BENQ DW1640 Question

[jvbruggy]

ive recently purchased one of these drives and have 2 questions for you guys that know anything about this drive

1. Is it normal for the reading light to stay on when there is a disc in the drive even though u arent doing anything with the disc, (playing movies off it, games, burning, etc.)

2. Is it normal for the drive to not eject the disc sometimes, sometimes it just doesnt want to open, i have to actually use the emergency eject thing in the front of the drive using a paperclip ( this doesnt happen a whole lot, just sometimes but it is annoying ) maybe the new firmware fixes this?

The drive works great by the way, burns dvds and cds like a dvd writer should. Thanks for your help guys in advance

[suppafreak]

I have one of those, also purchased a month or so ago. I did not see such a behavior as you describe. My opens any time I press the eject button and the light is on only when there is reading or recording.

[jvbruggy]

sorry guys, ive found an answer to my own question.. Heres the link to the answer, they say its normal for the light to stay on

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=159394

any more input on this could be useful

[hech54]

My 1620 Pro light stays on when a dics is inserted.

[Bridge]

I have a BenQ question. I seen a BenQ 1640 drive a store recently. I really want to get that drive because a lot of people love it. Problem is the price. I've seen where people got it on line for like $40-50 OEM. I can't find it anywhere on line anymore. So my only choice is the one at the store but they are charging like $90 for it. Yet an NEC 3550 is selling for like $40-50 bucks still and that is suppose to be good too. Is it really worth spending almost a hundred dollars for a 1640 when a lot of people got it at the time for half that? Is it worth getting that unit or is it better to wait until the 1650 comes out or consider getting an NEC 3550?

[budz]

If you really want a BENQ 1640 drive get a rebadged one like the SONY 810A or the PLEXTOR 740 which have mail in rebates from NEWEGG.COM or from retailers. I would buy the SONY or PLEXTOR rebadge drives if I couldn't get the BENQ 1640 oem.

Check out the BENQ FORUM on the thread about where to buy a BENQ 1640 drive. It's worth buying the rebadged drives if you really want a BENQ. COMPUSA also has a rebadged BENQ 1640 under the HIVAL brand. But beware some of them are not BENQ 1640, they are the BENQ DQ60 drive which is crappy, it was made for TEAC. You can tell if it's a BENQ 1640 by opening up the flaps on the bottom of the box. If the sticker says BENQ DQ60 then it's obviously not a BENQ 1640.

The new BENQ 1655 should be released at the end of this year.

[seikima]

i had purchased two of these DW1640 drives from NewEgg. one is PERFECT! always ejects, never any burn errors, just a great drive! the other one had the exact 'eject' problem you have. this is NOT normal! once you think it's going to be "OK" for a while, it screws up again and you have to force eject. don't just keep it in hopes the problem will go away... next time it wont open (hopefully you wont have a disc inside) just box it up and return it!
don't try to contact BenQ cuz they'll just ignore you. if you bought it from NewEgg, they are really nice and took back my defective drive after 3 months. i didn't just use the drive for that long, though... i danced around with BenQ trying to get it serviced directly from them, but as i said, that was a total bust.
NewEgg doesn't have any more of these drives so i just received my refund (less shipping) today.
now i have to find another drive comparable to the DW1640 for $38.99!

anyone know if the DW1650 are good?

[seikima]

ok, i just read that the DW1650's are the same as the 1640's except a lower power consumption... BUT, i couldn't find anywhere in the U.S. who had em... so, i just bought a NEC ND-3550A for $39.59 from S4T (w/10%off) -- let's hope it's a good substitute for a DW1640 :fingers crossed: ( at least i still have one DW1640 )

[btw, beware of S4T's new SLOWER shipping of 7-14 days via USPS - which is now the default FREE shipping option. if you want the old UPS service, it's now $2.00]