I upgraded the firmware on my 6100a drive (IBM FRU 92P6110) to 2.23 from tdb site and now Windows sees it as a standard CDROM drive.

I have tried the drive in several IBM laptops all with the same results. The drive is not detected on boot, and Windows does not recognize it properly.

I have loaded DOS onto a USB key, and have been trying to change the firmware that way, once I am in dos the drive is not recognized, if I run the "Normal" package it reports "the drive already has the latest firmware" and DOS then recognizes the drive. I cannot upgrade/downgrade the firmware, any flashing program reports that there was an error and the opperation timed out.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I just bought this drive, and only have a few days to return it..

When running nec6x00a.exe -sec -mas -flash I receive the error "Drive not responding correctly". The drive light then flashes off and on, and I cannot eject the drive and when I attempt to flash again the drive is not recognized.

Is this the correct commandline??

Try the win32 gui version of Binflash. If the firmware doesn't match your drive you should get an error message.

Sorry I forgot the firmware.bin in my post (but not when updating)

The drive is recognized as a standard CDROM drive in Windows. When I run binflash it simply reports "No compatible devices found".

The I get the same error when I boot to DOS, run Normal, and then try binflash. Only NEC6x00a.exe finds my drive once I've run Normal.

I bought this off Ebay off a knowledgeable user, so returning it and saying "it's broken" won't work..

I'm willing to put a "bounty" on this (paypal) as I need to get this fixed, or at least back to reporting as a 6100a so I can return it..

I'm at your mercy

That's not the real problem.
How it is recognized in Devicemanager?

As previously mentioned, the hardware is recognized as a generic CDROM drive.

I have tracked down a copy of the original firmware (v1.01) and attempted to flash again using nec6x00a.exe in DOS. Again the program recognizes the drive, starts flashing, and then reports "The drive did not respond correctly" (the drive light then flashes forever). Binflash does not recognize the drive, so that's not an option. Are there any other flashing programs that may work?

Try to delete the IDE controller and let Windows redetect it. I remember reading that somewhere.

I tried this and it didn't work. It was briefly recognized as the correct drive then immediately switched over to a generic CDROM drive.

http://www.mottie.com/tmp/NEC6100a.JPG is how the registry is reporting it.

After deleting all references to NEC from the registry, the drive is now recognized properly. I then run binflash and the drive isn't recognized. Screenshot = http://www.mottie.com/tmp/NEC6100a2.JPG is

Perhaps your ND-6100 drive needs to be changed (using the NEC Drive Converter) to a ND-6500 before flashing the firmware?

Either that or try one of Liggy's ND-6500 2.xx firmwares.

Also it's kind of weird that you have two entries under the ND-6500 in the registry. Is this possibly the master/slave issue?

If Binflash does not detect/accept the drive, the drive converter probably won't detect it either.

Would be interesting to see the messages from the commandline version of Binflash with "-scan -v -v" option.

After hotplugging the drive in windows DiscInfo (http://hijacker.rpc1.org/discinfo/) reports that there are no cdrom drives present. I have ordered a slimline IDE adapter from Ebay it should arrive in the next 3 weeks. I will reboot to dos and see what "Binflash -scan -v -v" reports as soon as I can. It's a bit of a pain because my T21 doesn't support boot from USB, so I have to take the drive and my USB thumb drive to another machine. Is there a way to boot from my slimline dvdrom/floppy drive and then do a hotswap in dos?

You could also try the Win32 commandline version of Binflash. Just open a command prompt and issue the command there.

I think I have figured something else out by fluke. The cdrom drive is not found when I run the scan

necflash.exe -scan -v -v
Binflash - NEC version - (C) by Herrie and Liggy
Visit http://binflash.cdfreaks.com - http://www.herrie.org

List of supported devices:
Trying to open device \\.\C:
...
Trying to open device \\.\Z:
No supported devices found

But when I put a cdrom in the drive and access the data, the drive is found.

Trying to query device \\.\D:

Device : D:
Vendor : _NEC
Model : DVD+-RW ND-6500A
Firmware : 2.23

This only works during the autorun, if I let the drive spin down it ceases to exist.

While the drive was autorunning I managed to get it flashed back to it's original firmware! I haven't been able to burn a DVD yet, the FujiFilm DVD+R that I have here is detected as type "CDROM". Hopefully it's just crappy media. I have successfully burned a CD-R, so I'm better off than I was before.

Discinfo Results:

DISCINFO VERSION : 1.5.5.9
VENDOR : _NEC
MODEL : DVD+RW ND-6100A
REVISION : 1.01
VENDOR SPECIFIC : 04031200
LOADING MECHANISM : Tray
NUMBER VOL. LEVELS : 256
BUFFER SIZE : 2048KB
INTERFACE : ATAPI
RPC2 SCHEME : YES
STATUS : Not Set
USER CHANGES : 5
VENDOR CHANGES : 4
CURRENT REGION : Not set
ANALOG AUDIO PLAY : YES
COMPOSITE OUTPUT : NO
DIGITAL PORT-PORT1 : NO
DIGITAL PORT-PORT2 : NO
READ UPC CODE : YES
MULTISESSION READ : YES
MODE 2 FORM 1 : YES
MODE 2 FORM 2 : YES
READ ISRC CODE : YES
READ BAD CODE : NO
BUFFER UNDER-RUN : YES
MT. RAINIER : NO
CAN READ CDR : YES
CAN READ CDRW : YES
CAN READ CDRM2 : YES
CAN WRITE CDR : YES
CAN WRITE CDRW : YES
CAN TEST WRITE : YES
CAN READ DVD-ROM : YES
CAN READ DVD-R : YES
CAN READ DVD-RW : YES
CAN READ DVD-RAM : NO
CAN READ DVD+R : YES
CAN READ DVD+RW : YES
CAN WRITE DVD-R : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-RW : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-RAM : NO
CAN WRITE DVD+R : YES
CAN WRITE DVD+RW : YES
MAX CDR READ SPEED : 24
MAX CDR WRITE SPEED: 24