PC Peripherals Benq 1640 - Cant seem to find a media it likes!!

[vinitwins]

Got myself a Benq 1640. Been experimenting to see which media works best with it for me and I've come across some extremely weird results.

DVD DRIVE

Batch: June 2005 (Made in China)

Firmware: BSMB

Overspeed: On

WOPC: On

SolidBurn: On/On

MEDIA 1

Brand: Moser Baer DVD-R 8X

Media ID: FUJIFILM03

Burn Speed: 8x

Quality Test: 0%

See Screenshot #1

MEDIA 2

Brand: Sony DVD-R 8X

Media ID: SONY08D1

Burn Speed: 8x

Quality Test: 76% and reducing

See Screenshot #2

MEDIA 3

Brand: Sony DVD+R 8X

Media ID: SONY D11

Burn Speed: 8x

Quality Test: 43% and reducing

See Screenshot #3

MEDIA 4

Brand: Samsung DVD-R 4X

Media ID: MBI 01RG20

Burn Speed: 8x

Quality Test: 98%

See Screenshot #4

Is this normal? I thought sony media (even the 'made in taiwan') is pretty good.

Or should I RMA the drive as only the sony/moser media is readily available in mumbai and both those are giving terrible burns on my drive.

Also I've done 4-5 burns per media to let SolidBurn kick in and optimise a write strategy but that didnt help. The only way I got the sony DVD-R (Media 2) to FINALLY give a quality score of 85%+ (See Screenshot #5) was to modify its write strategy in the BSLB firmware to TYG02.

Thanks,

vin

 

[Nikhil]

WTF!!! No one has had those sort of problems with the 1640..... I dunno why but I feel your drive is scrwed. But this is just my guess.....

 

[vinitwins]

WTF!!! No one has had those sort of problems with the 1640..... I dunno why but I feel your drive is scrwed. But this is just my guess.....

have you any experience with this drive and the media types i've just tested. even i'm not getting a good feeling about the drive, but the samsung 4x @ 8x (MBI 01RG20) burn and scan was excellent. And from what I know, this drive has a preference for TY media, which uses the AZA dye found in the aforementioned Samsung 01RG20!

 

[Nikhil]

Unfortunately, I have ot used this drive. But I have seen zillions of guys who do. On this forum itself, most of them use 1640s. I have not seen such a strange problem

 

[TechHead]

Flash to BSLB and try. Forget those 8X -R discs, try the Sony ones.. they rock on mine. Jst got 97 scores at 12X on 8X -R Sony discs..

 

[Eazy]

The BSMB firmware was not reported to be very good and has some bugs in the CDFreaks forums - I found the older BSLB to work best for me - but I use the RCP1 region free version of BSLB firmware which I got from http://tdb.rpc1.org/

I feel my BENQ 1640 does not burn -R media very well - I stick with Moser Baers +R 8x media which burns fine at 12x.

If you are going to reflash the firmware I find it is best to clear the EEPROM memory first with QScan and I find setting the Solid Burn settings as non activated for both works best for my drive. I also flash firmwares only when XP is in safe mode and after flashing I wait a few seconds after the drive light flickering stops as I heard that it is not completed until these extra few seconds have passed.

There is a newer firmware available the BSOB it has good reports but I am waiting for the RCP1 version of this firmware before I flash it.

http://support.benq.com/files/storage/Firmware/DVDRW/DW1640/BSOB.zip

 

[vinitwins]

Flash to BSLB and try. Forget those 8X -R discs, try the Sony ones.. they rock on mine. Jst got 97 scores at 12X on 8X -R Sony discs..

did that, read the post - Media 3 is Sony DVD+R 8x and it gives horrible burns.

 

[vinitwins]

[quote name='Eazy']The BSMB firmware was not reported to be very good and has some bugs in the CDFreaks forums - I found the older BSLB to work best for me - but I use the RCP1 region free version of BSLB firmware which I got from http://tdb.rpc1.org/

as mentioned in the post SCREENSHOT #5 is of a Sony 8X using the BSLB firmware modded to change the write strategy of the Sony media to Taiyo Yuden's (simply using BSLB didnt make a difference).

As yes, i followed the advice on the cdfreaks forum before flashing to BSLB (had to flash to BEFB using Qflasher and then to BSHB and then finally to BSLB, taking care of clearing the SolidBurn Cache, Uninstalling Qsuite, loading in Safe mode, etc etc etc etc)

Damn i hate this drive. My liteon 812s and 1693 work flawlessly.

 

[Eazy]

as mentioned in the post SCREENSHOT #5 is of a Sony 8X using the BSLB firmware modded to change the write strategy of the Sony media to Taiyo Yuden's (simply using BSLB didnt make a difference).

As yes, i followed the advice on the cdfreaks forum before flashing to BSLB (had to flash to BEFB using Qflasher and then to BSHB and then finally to BSLB, taking care of clearing the SolidBurn Cache, Uninstalling Qsuite, loading in Safe mode, etc etc etc etc)

Damn i hate this drive. My liteon 812s and 1693 work flawlessly.

Whenever I felt there was a problem with a firmware and I felt I could not "clean" flash another firmware I always flash the BSGB firmware first before flashing to the one I want to use. Somehow I find that flashing BSGB seems to clean out all problems with bad firmware flashes.

For changes to the write strategy have you tried MCSE ? you can get the MCSE from ....

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=124905

Get the latest version of MCSE - look on the last page in that thread for the latest version. I run MCSE.

MAN... I luv my BENQ 1640 it has worked great for me !!

 

[archish]

try disabling overspeed. If u still have problems get it replaced, maybe a bad burner. I have 1640 and no problems at all

 

[vinitwins]

Whenever I felt there was a problem with a firmware and I felt I could not "clean" flash another firmware I always flash the BSGB firmware first before flashing to the one I want to use. Somehow I find that flashing BSGB seems to clean out all problems with bad firmware flashes.

For changes to the write strategy have you tried MCSE ?

yeah that's what i used for changing the write strategy.

anyways, got a new 1640, flashed this to BSLB original and did a couple of tests using the Sony -R media.

Slight improvement, but the burn and scans were better when I was using the TYG02 write strategy on the BSLB firmware (Compare to SCREENSHOT 5 on the original post)

Here is the scan with the new drive...

 

[Eazy]

If you are using MCSE than you should disable Overspeed in QSuite. I am sure you know this already.

If you are going to use -R media than you may find better burns with the BSOB firmware.

 

[vinitwins]

After a few more burns, i'm quite sure this drive is pretty similar to my older benq 1640 - still prefers the samsung 4x media (MBI 01RG20) and can burn it at 12x with a 99% quality rating.

sony (SONY08D1) scans are pretty disappointing, and moser (FUJIFILM03) simply doesnt work.

anyways, does anyone know where I can get good quality media in mumbai. basically looking at media using the AZO dye i.e. Verbatim (Made in singapore, MCC 02RG20), Taiyo Yuden (TYG02) et al. Since the samsung 4x uses this dye, i'm guessing any other brands/discs using this dye are the ones my benq desires.

ps: i yearn for the good old days when you could actually burn coasters. at least then we were ensured that "burn completed successfully" meant that the disc would play/work 100%.

 

[Eazy]

Here is a scan I did on a Moser Baer +R 8x @ 12x

 

[vinitwins]

If you are using MCSE than you should disable Overspeed in QSuite. I am sure you know this already.

If you are going to use -R media than you may find better burns with the BSOB firmware.

yup OS is disabled.

i'm not too sure about BSOB - BSLB and even BSHB gave me 99% burn&scans with the Samsung 4X @ 12x - though i'm pretty sure now that it has to do with that particular series of samsung using the AZO dye (used by Verbatim Singapore and TY Japan)

 

[Eazy]

I have tried only one Samsung disk and it was the worst burn I have ever had from my BENQ 1640 ..... it was PIE 76 PIF 20 Quality 79%

 

[superczar]

I have seen similar burns on a Benq 1640 at a friend's place which is why am asking this (Shot in the dark....)

By any chance, are you using the drive over a USB port using a USB-IDE oonverter....

 

[vinitwins]

I have tried only one Samsung disk and it was the worst burn I have ever had from my BENQ 1640 ..... it was PIE 76 PIF 20 Quality 79%

heh, thats what all my burns are like. save the samsungs. but again, i'm stressing the samsung 4x spindle i have is using the AZO dye. i.e. good quality

 

[vinitwins]

I have seen similar burns on a Benq 1640 at a friend's place which is why am asking this (Shot in the dark....)
By any chance, are you using the drive over a USB port using a USB-IDE oonverter....

nope. what's worrying is that this is the 2nd drive and it's exhibiting the exact poor burns are the previous one.

will try the MOSER DVD+R (MBI101) as mentioned by Eazy. if that fails as well, then it could possibly be some hardware/software glitch on my pc setup...?

 

[Eazy]

nope. what's worrying is that this is the 2nd drive and it's exhibiting the exact poor burns are the previous one.

will try the MOSER DVD+R (MBI101) as mentioned by Eazy. if that fails as well, then it could possibly be some hardware/software glitch on my pc setup...?

A few thoughts....Try another ATA100 cable ... good quality one....with no other drive attached to same cable ... make it master.... attach it to connector at end of cable. Clean pins on IDE connector on mother board.