Is There a problem with BENQ 1640 burners ?

I want to add a second burner & from every thing I have read from you guys that one of the best avail is the BENQ 1640.Problem is all the PC shops I have checked recons these units very unreliable & try to steer me to a Pioner 110, are they corect or was this just the Chinise made 1640's that had the problem ? I can get the Pioneer for the same price but without software ,Do I need S/W or can my Nero 6.6.0.16 drive the 110?

 

My BenQ DW1640 is a great drive. The Pioneer can't booktype withput hacking the firmware. I have an older Pioneer drive and, other than being a little faster reading discs, the BenQ is far better. (especially at reading scratched discs which it's the BEST at)

 

I have the BenQ 1640 & am very happy with it. Price is $40.00 from Newegg.com with Nero included. Some 1640's from China had a problem I read, however, I have been monitoring this forum for some time, and everyone buying a 1640 from Newegg recently (including myself) have been pleased. I know what i would do...

 

actually, while i would recommend the Benq 1640 OVER the newest pioneer, i wanted to point out something NEW with this Pioneer, as this is different than ALL the other former (past models) of pioneer (including my dvr-109)...

The Pioneer DVDR-110D supports bitsetting, and will as default write DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM book type.

so, if you are concerned with booktyping/bitsetting the dvd+r DL media, it does it automatically by DEFAULT, this was not true on all the older Pioneers as catfreak is correct in stating the other pioneers required hacked firmware to do so~

all in all, i would still recommend the Benq 1640, i picked one up last month after catfreak's recommendation and have finally tried a few burns on it in a 3rd computer of mine...it's GREAT~! thanks for the suggestion catfreak, it's just as good as you say it is.

docTY~

 

Sorry Guys I don't know what book type/bitsetting is so how can it help me? Why I question the quality is because of a thread I read a couple of weeks ago that 1640's made around June/July in China were a problem & newer stock made in Malaysia were much better quality wise. And if I add a second burner will the software cause problems with my present LG4120b burner?

 

While I only know the very basic premise, booktyping / bitsetting lets you play the DVD+R/DVD-R media that you burn in a wide variety of drives because it "sets" the DVD during the burn as if it is a DVD-ROM, a widely universal setting playable in nearly all (I've heard 95%) of all DVD players, including, most importantly, whatever type of DVD player you have hooked to your TV. Hope this helps.

 

By the way, the latest BenQ's ship with Nero 6.3.1.26. Whether this will cause a problem, I have no idea, but I would think not. Nero 7 has some issues I heard, but you won't get that with this burner (yet).

 

Thanks Lemmmer
I presently have an LG4120B[A117] & I am sure it books to DVD ROM & did that automatically .With the software it does not seem to like any Nero Burning Room products [still trying to sort that out in Nero forum]
Main reason I want another burner is the LG is very fussy which media I use.

 

The first two things I did upon receiving my DW1640 (before I even used it) was upgrade the firmware to BSLB (it came with BSHB) and update the Nero 6.3.1.26 to 6.6.0.16 (which was a free upgrade). I've read that the BenQ likes +R media more than -R, but mine seems to have no issues with either. As far as the Nero compatability .. no issues with that either. All in all, a nice package for $43 ...

 

I am from Aust & can pick one up for around $70 But I had to ask the question about the quality problems because of the responce of the outlets I have checked.I have checked 3 outlets & all recon they could not recomend them if you check the BENQ Burners thread Demondog & Aland had problems & if there is bad run of these 1640's I want to know which ones to avoid.

 

Mine was made in July 2005 ... It was okay

 

I was one of the folks who posted problems with a BenQ 1640 made in June in China, bug zapper noises and faulty eject button. I rma'd and newegg refunded me my $$$ (said the "exact" model wasn't in stock) then I ordered a new one from newegg (doesn't have BenQ on the front) made in August in China. Works fine with great burns.

I really miss the days of $60 drives when you got good ones. In the last four months, I've ordered two NEC ND-3540a's and two BenQ DW640's and have gotten one good one and one bad one of each brand. The defective NEC was also made in June in China, must have been some bad parts going around at that time.

 

Thanks Demondog
I just wanted to know if this was a bad build date as the 3 Aussie outlets I have checked on all say not to touch the 1640's & if I order one I will make sure it is a later date than yours.

 

I installed mine (Chinese, August manufacture) yesterday. It rips much faster than my 1620! However, it only managed to make one coaster out of a Verbatim before the tray quit working.

Hopefully it's just a fluke. I'll update after I get a replacement.

 

how did you guys install the 1640 you got from Neweg? I got no install disc. Thanks.

 

No install disc was necessary .. I just hooked it up where my other drive was using the other drive's cables .. when I booted up the PC, it recognized the drive and I updated my firmware,downloaded QSuite, installed and updated Nero ... And away I went, burning happily into the night

 

Hi Catfreak
What does that Qsuite do & would I need it ? Also do you know of any members who can burn Ritek GO5 discs in there LG4120b's ?
And one last thing, can I flash my LG to read the GO5'S.

 

QSuite has a booktyping utility, a utility (Solid Burn) that learns the media you use to improve the burning quality, another to perform a Test Write, another called QScan that checks the quality of a blank disc, OverSpeed which enables overburning, and still another called WOPC (walking optimal power control) which is a laser power adjuster.

And no, you don't NEED it. Of course, you don't NEED most of the stuff orffered on the internet either.

 

Thanks Catfreak So the Qsuite is unique to the BenQ ? Is this one of the features that so many members like about this drive ?

 

A couple of the features are similar to Plextor's utilities and several other writers also have good utility packages ... BenQ's utilities are excellent but, even without them, it's an awesome writer for the price.