HP DVD Writer 420i

[Faction]

I just bought this burner today. I had the Sony DRU-530, and after 5 Coasters and an error with their drive checking utility, I returned it.

The first DVD with the 420i was a coaster(mistsumi -r X4), the second, using the RW that came with it, burned fine. Both using Nero 6.3.1.6

I attempted to burn again, using the +r x8 that came with it, and it again failed using Nero. The DVD would be burning, timer going up, and then the LED on the front of the drive would turn off, and the percentage would not increase over some time.

I then tried it again using the Mitsumis I had, but using Alcohol 120% I got a write error in the log at 0%, but when I took the DVD out, it looked to be about 50% full. *shrug*

I then used the RecordNow software to burn some DiVX files onto the mitsumi. It completed and works well.

I then attempted to use RecordNow again to burn the same file I had been trying with the coasters to burn, and it worked.

Soooo... I'm still undecided as to what to think about this. It seems to work fine with the provided software but not Nero or Alcohol. Perhaps I'll try out DVDXCopy and see if that works too. But after burning so many coaster, I'd rather not.

Will wait and see. First "working" DVD drive so it may just be inexperience(?).

My comments for this writer.

I was wondering if anyone has had problems with the nforce2 chipset for DVD writers? I've searched the boards and did see something about the ide controlers in the newest driver pack being bad for some people. Is this something that is known? Does that sound like it may be the case for what I'd been experiencing both with my sony dru 530 (locking up the computer, not burning properly) and with the HP and apparently only working with the provided software (RecordNow)?

Feel free to look at my computer specs to learn more

[johns0]

I had big time problems burning anything onto cdr with nvidia ide s/w drivers installed,had to install ms default ide drivers and now i can burn cdr without errors and poor writing,maybe that might help for you,worth a try.

[-jsl-]

I can't really help you with your problem but I wonder if you would be able to make a backup of your current firmware if your drive shows up as a 420n? Because it's in that case probably an OEM NEC drive with support for bitsetting which is something many ND-2500A owners are looking for too.
For a short instruction on how to do extract the firmware check here. If you're able to do it please mail the firmware to herrie at the provided email address here.
(Sorry for the OT.)

[Faction]

Well I've replaced the nforce IDE controllers with the default windows xp IDE controllers, and now Nero finished my DVD! So it appears all is well with my new DVD burner, damned nforce2 mobo! Next computer will NOT have nforce on it, I've only had problems with it