rogerh Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Hello, Looking to add a dvd burner to my 10.0 download system (ibm compatible), and it seems many have good things to say about the NEC 3550A (including good linux compatibility). Is anyone actually using the 3550a on 10.0?? Didn't see it listed on the 10.0 hardware compatibility listing database, so thought a bit of confirmation would be usefuly prior to purchase. Thanks -- Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 I have a 3550a myself (which I flashed to model 4551a, as 3350/51 and 4550/51 are absolutely identical as hardware). It is fully MMC-3 compatible, works great with K3B and unless you use some beta K3B version (actually I think it was 10.1 which shipped with a totally unusable K3B revision from CVS!) you shouldn't encounter any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 I found people having problems trying to install Fedora Core 5 with the NEC3550a drive: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/sh...ad.php?t=438990 got this from a quick google with the terms "nec3550a linux support". FC5 is pretty new, within months in fact. If FC5 has problems with trying to install with this drive, I would think other distros earlier than this would or could experience problems. But then again, this just could be a one off, but something to think about just in case. I would recommend LG drives. I have both a DVD-ROM and writer and work flawlessly under Linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gul Dukat Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 I have a 3550a myself (which I flashed to model 4551a, as 3350/51 and 4550/51 are absolutely identical as hardware). It is fully MMC-3 compatible, works great with K3B and unless you use some beta K3B version (actually I think it was 10.1 which shipped with a totally unusable K3B revision from CVS!) you shouldn't encounter any problems. Scarecrow, how did you manage to flash your NEC in Linux? I only seem to get it done in Windows. Sorry, if those goes offtopic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 It's a bit offtopic, but anyway... First, there *is* a Linux flasher for NEC drives: http://www.micheldeboer.nl/firmware/ I have done it under a windows machine though, as the initial flashing 3550--->4551 is a bit tricky and needs a special flasher, and after that you have to put in some normal firmware revision, as there's none present and windblows does not recognize the drive at all (BIOS and the NEC flasher does, though). You can find plenty of details at the cdfreaks website+forum, and anyway I think that the whole thing is not so easy to find right now, due to intervention from NEC itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gul Dukat Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Ok, thx for the additional info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerh Posted May 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Thanks for the replys. Looks like I will give the NEC a try. Looked at both the NEC and LG at Newegg - seems like they are selling vastly more of the NEC to a satisfied customer group. Hopefully it will be plug and play........ Regards -- Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 (edited) I have two NEC burners ( 3500 and 4551), and I only have praises, for both of them... I use Linux exclusively now (factly not, but the only windblows I have is a VMWare virtual machine...), before I had Plextor and Sony burners (genuine Sony- not OEM LiteOn, as is the norm now), which had issues under Linux (well, under Windows as well... but that's another story). And yes indeed, ANY MMC-3 compliant Atapi drive *is* plug and pray... No special drivers or anything is needed for Linux, just use a proper drive jumper and not "cable select", and if used on the same IDE channel with another Atapi drive use old, 40-wire ribbon cable, and not Ultra Ata 80-wire one. Edited May 30, 2006 by scarecrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerh Posted June 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Just for closure, I received the 3550 and it works fine (seems a bit noisy though - maybe all burners are that way??). System booted fine and Hard Drake recognized it with no assistance. My RPM manager is on the fritz (probably a site change since I used it last), so I have not as yet uploaded MPlayer and validated drive preformance - but that's a different issue. Thanks again for the advice -- Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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