Hmm, interesting. I thought you said the firmware has to be the correct size? So if I flash the 2026 or 2024 firmware on my bigger chip, how will that work exactly? I am so curious now… lol
Heck with it, I will try that now. If it breaks, it breaks. I won’t be using this system for very much longer anyway. hehe
It seems that, contrary to the older flashers for 200/200A. The 201/202 flasher don’t requires a specific size and just put the file there. Which means that /erase may sometimes be required. It is basically the same thing but different. Meaning in the old version it was the files that was putting FF everywhere that was needed. Now it seems the /erase has to do it (It is nothing more than putting FF everywhere) and only then the firmware will replace some FF as needed.
OK, I am genuinely confused now.
I did an erase using "W201FW21 /srom 0 /erase", and it verified the erase with no errors at all.
Then I did a write using "W201FW21 /srom 0 /log /writeall K2024.mem CFG_201.INI" and that completed without any errors.
Then I did a verify using "W201FW21 /srom 0 /verify K2024.mem" and that said "Verify Mismatch" yet again, as always.
I then tried everything above a second time, but changing it to "W201FW21 /srom 0 /log /write K2024.mem CFG_201.INI" and the exact same thing happens, it says it was completely and the verify succeeds. Then I did yet another verify using "W201FW21 /srom 0 /verify K2024.mem" and that said "Verify Mismatch" yet again.
All along in the Device Manager it still shows firmware 2020 and the device still works as if it was never touched.
So, I then did a mem dump using "W201FW21 /srom 0 /dump backup.mem", and then I opened it with a Hex editor and it is identical to my first backup.mem file. NOTHING has changed.
What is going on? lol, someone said they think it is not seated but then why can I use it with all my drives? I also tried this in another computer, my x58 and I was getting the same things last week.
I wonder if this W201FW21.exe will work in FreeDOS? Maybe Windows 10 is blocking something?
OK, I am now done trying. Even in DOS I can’t get the known NEC DOS flasher tool to even launch. Keeps saying “This program does not work in DOS”. BS
I guess my device has a write protect on it or something. The only other thing that comes to my mind is the x1 slot. Maybe the device needs an x16 slot, lol. But I digress as I am not willing to try it from different slots.
@Phoenix48 , thanks man for all your help, it is highly appreciated. Maybe all this tons of extra data in this thread might one day help someone else. Lets hope it does.
Hey at least I didn’t kill the card, its still working just fine. 
I can already tell you that it did helped me. Now at least i know my chip has the right SUBSYS number in it. That was not the case before.
It really irks me to have a device with a chip that is designed to be flashable by the user, but it won’t flash for some unknown invisible reason. It irks me even more that the flasher says it erased the chip, then wrote the chip, then verified the chip, and yet nothing changed what so ever. Maybe it did flash but the device manager doesn’t know how to read the firmware version correctly.
I bought the same card to test it.
Yes it has the Intel firmware. Back then Intel create a firmware themselves modified from the renesas one.
second it has 2 firmware’s because it needs another firmware for the front panel and another for the back ports.
U don’t need to flash anything.
Interesting stuff. Thanks for the information.
It’s mismatched because you no enter the cfg.ini values when verify, this causes that the values already in your Renesas-USB3-controller memory not match with the NULL values (FF’s) inside the K2024.mem, so for the comparation to sucess you need to include the cfg.ini (with the same values) in the command string:
1
W201FW21 /srom 0 /verify K2024.mem cfg.ini
If the values inside the cfg.ini are the same that you entered in the writing proces then it should return:
1
2
2
Verify Serial ROM.... 100%
Verify complete
So yea the thread is old.
But did you ever get this fixed SkOrPn?
Iv got a similare card with uPD720201 on it, and I cannot seem to get good speeds of the rear ports over usb 2.0(havent tried the online connection yet).
Not on your guys level on modding so just got the files here on link below, and it says that the firmware is up to date when flashing 2026. And device manager says 2026 now when changed to the 3.0.23.00 drivers.
Any idea how to get the right speed of the card out in windows 10?
https://www.station-drivers.com/index.ph…&id=437&lang=fr
going to bump this because this was helpful in resurrecting my card but the thread and its links are a mess attached is a gdrive link with the latest 2026 firmware and THE REQUIRED 3.0.23.1 Driver You MUST use this driver with the firmware or some devices will not fuction!
I have personally tested this update on my febsmart FS-U4L-Pro 4 port card [attempting to resolve a issue where the card is preventing the system from powering off and instend reboots)
I had no luck with the german flasher possibly because I don’t speak german and the startec updater in here resulted in a softbrick that required a full power cycle to get the card in a state that could be reflashed
the manual updater doesn’t seem work correctly under the latest windows 11 releases it just throws a cryptic ‘this app can’t run on your pc’ error
2 Likes
found this git hub as well that contains the fw and updater tool
if anybody knows how to get this card to stop preventing the system from shutting down when shutdown via windows ping me. on my board 1/3 times it will just cause the machine to reboot when shutdown via windows so far the fw update hasn’t helped
This is the latest W201FW21.exe tool with the latest firmware K2026090.mem for
UPD720201 and UPD720202. Please remove all the devices from the controller.
(i found it in startech)
Instructions:
Unzip the folder. With cmd cd option as admin target the folder 32 bit if you have 32 bit windows or the 64 bit if you have 64 bit windows.
Then write these commands:
a)W201FW21.EXE /srom 0 /erase (this will delete everything in firmware chip and remove the double no sense firmwares)
b)W201FW21.EXE /SROM 0 /WRITE K2026090.mem cfg201v3.ini (if you have UPD720201)
or
W201FW21.EXE /SROM 0 /WRITE K2026090.mem cfg202v3.ini (if you have UPD720202)
- This will fix the subsystem ffff that many cheap cards use.
- This cfg has the right-optimized options enabled and disabled for the add-ons pcie usb.
- It flash the latest firmware (year 2013) from Renesas.
Firmware_Update NEC new.rar (801.8 KB)
I’ve always flashed the .mem file to a Renesas UPD720201 cards with a ch341a programmer directly and renaming it either .bin or .rom and never once used the software to get them up to date, less things to go wrong than their convoluted flaky program that can barf mid execution and leave things unusable, you get to try again unlike the software.
I’ve not had one single failure to program them to 2026 firmware and nothing died yet. I’ve done plenty that had firmware 2011 stuck on them as default, it’s much easier this way. You just have to make sure you know 100% your versions of the renesas chips and which firmware is required for each.