Hi
Is this a record
I've just gone through 3 ( yes really three ) drives in two weeks
First drive DOA
Second drive failed after just a few hours
Third drive failed to write to DL ( Verbatim MCC Ritek ) plus problems with audio both reading & writing
Yes I checked all settings (OK) & after dealer checks all three drives returned to BenQ UK
I'll just have to get by on my 3540 / 716 / 4163 / 109
Has anyone else had problems
Should I try again ( If BenQ UK offer yet another drive )

This is an excellent reader/writer. I to have had problems with the good stuff (returned 2 Plextor units, basically broken on arrival also), but I provailed and eventually I received decent working units.

I would advise to seek a new replacement 1640 as these are among the best in their class this time around. You would however be regarded as *extremely* unlucky...

(in reply to Zebadee)

wait....

you managed to get hold of a dw1640 in the uk?
i can't find it anywhere. only the plexy 740a but i doubt it is better/cheaper than the 1640 (clones are always worse, right?).

i've got a 1620 and when i burn cd/dvds my hdd light stays on permanantly. i've got all the settings right and my older cdrw does not cause the hdd light to stay on when a cd is burned. i want to get rid of that 1620 as soon as i can, and hopefully not have the same misfortune with the 1640 as you

(in reply to Clint)

Hi 
My 1640's came from someone who knows someone at BenQ UK & now they're on the way to back to europe
Apparrantly they're very scarce at the moment ( as you found ) in the UK
The hdd light coming on is common with most DVD/RW due to speed & the way in which they "talk" to your computer. In my experience only the Plextor is different
You'll definately get the hdd light flickering at least with the 1640
CDRW the speed & relationship with the computer is much slower (data not x)

(in reply to semo)

well 740a it is then (gulp)
i'll just wait for the review this week (i'm watching you minos )

still, dvds ok, but why cds. my old cdrw does not cause the hdd light to stay on when burning a cd. writing a cd @ 8x, there is relatively low traffic between the hdd and drive.

(in reply to Zebadee)

quote:

ORIGINAL: semo
only the plexy 740a but i doubt it is better/cheaper than the 1640 (clones are always worse, right?).

In this case, v1.01 actually improves writing quality on some media, which makes the PX-740 'better' at the time of this post. However, you can flash your BenQ DW-1640 to the Plextor and vice-versa, as the drives are 100% identical hardware. Amatuers beware - voids warranty.

Make sure you have DMA settings and busmaster drivers correctly configured. It should make no difference no matter which drive is burning with regards to HDD activity as write speeds are identical. Watch the drives LED to determine if the buffer under-run technology is kicking in, this could be your problem.

(in reply to semo)

i don't think the buffer under-run kicking is in since the red led on the dvd drive is constantly on, but the buffer level in nero is constantly jumping up and down and the pages/sec line is always at max in the performance tool... anyways it's an old story. i've put it down to a) defective drive b) mobo drivers incopatability c) who knows.

i had a thread here if you're interested but i've given up

quote:

Amatuers beware - voids warranty

don't you mean "people who can't afford another dvd burner beware - voids warranty"
these days if a computer module goes wrong, most of the time no one can fix it, amatuer or pro.

(in reply to Clint)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Clint
Make sure you have DMA settings and busmaster drivers correctly configured. It should make no difference no matter which drive is burning with regards to HDD activity as write speeds are identical. Watch the drives LED to determine if the buffer under-run technology is kicking in, this could be your problem.

Hi
I'm surprised you've not noticed any activity with hdd led's when using your BenQ & none when using the Plextor as I assume you have both
When using either Plextor 716 / 712 or 708 I get no flicker whatsoever from the hdd led
However when using drives from BenQ / Nec /Pioneer / LG the hdd led goes ballistic & appears to have no relation to buffer under-run
Futhermore the cpu power draw % is also less when using the Plextors as apposed to the other drives

(in reply to Clint)

no i don't have a plextor.
just hope it will be better because you said that the plexy is different.
i have the benq 1620 and an old ricoh cdrw. when i burn a cd with the ricoh, there is barely any activity on my machine and the hdd light is off almost all the time. with the benq, when i burn a cd or dvd, pages/sec hits the roof. linky.
just scroll down to the burn+performance tool running screen shot. with my old ricoh cdrw, all the statistics are all really low.

(in reply to Zebadee)

I get hardly any HD activity with the Plextor 716 either, but it also has 8mb of memory, and others only have 2 mb.

(in reply to semo)

quote:

ORIGINAL: semo
the buffer level in nero is constantly jumping up and down...

Indicates DMA problem, computer is too slow to sustain that recording speed, or slow/fragmented HDD. Try run Windows Disk Defrag.

quote:

ORIGINAL: semo
don't you mean "people who can't afford another dvd burner beware - voids warranty"
these days if a computer module goes wrong, most of the time no one can fix it, amatuer or pro.

No. It is fixable unless a power failure or crash occurs during the flash; (If it had a MTK chipset, then it is 100% safe if you know what your doing regardless of power failure/lock.) The drives we are discussing are worth peanuts anyway, these days.

(in reply to semo)

quote:

ORIGINAL: MP3Mogul

I get hardly any HD activity with the Plextor 716 either, but it also has 8mb of memory, and others only have 2 mb.

Both 2MB and 8MB buffers are emptied in less than 1 second @ 16X DVD transfer rates, really should make no difference. The only difference that may contribute to this 'LED activity' would be that the 716's utilize double the burst transfer than most others (33MB/s to 66MB/s (UDMA-4).

(in reply to MP3Mogul)

Hi 
All of a sudden people start refering to 2 mb / 8 mb & UDMA 4 as opposed to UDMA 2
Firstly my 708 only has 2 mb yet no flickering led
Secondly my Pioneer 109 has UDMA 4 yet led flickers like its going out of fashion
Hence my belief that the Plextors 708 / 712 / 716 would appear to be doing something differently
Plus the Plextors also seem to have much lower CPU usage
Don't take this the wrong way but I've brought this up
1: To see if anyone else has discovered this
2: To find if someone knows why this happens
(N.B. In my limited knowledge none of these differences seem related to buffer under-run)

(in reply to Clint)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zebadee
Hi 
All of a sudden people start refering to 2 mb / 8 mb & UDMA 4 as opposed to UDMA 2
Firstly my 708 only has 2 mb yet no flickering led
Secondly my Pioneer 109 has UDMA 4 yet led flickers like its going out of fashion

Irrelevant, as different manufacturers use different LED blink rates/colours for the same operations. Refer to the DVD drives operation manuals. You are becoming confusing. I don't understand quite your problem; if both drives burn full CD/DVD's with the software buffers remaining in-tact (i.e. 90-100% level) then it also means the drive buffer is at 100%, and regardless of the LED blink rates/colours, the disc is burnt fine and you have no buffer underrun protection interferance.
In semo's case, the above is the exact problem, and his software buffer is not at a *constant* 90-100% level since his fluctuates. Semo either has a DMA problem or slow/fragmented hard disk.

@ Zebadee, which software are you burning with? If Nero or similar, where the program displays both the software and drive buffers on the final burning window, what are those bars doing during a full 700MB CD/4.36GB DVD write? Do they stay constantly around the 100% (full) mark with all optical drives or only your Plextor's?

(in reply to Zebadee)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zebadee
Hi 
All of a sudden people start refering to 2 mb / 8 mb & UDMA 4 as opposed to UDMA 2
Firstly my 708 only has 2 mb yet no flickering led
Secondly my Pioneer 109 has UDMA 4 yet led flickers like its going out of fashion

Hi
I don't really have a problem I'm just curious
The led's that I'm referring to is the HDD LED not the DVDRW Sorry never made it clear Hence could not see relevance of 2 mb / 8 mb / udma 2 / 4
When using Nero my buffer is a constant 90>100% Unless DVD on the fly
I have always found Plextor to be  a low demand device whether hard drives or cpu
When using SCSI I could understand this because of the nature of the beast
So I accept what your saying in regards to Semo although even if he changes things so as to have a "constant"   buffer level  with the  BenQ 1640 his  HDD LED will still flicker like mad , with the Plextor 716 it will not I do not see any problem in either case I'm just curious why this happens

(in reply to Clint)

Well, since the BenQ 1640 is sold by Plextor as PX-740, it is no wonder that some drives are DOA (recent Plextor drives have some kind of DOA history) ...

(in reply to Zebadee)