Why won't my BENQ 1620 burn anymore?

[actng]

So last week I was trying to burn some stuff onto DVD-R with my BENQ 1620. In fact, the DVD-R discs were branded BENQ.

I tried using a myriad of CD/DVD writing software. From Roxio to Nero to Windows. Nothing worked. The drive won't even recognize the DVD-R is inserted. Some CD-Rs were recognized but half way through burning, an unknowing writing error would occur.

I've tried rearranging the hardware cable connections and reseeding the cables but that didn't help. I've tried uninstall all optical writing software and installed only one and that didn't help. I suppose I should try the writer on another computer to see if it works there but I would rather not have to go through that process since I know this dvd burner worked fine just a few weeks ago.

[danielmak]

maybe the dirve is defective... if u just brough.. return it!

[woof]

I have an almost identical problem on my 1620, except in my case it's Verbatim DVD-R disks which it will no longer recognize. I had burned about a dozen disks from a spool with no problem before but now it simply won't even recognize them in the tray. Different software makes no difference. The Verbatims are the only DVD-R disks I have. The others are all DVD+R and they all burn well with no problems. I re-burned the firmware but it made no difference. I kind of suspect the drive's ability to handle all -R disks is gone but I have no way to prove this at the moment since I have no other -R branded disks available other than the Verbatims.

[danielmak]

benq buner and lite-on are the same thing... cuz lite-on oem most of the benq buners...

[sleepyguy]

My 1620 is around 95% good... after a few consective burns sometimes it will spit out a coaster without any reason. Wierd, i'll reboot and everything is fine. I don't mind since dvd+r are so disposable nowadays. Could be your laser is dying.

[danielmak]

My 1620 is around 95% good... after a few consective burns sometimes it will spit out a coaster without any reason. Wierd, i'll reboot and everything is fine. I don't mind since dvd+r are so disposable nowadays. Could be your laser is dying.

it happens all the time... bt is better than NEC... only 100~150 pics disk... and itz gone!

[actng]

Is there anything I can do to figure this out?

I can't recall where I purchased the drive from? Is there warranty from BenQ or support? I checked their support site and didn't seem to find much info.

Firmware updated already... I still have a bigger half of a (100) spindle of Benq dvd-rs.

[danielmak]

u bought the retail box one or oem one.. oem only 90 days warranty... if retail box, itz 1 year.

[actng]

dun remember... i bought this a while ago... could be within the year or over 2 yrs ago.

this sucks balls.

[ji2o0k]

This happened with my Liteon CD burner a while back.

Mine would actually go and burn........finish the CD, no reported errors but no CD-ROM could read the burned CD. Not even a DVD player (it was an audio CD).

I tried burning data disks, CD copies etc. Tried differed software, different media....nothing.

I think your burner is dead (burning-wise). The only thing I can think is trying pulling the DVD burner from your current PC, pop it into another PC and try burning. If it works, then maybe something fubared on your PC.

[actng]

some other forum in my research quest also suggested a dirty laser head. the area around my computer is not dust free. anyone know if there's a way to clean the head? do i just stick a can of air spray instead and blow???

[actng]

OMG! This is facking boolshiite.

It's burning again!!!!!!!!

[danielmak]

lite-on oem benq's dvd-burner... ^^ :P

[actng]

This is pissing me off.

Not only does it burn now but it burns so well even my crappy Malata DVD player will play the burned DVD-R on TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I changed absolutely nothing! I was up until 6am the night before my trip trying to burn a bunch of videos onto DVD-R so I can watch on the plane and it wouldn't even detect I inserted a DVD-R.

Then I tried to burn them onto CD (one episode per CD) and it burned half way and errored out with an unknown error.

I tried reseeding and reconnecting/reorganizing the ATA cables and hard drives and that only made things slower. So I put everything back and tried again and it still didn't work.

I come back from my trip all pissed off at it thinking it still won't burn and I post on RFD like a n00b asking WTF is wrong and waste the time of all the folks who posted in this thread only to come home tonight to give it one last shot and realize the DVD burner burns like a ***** thirsty for c*m.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.


In any event, thanks for all your help. I wish I could post a solution here in the event any of you have the same problem in the future but sadly I have no idea what changed or how my burner got fixed (or screwed up in the first place).

[danielmak]

hum.. 2 options..
1, open the cover, clean the laser head.. it will give u at lease 3 months use (if it works)... cuz u dont have warranty anymore

2, buy a new one...

u know what, buner is nt like hdd.. give u 3 years or more lifetime... after 800 to 1000 disks, itz dying.

[actng]

hum.. 2 options..
1, open the cover, clean the laser head.. it will give u at lease 3 months use (if it works)... cuz u dont have warranty anymore

2, buy a new one...

u know what, buner is nt like hdd.. give u 3 years or more lifetime... after 800 to 1000 disks, itz dying.

By opening the cover, you mean the cover that has the warranty sticker right? I just want to make sure there's no secret cover that's easier to open than the overall case housing.

I prolly burned less than 50 discs with this burner...

[danielmak]

not only burn, but also read those disks!

[ElvaSoShexai]

this used to happen all the time with my cd-writers... i think 2 of my burners had this problem...
1 ricoh.. 1 lg...

after a while (1+years) it was a pain to burn anything cause it would 85%+ of the time not work... it was probably cause i burned a ton of cds... but now that i burn a lot less.. my writer has lasted like... 4years now?

[actng]

IT WON'T RECOGNIZE MY BENQ DVD-Rs AGAIN!!!!!!!!
AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!

[actng]

this is really pissing me off.
the burner's decided not to burn again. so last night i took out the burner and put it on my celeron 600 computer and set up nero. burned the dvd no problems.

put it back in my system... took a few refreshes but finally recognized the blank disc in the drive. burned a couple of dvds after eventually "coaxing" the drive into burning.

today back to not burning. i've switched IDE cables.

it can't be the hardware because the drive will burn dvds, either in this computer or another one.
it's not the blank media cuz it does burn... eventually... sometimes.
it's not software because if it was then it wouldn't burn.

i'm pin pointing it on sketchy things like heat in the case. i have 3 HDDs, 1 FDD, 1 DVDRW running in a minitower. also wondering if it's the power supply.

i was about to buy a new dvdrw but if it's something to do with the computer it's installed on (which could very well be the case since the drive worked without a hitch in the other computer) then buying a new drive wouldn't make any sense.

i'm at a loss now. so frsutrated.

[actng]

OMG it just might be heat! I left the side panel of the computer off for the past few hours... tried a few software tweaks that I don't think had much effect (cuz nothing changed until I took the side panel off) and now the drive is recognizing the media again.

I just burned a DVD. I really hope this is it.

[hades]

My 1620 is around 95% good... after a few consective burns sometimes it will spit out a coaster without any reason. Wierd, i'll reboot and everything is fine. I don't mind since dvd+r are so disposable nowadays. Could be your laser is dying.

I have the 1650 but it did the identical thing. Luckily I was able to RMA it from NCIX. So far so good, but my main burner is a Samsung. I never did burn a lot of discs with the BenQ and it failed very quickly for me.

hades

[actng]

won't detect blank media again

ARRRRRRRRGH

[ji2o0k]

could it be something to do with the OS?

Maybe something in your Windows OS is fubared, so that is why you get an inconsistent burn/detection?

The only reason why I mentioned this is because I had a LG burner. I purchased it new, retail box. Thing burned beautifully for a while and then stopped burning.

It would burn 95% and then fail, some weird message. I thought the burner was dying and didn't do much with it.

But now, I have re-installed my XP OS and the burner burns beautifully now. Didn't change anything physically, same cables etc.

Just a thought.

[actng]

could it be something to do with the OS?


You may be right but I really don't want to reformat for this. I'd rather buy a new computer actually. That's how much I don't want to reformat. I wish there's a way to fix this without ripping my OS up... arrrrgh.

[john widow]

Have you tried burning the opposite? I had a dvd burner that wouldn't detect dvd-r's. I finally tried a dvd+r and it finally worked.