LITE-ON lasted a couple of weeks... What to buy now?

[smackypete]

After problems burning with a 3-year old Memorex drive (yea, I know, Memorex is only a badge...) - I went with some advice from here and purchased a Lite-On DH-20A4P-08 from newegg.com.

Installed fine, and burned a couple of DVD's fine.
Original problem solved.

Then today, I stick a CD-ROM in to do a software install, and the thing sounds like a prop plane taking off -- then all of a sudden - BOOM - the CD-ROM exploded in the drive. After removing all the pieces (there were about 50 pieces) - fired the machine back up and the tray opens. So I close it and it opens again.... So I figure this drive is shot now.

What should I buy next? I'm only looking to burn simple videos to DVD format. Nothing fancy.
Another $40 drive should work fine - any suggestions?? TIA

[Brainiac]

Pioneer drive always worked for me. But you may want to contact Newegg if the drive is still under warranty.

Check your pm for the other info I sent to you.

Brainiac

[wtsinnc]

First of all, are you certain that the Lite-On is unusable ?
-If so-
www.newegg.com
Thirty dollars or less can get you a great drive by Pioneer, LG, or Samsung. I assume you are using an internal RW drive. If not, you will need to spend more.

Keep in mind that any burner needs high quality media. Verbatim (made in Singapore or Taiwan if you can find them), and/or Taiyo Yuden are the only brands to consider. You can get good deals on either form Rima.com and MediaMegaMall.com. I have been told that Supermediastore.com and Meritline.com are also reputable dealers but I haven't had personal experience with either.

Others are sure to post with additional recommendations but if I had to buy tonight I would get a Samsung 202 series from Newegg choosing it over the Pioneer only because I need DVD-RAM record capability on occasion.

Good luck !

[smackypete]

First of all, are you certain that the Lite-On is unusable ?

Well, since the tray will not close, I don't see how it's usable.
I mean the tray will close, but then it just opens again as if you had pressed the eject button.

-If so-
www.newegg.com
Thirty dollars or less can get you a great drive by Pioneer, LG, or Samsung. I assume you are using an internal RW drive. If not, you will need to spend more.

That is where I got this LITE-ON, per recommendations from this forum...
At this point, I would rather visit a brick+morter store to save the shipping and get one tomorrow....

BTW: this is internal, IDE.

Keep in mind that any burner needs high quality media.

I wasn't burning at the time, only reading a CD-ROM. Lesson learned - only use DVD Burner to burn DVD's --- not read other discs....

BTW: I have plenty of Verbatim blanks on which to burn... Got that recommendation from here also.

Thanks for the reply.

[jman98]

First of all, you're not out the money. The burner is surely under warranty. I bought a burner from Newegg in January and by April I had to replace it. I had to pay to send it back to them, but they sent me a new one at no charge.
If you don't like LG you might be able to get another brand, but it will really need to cost the same or less to not have them balk at giving you a different one.

Your circumstances are highly unusual. I've never known of anyone to have that happen to them, so it would be very foolish to conclude that using a burner to read a disc is a bad idea. Dude, seriously, can you even find non-burner drives any more? I've got an old one that I pulled out of a PC I bought over 3 years ago, but I'm not sure if I could buy a new read only drive if I even wanted to.

[budz]

Dvd burners are so cheap these days. Do yourself a favor and buy a PIONEER 115 ide drive or a PIONEER 215D sata drive.

Buy a retail PIONEER from BEST BUY.

[bevills1]

NewEgg has a 30 day return policy if memory serves. Just call NewEgg customer service to get even exchange or refund. I did this once with a CDRW drive with no problem.

[smackypete]

The $10 shipping each way for an RMA is almost the price of a new burner....

[bevills1]

Talk with customer service because sometimes they'll agree to pay return shipping or not charge shipping on the replacement which they did for me on the CDRW return. Also recently I got a card reader from NewEgg that didn't work in Win98 which it should according to manufacturer, and NewEgg simply credited my charge card for purchase price without requiring return of the card reader. NewEgg customer service is outstanding IMO, but you won't know unless you give it a try.

[wtsinnc]

I have twice received via a link from Newegg a printable prepaid UPS shipping label following the RMA request proceedure. On both occasions, the request was submitted within one week after receipt of the merchandise so maybe Newegg gives free return shipping only within a very limited time frame. It can't hurt to call them regarding this matter.

[jman98]

The bad drive I talked about in my first post cost just under $30. It came with a 1 year warranty. I did have to pay to ship it to Newegg (their UPS costs are not very good for shipping to them) and I think it cost about $10, but there was no charge of any kind for the replacement, not for shipping, not for the replacement itself.

[TimA-C]

This sounds like you put in a disk with a crack in it (probably a small one on the inner edge) and it shattered when it was spun up - nothing to do with the make of the drive nor that it was a burner and not a ROM drive. It might be worth trying to return the drive under warranty as they may replace it as a goodwill gesture.

[budz]

Also recently I got a card reader from NewEgg that didn't work in Win98 which it should according to manufacturer, and NewEgg simply credited my charge card for purchase price without requiring return of the card reader. NewEgg customer service is outstanding IMO, but you won't know unless you give it a try.

The cost of paying for the shipping of a card reader probably wasn't worth the cost to Newegg. I once ordered a white a floppy drive but they sent me a black one. Instead issuing a RMA they told me to keep it and they sent me the white one a few days later.

[smackypete]

Thanks everyone - I'll give it a shot.

TIMA-C --- It was actually about a minute into an install from the CD. So it spun OK for a while. I had used that CD within the last month for an install also, but in a slower CD-ROM drive.