Ok, I just burned one of these discs in my NEC-3500A which is now in my brother's computer. It would only burn the disc at 12X but it still finished in about 8 minutes. So, the discs appear to be fine. I think the issue here is between the discs and specifically the Benq drive. For some reason it doesn't like them and so far I haven't seen anyone suggest a way to get it to like them. I'm probably S.O.L.?

(in reply to mcastleberg)

I have to read 2 pages to see where problem is.
Burn data disk from other HD (NOT that USB) and you'll see is it BENQ drive good.

(in reply to mcastleberg)

quote:

ORIGINAL: scorpio

I have to read 2 pages to see where problem is.
Burn data disk from other HD (NOT that USB) and you'll see is it BENQ drive good.

Look at the last post on page 2 and you'll see that he already has done that and that it still took 19 minutes to burn. I suggest that he takes his Benq to his brother and test it in his brother's pc..

(in reply to scorpio)

Thank you wntr, I guess thats the next thing I'll try and then report back.

(in reply to wntr)

OK, no luck. I put the Benq drive in my brother's computer and it does the exact same thing. Burns up to like 2% and then sits for 3-4 minutes then finishes the burn at about 19 minutes. As I said before, the NEC 3500A drive likes this media just fine, it will only burn at 12x but this is only 8x media so thats great. Aside from a firmware update (which I've already done) I don't see how I'll get this problem solved. The Benq drive just will NOT burn this media at the proper speeds.

(in reply to mcastleberg)

Why don't you get another brand of media, let's say Ritec and test it in the same setup?

(in reply to mcastleberg)

Budget constraints. Besides, I'm sure it would work. The drive burns just fine at 4X so I don't think the burner is bad, I think it just hates this media. I'm hoping I can convince my brother to switch back with me.

(in reply to TauRus)

Benq Support just sent me a nice Excel list of supported media and it says that this TYG02 media that I'm using is fully supported by the firmware up to 16X. So I guess there goes my theory that the drive just doesn't like this media. Anyone have any other ideas?

(in reply to mcastleberg)

quote:

ORIGINAL: mcastleberg

Anyone have any other ideas?

I see you have the Gxxx-firmware. Why don't you crossflash it to the Bxxx-firmware (retail drive firmware). Could be that you've got a deffective firmware in your drive.

(in reply to mcastleberg)

I've tried several different versions of the Gxxx-firmware. Whenever I try to flash it with Bxxx-firmware, it just tells me the drive is unsupported and won't flash it. Is there a way to do it?

(in reply to wntr)

quote:

ORIGINAL: mcastleberg

I've tried several different versions of the Gxxx-firmware. Whenever I try to flash it with Bxxx-firmware, it just tells me the drive is unsupported and won't flash it. Is there a way to do it?

Visit http://dvdpro.club.st/firmware/BENQ_FW.htm ... :)

Grab the Windows Flasher and the corresponding 1620 *.cvt file (try B7P9 as a start) and crossflashing shouldn't be an issue ...

(in reply to mcastleberg)

*sigh* no luck. I flashed to B7T9RCP1 and it seems to have gotten even worse. This time I made an ISO, just some miscellaneous data from my hard drive that I backed up. As usual it stalled at 2% until about 5 and a half minutes and then finished up at 20 minutes.

(in reply to JeanLuc)

Looks like you've got a bad drive. Send it back and claim a new drive.

(in reply to mcastleberg)

Its too bad I had to go through $5 worth of media to figure this out.

(in reply to wntr)

quote:

ORIGINAL: scorpio

I have to read 2 pages to see where problem is.
Burn data disk from other HD (NOT that USB) and you'll see is it BENQ drive good.

I guess reading isn't your strong suit.

(in reply to scorpio)