FAQ - Firmware - OEM Drives

What are OEM drives?

Various manufacturers of computer (equipment) don't actually make hardware themselves, but have it manufactured by other manufacturers. They can have various reasons for this, the most likely one is to save costs.

For example Fujitsu Siemens asks NEC to produce a great number of DVD+/-R(W) drives to be supplied with Fujitsu Siemens desktop computers. They have a special agreement for this, stating that NEC does not offer direct support to the customers of Fujitsu Siemens, but the customers should go to Fujitsu Siemens instead for support. Fujitsu Siemens gets a higher discount from NEC, because NEC doesn't have to provide the support.

These drives manufactured for manufacturers like Fujitsu Siemens are called OEM-drives. These drives are often 100% identical to the drives which NEC sells themselves. They often only have a different firmware version, specially adapted for the needs of manufacturer.

When NEC releases a firmware update for their own drives, they build in a check based on firmware version in order to determine if a drive is an OEM-version or not. The firmware update can therefore not be applied to OEM-drives.

This check can simply be bypassed by using a custom firmware update utility made by Liggy or The Dangerous Brothers and a plain binary file.

Why use other firmwares then the one supplied by the manufacturer?

-OEM-manufacturers often don't release updates on a regular basis.
-My firmwares have better media support in order to be able to use the newest media.
-My firmwares offer additional features like bitsetting.
-My firmwares are not locked to a certain region.
-My firmwares give higher read speeds for DVD Video discs.

Known OEM drives manufactured by NEC:

Manufacturer	Model Name	Known Firmware Versions	OEM of
Dell	NEC _DVD+RW ND-1100A	10GE	NEC 1100A
IOData	_NEC _DVD+RW ND-1100A	1.75	NEC 1100A
FSC (Fujitsu Siemens Computers)	_NEC _DVD+RW ND-1100A	1.E4	NEC 1100A
HP	DVD Writer 300n	1.25 1.29 3.10 3.15 3.20	NEC 1100A
IOMEGA	DVDRW4216INP-A	1.A0 1.A1	NEC 1100A
Mitsumi	DW-7801TE	1.01	NEC 1100A
Plextor	DVDR PX-504A	1.00 1.01 1.02	NEC 1100A
Philips	DVDRW416N	1.C0	NEC 1100A
TDK	DVDRW420N	1.38 1.39	NEC 1100A
FSC (Fujitsu Siemens Computers)	_NEC DVD_RW ND-1300A	1.42	NEC 1300A
IOMEGA	DVDRW4216IND-A	1.20 1.21	NEC 1300A
TDK	DVDRW0404N	1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.0A 1.0C	NEC 1300A
AOpen	DRW8800AAN/AAG	1.5A 1.5G	NEC 2500A
HP	DVD Writer 420n DVD Writer 420i DVD Writer 420vi	1.25 1.27 1.28 1.31	NEC 2500A
FREECOM	DVD+/-RW8B	1.40	NEC 2500A
RICOH	DVD+RW MP5308D	1.B2	NEC 2500A
TDK	DVDRW880N	1.31 1.33 1.34	NEC 2500A
TDK	DVDRW882N	2.36	NEC 2510A