn at 16X with 2.16. 2.18 will burn ritek at the rated speeds.

http://www.de.nec.de/softwareoverview2.php/id/557

In NEC's teminology, OEM = rebadger as MadDog, TDK, AOPEN.

If you have a bulk NEC ND-3500AG with 2.16fw or 2.17fw, you can install official 2.18.

I forgot about 2.17! Italian job, is 2.17 the same as 2.18? Or does 2.18 have some extra features?

2.17 was provided by NEC USA, and NEC EUROPE jump directly to 2.18, saying 2.17 was not official .

I think official 2.17 has no Ritek DL capabilities
Write strategies are newer on 2.18. So 2.18 is better...

ItalianJob wrote:In NEC's teminology, OEM = rebadger as MadDog, TDK, AOPEN.

If you have a bulk NEC ND-3500AG with 2.16fw or 2.17fw, you can install official 2.18.

Thanks, IJ, that is a very clear, concise and precise answer. Mine is an NEC badged drive packaged only in the brown electrostatic-proof plastic. I'll update.

Slim
Who intends to follow that standard in responding to questions.

So how safe are these hacked firmwares? i flashed my drive to 2.18 last night, still writing slow (4x). i had 2.16, then flashed to 2.17 from usa site and began having problems with the drive, it would freeze my computer when i inserted a DVD. once i updated the firmware to 2.18, no more problems with that. I used the Nero speed tool, but it says max read and write at 4x, so im wondering what is wrong, if anything.

I'm considering buying this drive finally...

CowboySlim wrote:

ItalianJob wrote:In NEC's teminology, OEM = rebadger as MadDog, TDK, AOPEN.

If you have a bulk NEC ND-3500AG with 2.16fw or 2.17fw, you can install official 2.18.

Thanks, IJ, that is a very clear, concise and precise answer. Mine is an NEC badged drive packaged only in the brown electrostatic-proof plastic. I'll update.

Slim
Who intends to follow that standard in responding to questions.

Slim;

I have had this drive for the past 6 months now and I have flashed it with modded (Speed Hacked, Riplock Removed and RPC1) several times from Liggy, Dee-27, TDB and Quickee-2 authors of these f/w and nothing bad has happen and each modded f/w is giving different benefit and extra features depending to your needs.

Visit www.cdfreaks.com , NEC DVD-RW Forum and find out for yourself.

well im a newbee to this, so im only interested in making my drive real efficient, reading and writing at max speeds. So can you send me a link to the firmware that best meets these needs, thanks.

pumas11 wrote:well im a newbee to this, so im only interested in making my drive real efficient, reading and writing at max speeds. So can you send me a link to the firmware that best meets these needs, thanks.

You can select the appropriate NEC ND-3500AG firmware that best suite your need from following resource page.


http://www.micheldeboer.nl/firmware/index.html

Thanks again to IJ, I followed up on his response to me and updated to 2.18 and everything appears to work fine.

TCAS: I appreciate the link that you provided and have bookmarked it for future use. However, it refers to a menu of choices and my interpretation of puma11's request for help is that he wants a simple, no choice recommendation. If so, I would simply update to 2.18.

OTH, if he has trouble interpreting the variations listed in the menu, let me try to help (if I get some wrong, please correct me):

RIPLOCK: NEC FWs put a limit, or lock, on ripping speeds. Some hacked FWs have this removed to enable faster ripping. I use a Toshiba SD-M1712 DVD-ROM to rip, so riplock removal is of no interest to me and 2.18 suits me fine.

RPC: NEC FWs put a limit of 5(?) region changes. Some hacked FWs have this removed to enable unlimited region changes like moving from the USA to Germany and back more than 5 times. I go to UTAH every year without my PC, so region change limitation removal is of no interest to me and 2.18 suits me fine.

Bitsetting/Booktyping: NEC FWs do not allow this feature which makes DVD+Rs readable by older DVD players that can play DVD-ROMS only. Some hacked FWs have this enabled so that burned DVDs appear as DVD-ROMs and are playable by older DVD players. My DVD players are less that two years old and can read my burned DVD+Rs so this is of no interest to me and 2.18 suits me fine.

10-4
Slim

CowboySlim wrote:Thanks again to IJ, I followed up on his response to me and updated to 2.18 and everything appears to work fine.

TCAS: I appreciate the link that you provided and have bookmarked it for future use. However, it refers to a menu of choices and my interpretation of puma11's request for help is that he wants a simple, no choice recommendation. If so, I would simply update to 2.18.

OTH, if he has trouble interpreting the variations listed in the menu, let me try to help (if I get some wrong, please correct me):

RIPLOCK: NEC FWs put a limit, or lock, on ripping speeds. Some hacked FWs have this removed to enable faster ripping. I use a Toshiba SD-M1712 DVD-ROM to rip, so riplock removal is of no interest to me and 2.18 suits me fine.


RPC: NEC FWs put a limit of 5(?) region changes. Some hacked FWs have this removed to enable unlimited region changes like moving from the USA to Germany and back more than 5 times. I go to UTAH every year without my PC, so region change limitation removal is of no interest to me and 2.18 suits me fine.

Bitsetting/Booktyping: NEC FWs do not allow this feature which makes DVD+Rs readable by older DVD players that can play DVD-ROMS only. Some hacked FWs have this enabled so that burned DVDs appear as DVD-ROMs and are playable by older DVD players. My DVD players are less that two years old and can read my burned DVD+Rs so this is of no interest to me and 2.18 suits me fine.

10-4
Slim

Very good understanding and definition of various features of modded NEC-3500 firmware. It is good some time to be able to write the 4X DVD disc with modded f/w who has modded writing speed strategy with 12X speed. That way you don't have to buy more expensive higher speed DVD disc.

so which is the recommended FW if i just want to rip at a faster speed? can you go back to the original NEC FW's?

Dance with the one that you brung, or stick with the 2.18 if you upgraded to that. I burned Fuji (TY) 8X at 16X with the 2.18 FW.

Slim

2.18 is faster for my media and you can flash direct to 2.18 from 2.16. If you have used a doctored FW then you can use bin flash to remove it and flash with 2.18. Italian Job has the link for bin flash. I had to use it for my 2510A.

2.18 link

http://www.de.nec.de/software/1769_...500A_win218.zip

bin flash

http://binflash.cdfreaks.com

http://binflash.cdfreaks.com/download/1/5

Just tested TY 8x +R (Plextor branded) @ 16x: It's a whole lot better than with 2.16! PIsum8 max has dropped from 300 to 20

Here is the picture