Jed118 wrote on 2022-01-20, 14:25:

So I have this NEC 2X drive, and a search (most info from really old mailing lists and some from here too) led me to understand that this drive's 40 pin connector is not IDE.

That leaves two possibilities - Panasonic, and Mitsumi/Aztec. I have a nice old Reveal SC400 Rev 4 card here with those interfaces on it, I'd like to eventually get to this (just... one more... 486 build...) but by chance to save me experimenting time, does anyone know what the actual interface/protocol for this CDROM is?

Possibly more questions than answers, but some info to work with...

Support Page - https://web.archive.org/web/19980502102424/ht … r250/cdr250.htm

Seems it shipped with its own interface card - https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/c/M-O/21440.htm

Couple of links discussing interfaces / drivers -

Re: Please help me identify some possibly pre-ide cd drive

https://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-secret-history-of-atapi/

Not sure about the neck12.exe driver package mentioned in the first link, but versions of NEC_IDE.SYS are still available on the web.

Hah, the I/O card indicates 170h enabled on that I/O link you sent.

On top of that, I also have a slave/master jumper, leading me to believe it is an IDE device. There are also jumper settings for 3-6, with no explanation on the drive other than "usually off"

My drive was manufactured in August 1994 -

In DOS, the NEC_IDE.SYS driver (dated 08/11/1994, size 24,824 bytes) works just fine. The drive can read CD-ROMs without trouble. Interestingly, the previously mentioned older NEC_IDE.SYS driver (dated 02/18/1994, size 21,669 bytes) appears to find the drive but then says that it’s not ready.

I'll try going with the IDE interface and getting a post August 1994 NEC_IDE.SYS and start there. It's apparent that it's not a fully fleshed out ATAPI interface, however:

Interface 40-pin IDE Ribbon cable and IDE interface

At least the interface is now known. Time to experiment.

Thanks for the rabbit holes!

Jed118 wrote on 2022-01-21, 14:22:

Hah, the I/O card indicates 170h enabled on that I/O link you sent. […]
Show full quote

Hah, the I/O card indicates 170h enabled on that I/O link you sent.

On top of that, I also have a slave/master jumper, leading me to believe it is an IDE device. There are also jumper settings for 3-6, with no explanation on the drive other than "usually off"

My drive was manufactured in August 1994 -

In DOS, the NEC_IDE.SYS driver (dated 08/11/1994, size 24,824 bytes) works just fine. The drive can read CD-ROMs without trouble. Interestingly, the previously mentioned older NEC_IDE.SYS driver (dated 02/18/1994, size 21,669 bytes) appears to find the drive but then says that it’s not ready.

I'll try going with the IDE interface and getting a post August 1994 NEC_IDE.SYS and start there. It's apparent that it's not a fully fleshed out ATAPI interface, however:

Interface 40-pin IDE Ribbon cable and IDE interface

At least the interface is now known. Time to experiment.

Thanks for the rabbit holes!

Here's the later (working!) driver version from April 1995, referred to by Michal Necasek in the OS/2 Museum link - found the ZIP file on archive.org thru this current link - https://driverzone.com/drivers/reveal/cdrom/13042003.htm

Awesome! Looks like I have the Aug 1994 NEC_IDE.SYS file - I'll try both for sh*ts and giggles, perhaps once I get that 486 on my workbench responding to some kind of input 🤣.

Thanks for the file 😁

Alright so more tinkering - I got the ZIPped drivers loaded, it DID see the drive and give me a D:\ prompt at a Windows 98 Command line

DIR -
(drive seeks for a bit, I can hear the laser moving back and fourth, there's some struggling)
Abort, Retry, Fail.

I substituted my own NEC_IDE.SYS file, same behaviour.

Put it in a Windows XP, sees the drive as an NEC_260. Put a different CDROM in there, eventually times out and tells me there's no disc in the drive (and once, that it wasn't formatted!)

I took the drive apart and cleaned the laser lens, stuck it back in, same issue.

IMO the drive is toast, maybe needs a recap. Not worth my time. I also finally tested an NEC SCSI drive, same deal (obviously different driver set, etc) . The NEC gods are not pleased this cold wintry night.

The takeaway is that it is an IDE drive.

Hi !
As a Gateway 2000 lover (Gateway used to ship a lot of systems with these NEC drives back in 1994), I can confirm the following facts:
- The CDR-260 drive is NOT fully IDE / ATAPI compliant and requires a specific NEC_IDE.sys driver. Under Windows 95 you must have this driver loaded in the config.sys and the CD-ROM will be used in "compatibility mode" under Windows 95 (I can't remember the exact term but it indicates that the drive runs in some kind of MS-DOS mode).
- Short after, they released the updated CDR-260R version, which is ATAPI compliant and you can use any generic IDE CD-ROM driver, hence installing Windows 95 / 98 / NT without any issue.
- The CDR-250 is actually the same as the CDR-260R. It's IDE compliant (my own device at least is).

But, all these units tend to die with time. Maybe they are plagued with bad capacitors, but on the 6 units I've got, 4 are now defect : can't eject, won't power at all or read discs. All were running perfect 5 years ago... 😒