Hewlett Packard DVD940i Writer - PROBLEMS !!!

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by RolfcriesOK, Jan 20, 2007.

  1. RolfcriesOK

    RolfcriesOK New Member

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    Hi,

    I have a new Hewlett Packard DVD940i Writer purchased Dec 06 - I'm having real problems with this new installed device.

    It's supposed to play/record to any type of disc and even has Lightscibe capabilities (Not tried that yet though) but I'm only having a 50% play success rate with some NEW purchased R2 Movies. "Pirates of the Carribean"/"Gladiator"/"TransAmerica" etc. the drive just won't recognise these R2 discs even though they can be played on my old Pioneer A05 drive and my Panasonic DMR-EX75EB DVD Recorder. The message I receive through Nero Tools is "No Disc Inserted", and a faint whining noise from the DVD drive itself.

    I have tried the HP helpdesk, waste of time, no response after 3 attempts.

    I installed the Nero software that came with the unit and from the Nero website, downloaded all updates and the DVD940i is set to play Region 2. The HP website has no updates on the DVD940i. My old Pioneer worked a treat and would play all types of R2 movies.

    The Jumper is set to "Master", the same as the old replaced drive.

    My Computer Information is:
    Microsoft Windows XP (SP.2)
    Intel Pentium 4 - 2.4 GHz
    Memory Installed: 1.0GB RAM
    SoundCard: SoundMAX Digital Audio
    Video Capture Device: NVIDIA GeForce 4Ti 4200

    Also I have found that trying to burn to Dual Layer discs is a 50/50 hit and miss success rate!. Sometimes burning will just abort on these types of disc. But I am having 100% success rate on burning to DVD-R at 16x speed and to CD at 48x speed.

    What's going on!!!, their must be a setting or a reason for these problems.

    Does anyone else out their have this drive or similar problems to the ones I am experiencing. Any advice or information would be greatly received as I am pulling my hair out trying to get the problems resolved.:scratch :scratch :scratch
     
  2. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    Have you tried checking for firmware updates for the drive, are all the cables secure? Also, is it ok in device manager? The disc burning problems could just be down to crap discs
     
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  3. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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  4. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    My view is that as it is so new I'd take it back and demand an exchange. Just don't waste time on it.

    Harry.
     
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  5. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Good point!
     
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  6. BosonMichael
    Honorary Member Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    My experience with HP equipment outside of their printers is that they're absolute crap. I had an HP digital camera that corrupted my son's FIRST Halloween pictuers. I was able to recover them with a third-party recovery program, but I couldn't risk that happening again. Their excuse was that they didn't support any brand of 256MB SD card other than SanDisk. Absolute crap! So I asked them for a 256MB SanDisk SD card, and they sent me FOUR 64MB SD cards. That's NOT what I wanted - last thing I want to do is to swap cards after 10 pics. After *6* calls (5 of which went to India), I finally got them to give me a full refund. I'll never buy anything from HP again other than a printer, and I'll do that with the full knowledge that it's disposable, cause their tech support is useless.

    I'm picky about my media writers. I researched reviews for weeks before buying my current Plextor, and I've been very pleased with it.

    Take the DVD burner back and get something from a trusted brand.
     
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  7. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    I too have had serious issues with HP and their so-called support. I wouldn't even buy a printer now if it had HP written on it. The only thing HP make that is worth buying is brown sauce.
     
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  8. Datavenue

    Datavenue New Member

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    I have exactly the same problem with this drive and this is a replacement. The first drive I bought in DEC 2006 and I returned it due to this fault and it was replaced with the same drive with the same problem. I have emailed HP but reviewing the response you received I guess I will recive a similar response. The drive simply will not read DVD's such as Pirates of The Caribbean {dead mans chest} and eventually fails. I will reply to the forum as and when I can resolve this but I think I will be sending it back. My second computer Samsung drive and laptop reads the above with no problems.
     
  9. RolfcriesOK

    RolfcriesOK New Member

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    Exactly my problem, I wonder if it's an Firmware update that's needed to correct the problem, tried HP page, no joy. Tried CD Freaks but Firmwares not available here either. I've tried it in a second computer as well, same problems. The simplest thing you can ask of a device like this is just to play DVD's but this is just damn annoying when it won't.

    I think my next move for DVD940i is a refund on it.
     
  10. RolfcriesOK

    RolfcriesOK New Member

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    Thanks everyone for your input, I'll let you know the outcome.:cry:

    Can anyone suggest a decent fast burner (NOT HP though !!!) that will also burn and read RAM discs, reason: I use RAM discs for editing movies and TV from Panasonic HDD/DVD Recorder.
     
  11. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    Just looked in PC advisor, and the top burner that they recommend is the LG GSA-H10N its £21 or if you want lightscribe version its the H10L. According to the reviews its rated at x16, but burned neaarly as fast as the x18. It also has the fastest DVD+R capabilities, and x12 speed DVD-RAM
     
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  12. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    I've already recommended Plextor burners earlier in the thread. As to whether it will work with your particular Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder, I have no idea.
     
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  13. RolfcriesOK

    RolfcriesOK New Member

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    Thanks for you reply, I'll check out the LG GSA-H10N, I'm waiting on a reply from the supplier of the ill fated HP DVD940i.
     
  14. RolfcriesOK

    RolfcriesOK New Member

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    Thanks for your advice will give Plextor a look.
     
  15. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    Plextor are a great brand, we used to use them for CD testing, as well as lite-ons. Plextor was number 4 in the PC advisor mag. It had the best ratings, but it was the price that let it down, they are double the price of the LG. Also, the particular model in the magazine didnt do RAM.
     
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  16. Cockles

    Cockles Megabyte Poster

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    Hi

    I recently bought myself two SONY AW-G170AB2 DVD+/-RW drives and so far they've worked fine. Very quiet, burn quick and easy plus they are shorter than usual drives, thus take up less case space and improve airflow. Tried burning data CDs, music CDs and data DVDs so far as well as playing them and all worked fine. However, have discovered that if you use these on Windows CD wizard, you have to drop the write speed to x16, which is no big deal really.

    One thing to consider though mate, the Nero (I'm assuming you got it with the burner) that you're using, I wouldn't put a lot of faith in it, especially 7, I've read a lot of bad things about that
     
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  17. BosonMichael
    Honorary Member Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    I can vouch for the statement, "You get what you pay for." ;)
     
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  18. Datavenue

    Datavenue New Member

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    Emailed HP re the drives failure to read R2 disks on 21/1/2007 no reply received. I have again emailed them today with the same enquiry. I'll give them another two days or the drive will go back..
     

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