NEC 3550 Problem

[doctordoctor]

While I just completed my second build, I consider myself a complete amateur (first was 2001).

Recent build:

AMD Opteron 165 (not overclocked yet)
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D
G-Skillz DDR500 2GB
WD Caviar 250MB SATA 3.0
Enermax Liberty 500W
eVGA Geforce 7600GT
BenQ FP91G+

and NEC ND-3550A DVD/CD optical drive


1. The build and subsequent software install went off without a hitch.

2. I installed the latest version of Kaspersky antivirus offline before connecting to the net.

3. Updated the firmware for the DFI board without a hitch.

4. All of the sudden, when I am booting up, I get the following message:

"Warning: The boot devices have been changed. BBS boot priority will be affected. Please enter setup to check."

When I enter setup, everything appears to be fine. I just "save and exit" and it reboots without the error. I have the system boot-up priority to CD-ROM 1st, then to HD 2nd.

I have no slave drives as the hard drive is on SATA and the CD drive is IDE master. I haven't installed additional drives yet.

5. Now the CD drive doesn't recognize most CDs that are placed into it and it won't write successfully. I just updated the NEC firmware to version 1.06 (from old version 1.05). The problem, if anything, appears worse.

Any thoughts at all? It doesn't seem like anyone has had trouble with this drive judging from the lack of "3550" string appearing in searches. Could it be a DFI problem?

I have a presentation tomorrow and I had to use my wife's flashkey to get the data off my system . . .

HELP!!

 

[secretanchitman]

hmm...did you try the flash after the drive didnt recognize cds? maybe the flash screwed it up somehow...but thats weird cause i flashed mine last week without a hitch (i have a 3550A as well). glad you got your stuff off the computer though for a backup.

 

[Polish3d]

You know, I'm also having trouble with my NEC 3540a. It's funny you mention this thread, because I think I solved the issue although I'm not sure how.

Try going into your bios and making sure that the in the "boot order" section, that your DVD-RW is set to boot after your first HDD ... that's one thing I changed that may have solved it, the other is turning of command queing on my raptors

I also have the same problem, it wouldnt read most cds

 

[doctordoctor]

I flashed the drive after I had already developed the problem . . . I didn't anticipate much success and didn't have any but was worth a try . . .

By the way, I purchased the drive OEM from Newegg. Does flashing the drive void the warranty? NEC has a stern admonishment on their website.

I think the problem may be with DFI's BIOS. What motherboard do you have?

 

[Bozo Galora]

The first thing is to try NEC put on Secondary IDE, not primary
Then make sure IDE in bios not bootable, and LOWER than anything SATA in boot sequence
This is a discussion of SATA boot order probs WITH an IDE HDD also present......
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_21324012.html
(scroll down past ads for answers)
This is not your prob, but has good insight as to boot order logic.

Having got that out of way, and assuming your Enermax PSU is up to giving enough juice to energize everything equally at bootup (500W means nothing) and assuming your NEC is not DOA (try another cdrom/DVD player)....................

intermittent detection of optical drives is famous behavior of Nforce chipset drivers - which I'm sure you have installed. Basically, you are doing a warm reboot to get detection.
It doesnt detect and you get a boot order prob, then the bios tells you about it and allows your boot after the warning..

solution - NEVER install nforce drivers - always revert to XP SP2 MS generic.
I do not know if new 9.16 WHQL drivers fix this, since I dont trust NV anymore for chipset stuff. Maybe with NF5 they have figured out how to make IDE/SATA work right from get go.

Once again, the above assumes you have NO IDE HDD installed

If all else fails, one may try this:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185301251

Edit: This warning does not answer your prob, since you say you already had situation before flashing, but it MAY make things worse (from NEC FW site)

"The above NEC firmware upgrades should not be used with external USB / FireWire drives or with OEM drives from HP, DELL, Medion, Fujitsu, Siemens, Gateway, or any other OEM manufacturer. If you wish to update the firmware on an OEM drive, please contact the dealer or manufacturer."

 

[doctordoctor]

Well ---

Actually I am already running the generic Microsoft drivers. I have upgraded to SP2 but the drivers are dated 7/1/2001.

For example, the IDE driver is Microsoft 5.1.2535.0, dated 7/1/2001.

Most of the other Southbridge drivers (e.g. PCI Bus, DMA, ACPI, Realtime Clock) are 5.1.2600.0, with the same date. Is there a way to tell which functions specifically are Northbridge versus Southbridge functions? Either way, seems like a moot point since none of the drivers are NVidia.

The Western Digital SATA drive is also using a generic Microsoft driver, 5.1.2545.0 (same as the NEC IDE drive).

When are the 9.16 drivers coming out?

I have a feeling that since the drivers are relatively old (i.e. 2001), that's my problem . . .

I haven't downloaded the NVidia NF4 updated drivers yet since I wasn't having any trouble as it was (until recently) and I'm not generally someone to tinker with something that's not working.

The only updated drivers I'm using are NVidia for my eVGA 7600 card and various current mobo drivers for the audio and LAN functions . . . Other than that, I have flashed the NEC IDE Optical drive as well as the BIOS on the DFI NF4 Ultra-D. No further updating has been done.

For what it's worth, I altered the boot sequence as described (i.e. the IDE optical drive is booting second), and that didn't change anything. Still not recognizing the CD-ROM. Well, actually, it can read the CD and brings up a dialog box but then freezes anytime you attempt to perform any function . . .will try other things on the list . . .

thanks for the inout,

dave

 

[doctordoctor]

One other thing, I'm not sure what the 9.16 revision refers to. The most current NF4 Ultra-D drivers are HERE and the revision is 6.70 dated October 2005.

 

[doctordoctor]

Well, it appears no one is really interested in this, and I have been busy as hell. But, I made the following changes:

1. I moved the NEC 3550 to Secondary IDE Master
2. Boot sequence is to SATA Western Digital drive first, then to CD/DVD

This didn't work as the disk spins without recognition and there's lots of clicks.

3. Loaded the latest NVidia NF4 chipset drivers without benefit/improvement.


and finally:

4. Installed my old LITE-ON LTR-32123S.

With the same setup as above, it worked without a hitch (not a combo drive, just a CD). I guess perhaps my NEC drive is dead and needs to be replaced. The fact that I loaded evcerything from the NEC drive initially without any difficulty reinforces this idea. I'm not sure what else accounts for the sudden inability to use the NEC drive . . .

thoughts anyone???

 

[chimpy]

I'd RMA the drive. You've tried pretty much everything. RMA!

 

[Bozo Galora]

if the clicks are coming from the DVD burner, and not the HDD, then the carraige is sticking on precision ground shafts and litlle plastic gears cant move it. Possible shipping damage - like UPS.

Its not worth 10 minutes of time on a $36 device.

And if you moan about no interest in your topic - you get less replies, not more. And FWIW, you only have 12 posts

The 9.16's are the new NF5 drivers (not for NF4, but they have new IDE - havent had a chance to test them yet. And there are NF4 drivers later than the one you linked:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=19

 

[doctordoctor]

I wasn't really whining, for what it's worth. I understand that I haven't posted much and that I am primarily "gaining" expertise from the use of this website rather than delivering much assistance to others.

Regarding this problem:

I RMA's the drive, installed the new drive, and have essentially the same problem. The NF4 drivers tghat were linked in my initial post were the latest at that time, although now there is a more recent version which I have yet to try. Barring that, I think that for whatever reason, the 3550 and my machine just aren't going to work together.

I bought an LG GSA-H10AK drive and have had no difficulty whatsoever with an identical set up.

Thanks for all the input . . .