Fooling a BenQ drive

[GreggD]

I have 2 BenQ DVD burners that I removed from my tower computer. I want to use them with my laptop, so I put them in an external USB2 enclosure, only to find that the computer won't recognize them. A tech support rep at BenQ told me that the drives will only work if they're mounted internally. Does anyone have an idea on how to get the drives to work? I don't have any trouble with other DVD burners that I put in the enclosure.

My main reason for buying the BenQ drives is the book management software. I'm not sure if there are any other drives on the market that also allow book changeing in the event of an older DVD player not being able to read the disc.

[Rich86]

It seems to me that most of the cdrw and dvdrw drives I've seen are the same drive whether used internally or in an external enclosure.
Are you sure you have the drive installed correctly in your enclosure? Is it set for master or slave properly? Power going to the enclosure and drive successfully? Lights up? Data cable attached properly in the enclosure? Is your usb activated and working correctly on this computer?
What steps did you take to convince your computer to see and recognize the usb device and drive in it?

[kush]

Some drives just plain don't like being used in an external box...Or there's incompatibilities between burners and cheapo enclosures.

[budz]

I have 2 BenQ DVD burners that I removed from my tower computer. I want to use them with my laptop, so I put them in an external USB2 enclosure, only to find that the computer won't recognize them. A tech support rep at BenQ told me that the drives will only work if they're mounted internally. Does anyone have an idea on how to get the drives to work? I don't have any trouble with other DVD burners that I put in the enclosure.

My main reason for buying the BenQ drives is the book management software. I'm not sure if there are any other drives on the market that also allow book changeing in the event of an older DVD player not being able to read the disc.

What's the model numbers on the BENQ drives that you own? The USB enclosures need to have certain chipsets for BENQ drives. Read the huge EXTERNAL ENCLOSURE thread from Cdfreaks.com.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=119149&highlight=external+enclosures

Check dealsonic.com for external enclosures. Some have reported using the Plumax enclosures work well w/internal dvd burners.

This thread should be moved to the DVD Rewriter section.

[GreggD]

First, I'm new to this forum & I thought I had this thread in the right section. DUH on me.

The BenQ drives are models DW1620 Pro & DW1640. I'm using a CoolMax CD-510 Combo enclosure. I also have several hard drives, a new LG GSA-H42L & an Optorite DD1205 which work without a problem in the enclosure. The drives are set as "Master" before I install them, & with the exception of the BenQ drives, are recognized by my laptop. (I also tried the "Slave" & "Cable Select" settings as well.)

I have no idea what sort of chip sets that CoolMax uses, but it seems that they aren't the ones that will work with the BenQ drives.

My apologies for putting this thread in the wrong section.

[budz]

First, I'm new to this forum & I thought I had this thread in the right section. DUH on me.

The BenQ drives are models DW1620 Pro & DW1640. I'm using a CoolMax CD-510 Combo enclosure. I also have several hard drives, a new LG GSA-H42L & an Optorite DD1205 which work without a problem in the enclosure. The drives are set as "Master" before I install them, & with the exception of the BenQ drives, are recognized by my laptop. (I also tried the "Slave" & "Cable Select" settings as well.)

I have no idea what sort of chip sets that CoolMax uses, but it seems that they aren't the ones that will work with the BenQ drives.

My apologies for putting this thread in the wrong section.

As I mentioned take a look at Dealsonic.com you could find a external enclosure for your BENQ drives. Also that huge external enclosure thread at Cdfreaks.com could be helpful to you. Don't worry about your thread being in the wrong section.

[GreggD]

I checked out Dealsonic.com & they have 4 Plumax external combo (USB 2.0/Firewire), 2 black, 2 silver. They all have Cypress chipsets. Dealsonic also shows the Coolmax Combo enclosure I have, but it didn't mention the chipset. I haven't had much luck with the thread at CDfreaks as it is quite huge, but I'll keep looking.

[budz]

You could email Dealsonic.com to ask them if the BENQ drives work with the PLUMAX enclosures. I also remember some using a enclosure with the prolific chipset for the BENQ 1640. Here's a thread from The Firmware Index forum.
http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=25140&start=225&

On some of my BENQ 1640 drives I use the external firmware which seems to burn better than the internal firmware.