Digital Research 40x12x48 CD-RW Drive for $19.99 after MIR @ bestbuy.com

[JackFrost1]

Bought one yesterday and thus far it has worked great at 40x using cheap Durabrand 28x multispeed cd-r's. It is a little noisy, but so is my pioneer DVD drive. Since I don't use it that much the noise is of no concern. For $20, great deal.

jf

 

[JackFrost1]

Bought one yesterday and thus far it has worked great at 40x using cheap Durabrand 28x multispeed cd-r's. It is a little noisy, but so is my pioneer DVD drive. Since I don't use it that much the noise is of no concern. For $20, great deal.

jf

 

[ikewoo]

Can someone confirm this is correct price. Because I check out the link, BB offers $20 off from $80 then when you apply $20 MIR which mean the final cost is $40.

 

[JackFrost1]

yeah, it prints out two $20 rebates. I bought mine on-line and picked it up in the store.

 

[SIGKILL]

Got one yesterday. It's not the best but $20(AR) for a 40X burner seems like a worthy deal. Even if I don't like it, It's not too much out of pocket! Kinda wished it was a Lite-on but I guess that would be asking tooooooooooooo much!

 

[joe678]

nice deal...

 

[alfalfa79]

Hi, just got back from officemax to get 32x cdr..and try to burn using digital research..guess what? it still only allow me to burn at 16x ONLY...what's happening..do u guys have any idea? i flashed this to the newest firmware (*got if from benq site) and still the same problem..

i tested using nero cd speed and it said the drive is capable of burning for 40x...if i don't put any blank cds...the nero let me burn at 40x BUT as soon as i put the blank cd's...the highest option would be 16x..please help me..otherwise i'm gonna return this damn burner...better use my iomega/plextor and burn at 12x

thx for the response

 

[esquared]

I think within Nero, on the desktop there is a drop down menu called CD recorder. If I remember correctly, click on CD recorder and it should show the option of disabling the Just speed (or other buffer-underruns) ability to determine what speed any media will be burned. Sorry I can't be more specific but I remember I had to do this with a 24X AOpen burner I got last year. I would only burn my 24X Fuji's at 16X until I disabled Just speed. After that it would burn at 24X.

 

[Synergy3618]

Originally posted by: alfalfa79
Hi, just got back from officemax to get 32x cdr..and try to burn using digital research..guess what? it still only allow me to burn at 16x ONLY...what's happening..do u guys have any idea? i flashed this to the newest firmware (*got if from benq site) and still the same problem..

i tested using nero cd speed and it said the drive is capable of burning for 40x...if i don't put any blank cds...the nero let me burn at 40x BUT as soon as i put the blank cd's...the highest option would be 16x..please help me..otherwise i'm gonna return this damn burner...better use my iomega/plextor and burn at 12x

thx for the response

(1) Did you have the drive's DMA under the Device Manager turned on? Without DMA on, your drive won't wrok at its full potential.

(2) Did you have the latest version of IDE driver installed? Also did you install the drive as Master on the IDE channel?

If either one is no, then that's the problem.

 

[hunter1]

Also put a 66 or 100 ATA cable on it! If you are running a 33ATA cable you will be limited to 16X.

 

[esquared]

Having the DMA turned off might be the problem, but as I said in my above post, there is an option within Nero that will set the burn at whatever it thinks the media is. I can answer a little more fully now that I am home and I can see the functions within Nero. You need to click on the recorder pull down in Nero and click on choose recorder. Now click on options. There should be a box that you can unclick and it is called a couple of things depending on the burner. On my Yamaha it's called optimum Writespeed control. It's clicked to enable and unclicked to disable. On my AOpen drive it's called JustSpeed. My AOpen drive would not burn at 24X with it enabled even though the media was 24X rated.
alfalfa79's media might be rated at 40X but it is no guarantee that Nero will see it as such and he should disable it to see if that will make it work.

 

[esquared]

That is not true about having to put ATA 66 or 100 cables on. All CDRW's as far as I know are still Ultra DMA Mode 2 which is maximum 33.3 MB/sec. Look at the specs for the Lite-on 40X and 48X burners. They are UDMA Mode 2, 33.3 MB/sec Lite-on specs. My AOpen 24X burns fine at 24X with my ATA 33 IDE cables.

 

[Dunjon]

I think I just got the last one here in Memphis. I also got it for $60 with the 2 $20 rebates. Did we finally come to a conclusion about what kinda drive this is and how good it is?

 

[bruincal]

I picked up one here in LA too. For sure it isn't a Lite-On. I have a Lite-On 24X burner, and the drive that Digital Research gave isn't one. The plastic face is extremely flimsy and cheap. It looks cheap too. I tried burning 600MB of data using Fujifilm CD-R's (Made in Japan) at 40X, and I selected Nero's option to Verify Data after Burning. Well, after it finished burning and verified the data, I got multiple unreadable files and CRC errors. I then tried burning 70 minutes of audio onto Fujifilm CD-R's, but this time at 24X. I put the audio CD that was burned into my Panasonic DVD player, and there were clicks and skips like crazy. I could barely hear the audio. The drive is noisy too.
I guess if you're looking for a cheap burner, this isn't bad, but be prepared for a huge hassle from IO Magic before you get your rebate. I remember buying my first burner from them 3 years ago, a 4x4x24 writer. The rebate was $30, but after 3 months, I called them, only to find no option to talk to a live person. I wrote them a lengthy letter threatening to go talk to my local TV news stations about them and their fraud. Two weeks later, I received my rebate check.
What I'm planning to do now for this drive is to call them in 4 weeks. I will not even wait to see if they send the check or not. I'm just going to call them and hassle them in 1 month.