if you could answer my following questions or point to some faq or article, that will be great. have benq 1620, running winxp and have latest nero.

1. need to know about firmware so i can pick the one i need. i hear there are hacked and official firmwares and i really don't know where to get 'em and which to get.

2. pif errors and all other errors. don't understand the graphs and the results. i want to test different media at different write speeds and compare which one suits me best. i'm in no hurry and quality is all i need. planning to use mainly verbatim, tdk and infiniti.

3. all the tools i'll need for testing media, viewing info about media and drives, etc...

4. my hdd is a master on the primary ide channel and the 2 optical drives are on the secondary ide channel. is that ok? i'm planning the benq to be the slave and my old cd-rw (no need for it, just for show) to be the master. i'll confirm that after i open my case in an hour or so.

5. what else do i need to know?

thanks

What you need to know is that not many people have time to answer all your detailed questions - use google, search through this website, try also other helpsites.

(in reply to semo)

1. In my opinion always get the latest official firmware for your BenQ.

2. Errors? The lowest the better? PI limit 280 at 8ECC and PIF 0

3. DVDinfoPro, Nero Info Tool...

4. I think secondary Master is ok.

5. Such as?

(in reply to rich1842)

rich1842, not expectin anyone to give me detailed answers for all the questions and i can only search for info if i know exactly what to search for, hence me asking for a quick intro.

just made my first recording (4x on 16x media) and i noticed the buffer going all over the place and my hdd activity was high too. not too sure if that's normal but the disc q scanning cannot be right. waaay too slow.

(in reply to Iggy)

Looks like you need to use 80 wire ide cable and set the benq as master and the CD as slave. After booting make sure UMDA 2 mode is on for the Benq.

(in reply to semo)

i made the benq master before burning. udma is set in the bios as auto. i'm not too sure how to check if udma is enabled on the benq but i'll work it out somehow. these cables should do the trick right?: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41994&item=6773276495&rd=1

(in reply to G_IvanAwfulitch)

The 80pin cable is necessary.
In Device Manager open the IDE ATAPI, right click and properties on the channel you have the drive and finally Advanced Settings.

(in reply to semo)

quote:

The 80pin cable is necessary.

No it's not... =) 40pin cables are enough if the drive supports only Ultra ATA/33 interface (like BenQ 16x0, Nec 35x0, LG 4163). For a long time I had my Philips 1640 and Nec 3500 connected on a 40 pin cable and just recently I exchanged them with a 80 pin cable (flat!.. round might be even worse than 40 pin cable) and there was no improvement at all.

However... it's recommended you use 80 pin flat cable.. but no necessary.

(in reply to Iggy)

so is this cable ok?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41994&item=6773276495&rd=1

(in reply to Quikee)

BenQ includes an 80pin cable in the retail package.

(in reply to semo)

i have an oem. manufactured in september 2004. all i have apart from the drive itself  is a cardboard drive holder. nothing else. btw, i see g and b firmwares on the benq website. anything that concerns me or should i just get the latest one?

(in reply to Iggy)

OEM drives use the "G" series firmware.  However, you should check the current firmware of your drive to be sure.

(in reply to semo)

i've ordered the cable now. it says it is an 80 way so i assume it is the one i need. once again here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41994&item=6773276495&rd=1

with this cable, should i connect the master (benq dvd burner) to the middle connector or the top one?

just noticed that the green light is permanently lit when there is a dvd insided the drive. is that normal?

(in reply to SithTracy)

Yep, it's normal for the light to stay green and if the drive is master, the top connector should be used, though I don't think it matters.

(in reply to semo)

installed the new 80 way ides and not much has changed. disc quality scans run at under 1x (cds and dvds) so i had to use my old cdrw to do the scans.



this dvd works in my dvd player.


but the following one doesn't. i burned it before installing the 80 ribbon cables



the dvdrw and cdrw drives are jumpered as master and slave respectively on the secondary ide channel.



the media are 16x rated infiniti dvds id: mcc 03rg20. benq 1620 firmware: g7v9

(in reply to SithTracy)

just uninstalled the secondary ide channel and windows reinstalled it after a restart. benq 1620 still is very slow at disc quality scans (less than 1x) but i've noticed that at reading dvds it is not as bad (still worse than my old ricoh cdrw). i'm thinking maybe it is a defective burner. what do you think.







edit: burning another dvd and the results after that that took about an hour to finish on the benq. these are not very good results right? btw what is jitter and how much of it is acceptable

(in reply to semo)