NEC 3550a Not reading disks?!?

[Clob]

Simple put the drive will not read disks in windows or from trying to boot a windows disk on startup. BIOS and windows picks up the drive, nd when I put a disk in while windows is running, if will act as if windows knows the disk is in there, but it wont read it (the disk symbol on the mouse when closeing the trey) Also, athose CDROMS work fine on the same cable and I have tryd other cables as well...


Any clues!?

 

[Valerarren]

Does the drive spin up?

 

[blue68f100]

Is it a Factory / MFG CD or is it one that you or someone else have Burned?

 

[Clob]

I cant tell if it spinns up (pretty quiett) and I cant realy feel and vibrations...

And thats for any bootable CD wether it a MFG or somehting like memtest6...

 

[Valerarren]

I guess obviously the thing to try is to try it on another system.

 

[blue68f100]

If by chance you have the Sony Rootkit Software installed, it can dis-locate the drive from the systems. The CD player then is served through a proxy for all function, and can break windows.

A easy test is to a make a folder then rename like "$folder$" . If the root kit is preset the folder will disapear.

If its a cd that has been burned and was not closed out properly it will not mount either.

 

[Clob]

No Sont Rootkit

 

[blue68f100]

Good, It was just a wild shot.

I have never had a cd or dvd drive failed, but there is allways a first. My CD burners are Yamaha's built like a tank. I have burned as many as 50 cd's in one setting with out any cool down time. Burned cd's for friends Asia trip.

Now I have had plenty of problems with my burners not burning the correct speed. When the burn faster than rated they normally fail to work. I had a whole spindle that tried to burn at a higher speed.

 

[Clob]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101010

Just got the BenQ eq. of that NEC... Came with a free keyboard special 8)

Hopefully its just my PC being gay and not likeing the NEC...

 

[iceblast]

Update the Firmware. I had a problem like that, and the newest firmware update fixed my problem.

 

[Clob]

Did not think of that... Will do!

 

[mpjesse]

Dude... i hate to jump on the "get a new one" wagon, but I HAD this same drive and it did the exact same thing. To install windows I had to dig out an old 24x drive. I eventually threw away the farking drive 'cause NEC wouldn't honor the warranty.

Besides the media issues, the drive just eventually broke.

It's a POS in my opinion.

 

[iceblast]

I'm a computer tech. I own 4 of these drives. I use Verbatim DVD+R media. If you don't have the newest version of the Firmware, it will have problems reading part of a disk. As least that is the problem I have had.

You could burn just fine, but you would get errors if you tried to copy the data back off the disk. I test everything I copy, before I delete it off the HD. I updated the firmware, and no more problems.

Nec drives are great, I have burnt thousands of disks without a problem.

If the drives dies, they are cheap $30 and you have another one. It's not like years ago when you had to spent $500 for a CD+RW with no buffer. Made alot of nice coasters back then, not cheap ones either!

 

[bacis]

hello
i also have a nec drive and till today i have burn thousand of dvds.
here is my opinion known it by my experience.
are the dvds u trying to read labeled?
i mean i used to print the pictures in labels and attach it to dvds.
THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG.
NO LABELS ON DVD.
every dvd that has been labeledit did not been working.i also was testing dvd after burning if tis ok and then delete the files.
it was ok i attach the label and i\just store it.
totaly wrong.the dvd does not working next time i used it,even if i burn it before 1 hour.
try remove the labels and test them.
good luck.

 

[fugly]

i came in here to make this same exact thread cuz i just had the exact same thing happened to me a few days ago.

i was copying a dvd9 and it failed, so i had get rid of it. after that it wouldnt even allow me to copy anymore dvds, nero would say "this disk may be protected" or something liek that.

then as i put in my music cd (official copy, not a backup), it would just display the cd icon next to my mouse while searching and stop. my winamp wouldnt recognize any cd in the NEC drive, i thought maybe its my cd, tried a differnt one, nothing. tried a game, nothing, i got to windows explorer and look maybe i can browse it to my DVD drive, i open it and there is nothing there!

NEC 3550A, this sux! i bought it early jan so im guessing my warrenty is still good. where do i go to download the newest driver or whatever i need?

 

[fugly]

Updating firmware on buners is absolutely essential, it should've been done on the first day and kept updated. Consider it as 2nd nature stuff.

The finest selection for NEC:
http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/3550/

i found this http://support.necam.com/Optical/downloads/FlashFirmware/readme.asp?ID=9 and dled a firmware update but the problem is, i read somewhere that once i run firmware update the warranty is void. which means if my dvd burner went bad, and i run firmware, if it still doesnt work i cant get another one.

what do you think about that and its even worht it?

 

[bacis]

hello
this is waht is said at sites that provide firmware.
(These pages are only for advanced users. Bad flashing could destroy your drive definitively. Read carefully the installation notes of your firmware before you upgrade. The Firmware Page and the drive manufacturer can't be responsable on REMEMBER: This is at your own risk!!!!)
http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?category=4&manufactor=23
the link provides direct at nec firmwares.
good luck.
i personally have updated 5 times my nec firmware without a problem.
http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_all.php

 

[Guest]

Hello. I have been ahving a very similar problem. I recently re-installed windows. After having installed it (which used the drive) I have been able to install one other program using a CD (Call of Duty 4, for who might want to know). After that the drive refused to read any more CDs, DVDs, CD-Roms or copies of either type of disc. Now it just makes a rythmic humming noise (not very loud) and shows the spinning CD icon very briefly. I've had the drive for about 3 years. It is a replacement of a previous broken one, provided by NEC through the warranty.

I tried all of the above solutions. Nothing worked. Has my drive died or is there some sort of CPR to try to revive it?