What medium are you using for burning?

Tom took the words right out of my mouth!

I would suspect the medium as well. 3 out of 4 Plextor bad !?! :shock:

i have still not decided which burner to buy, i am most keen on plextor, but have heard similar issues, some of my friends are ITs working for major companies, and they told me that plextor doesn't produce their own drives anymore, and only providing the shell... aparently they contain samsung drives...

but i am not 100% shure about the info!!!

however the medium, is important too, my old sony burner is doing very well with verbatim, and not so pretty with other brands...

I don't know what media the older drive was using - son's PC... I'll try to find out.

The newer drive that failed would not READ commercial software releases on CD. I swapped it for another bought at the same time and it works fine, so far.

Plextor drive

Got the following info from- http://www.videohelp.com
related to the following model

Plextor PX-716A

OEM:Plextor
Chipset:Sanyo 48xCDR CAV
24xCDRW PCAV 16xDVD-R CAV
4xDVD-RW CLV
6xDVD-RDL CLV
16xDVD+R CAV
8xDVD+RW PCAV
6xDVD+RDL CLV
DVD-RAM 48xCD
16xDVD EIDE, 8MB
BitSetting
$125
7.9 (8.0)
29 votes
Read 30
comments
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DVD Media comments for this DVD Writer (click on the link to read the comments):
1 BeAll 4xDVD-R (BeAll G40001) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 BestMedia Platinum 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 CompUSA 4xDVD-R (AML.........) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 CompUSA 4xDVD+R (AML.....001) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
2 CompUSA 4xDVD+R (INFOME..R20) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 CompUSA 2.4xDVD+R (OPTODISCOP1) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Datawrite Red (V3) 4xDVD-R (INFOSMART01.) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 EMTEC 2.4xDVD+R (OPTODISCOP2) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Esa 8xDVD+R (CMC MAG.E01) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Fujifilm 8xDVD-R (ProdiscF01..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Fujifilm 8xDVD+R (YUDEN000T02) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Generic/Unbranded 4xDVD-R (SKC Co.,Ltd.) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Generic/Unbranded 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Gigatain 8xDVD+R (Plasmon1C01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Imation 2.4xDVD+R (MKM.....001) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Imation 8xDVD+R (PRODISC.R03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Intenso 4xDVD-R (MBI 01RG20) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
2 LG 8xDVD+R (PRODISC.R03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Maxell 8xDVD+R (MAXELL..002) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 4xDVD-R (MXL RG02....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 4xDVD+R (CMC MAG.F01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Mitsubishi 8xDVD-R (MCC 02RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Mydata 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Nexxtech 8xDVD-R (CMC MAG. AE1) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Octron 4xDVD-R (RITEKG04....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Office Max 8xDVD-R (FUJIFILM03..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Optodisc 4xDVD+R (OPTODISCOR4) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 ProMedia 8xDVD+R (SONY....D11) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Ricoh 8xDVD+R (RICOHJPNR02) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 RiData 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 RiData 4xDVD-R (RITEKG04....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 RiDisc 8xDVD-R (CMC MAG. AE1) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Ritek 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Samsung (Pleomax) 8xDVD+R (OPTODISCOR8) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Taiyo Yuden 16xDVD-R (TYG03.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Taiyo Yuden 8xDVD+R (YUDEN000T02) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 TDK 8xDVD+R (CMC MAG.E01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 TDK 8xDVD+R (MBIPG101R04) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK 4xDVD+R (RICOHJPNR01) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
2 TDK 8xDVD-R (TTG02.......) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Traxdata 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Vakoss 16xDVD+R (PRODISC.R04) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 2xDVD-RW (MCC 01RW11n9) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 8xDVD-R (MCC 02RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 16xDVD-R (MCC 03RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 4xDVD+R (MCC.....002) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 8xDVD+R (MCC.....003) comments, 3 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 16xDVD+R (MCC.....004) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 2.4xDVD+R (MKM.....001) comments, 3 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
Add your DVD Media comments here

What is this we are looking at?

Got the RMA and need to send the one back. They tried to play the 'we need more information' game but the fact that I swapped the bad one for an identical one and it worked sealed their fate.

I'm still sticking with them for PlexTools alone. (BTW, thanks to John Scrip's web site for turning me on to PlexTools!)

Though not directly related to the Plextor problems your facing...the comments about media has be thinking that maybe I should do a follow-up to this article.

http://beradio.com/mag/radio_maximum_burn/index.html
(I think it is ok to send out the pdf of this article if you are interested in it, have to check with the editor/publisher first).

Anyways, let me know if a follow-up, such as best current media and current drives, would be appropriate and some additional info on DVD-Rs and archiving would be good. Curious on your thoughts....if a different thread is necessary, lets create that.

dpd wrote: I've purchased 4 Plextor PX-716A drives since last December. The oldest has started to have reliability problems burning DVDs...

Have you tried updating the Firmware ?

You can do that online, the new version is 1.08, helps with DVD-R stability and such.

http://www.plextor.com/english/support/support_downloads.html#firm

Good thought, Jerry, I'll have the kid try that if he hasn't yet. I told him to update it quite a while ago, but don't know if he did. (and, since I'm online with him as I type this, I won't forget!)

I got Plextor to issue an RMA for the PX-716A that died 15 minutes after install. When I was swapping out different drives to debug the problem I wrote 'DEFECTIVE' on the drive's label.

So, now, Plextor is refusing to honor their warranty because I wrote on the label! We are in a big email battle right now. I am asking them to just fix my old drive and return it - I don't need a replacement, I just need a drive that works.

This is the biggest cop-out on customer service I have ever encountered.

:ExpletiveDeleted: :(

Thomas W. Bethel wrote: What medium are you using for burning?

Hey DPD - I don't mean to sound like an Ass, but I do it so well...

Unless I'm blind, I didn't see the answer to this question.

I'm only incredible skeptical about the statement "Plextor Reliability not so hot lately" considering they are and have always been THE leader in quality burning products and software support.

Also, considering the fact that I've personally used Plextor drives off and on since as long as I can remember and never had a single problem. (Ask me about my 2x Plextor burner which still runs in my server - still runs like a charm. This was before the time that CD-R and CD-RW were in the same drive and you had to choose - I went with CDR).

As for the support and the warranty - I bet their warranty paper work states that if you in any way permanently alter the device, it is no longer servicable or covered under warranty. Well, magic markers are fairly permanent. And, it's kind of a slap in the face to them to receive back a product with "Defective" written on it.

I truly do hope that your situation gets resolved to your satisfaction (sincerely) because I know I'm very pleased with Plextor's hardware, software and support and I'd hate to see anyone start trashing them - justified or not.

Others -

as for the comments that Plextor isn't making their own drives anymore - I haven't seen any substantiation to this claim. I've got a call into Plextor engineers to find out their take on this. In any case, the most recent devices I've received from Plextor both had no other markings on the bare drive itself other than Plextor's. If it were in fact a Samsung drive (which, in their own rights, aren't bad drives), Samsung would have made sure that their name was somewhere on it.

J.

^^^ Cucco - Son was having some trouble with DVD's, but now he's back at school and I don't know exactly what media he was using when he ran into trouble. Earlier in the summer, the drive was killer with TY CD-Rs we made of his jazz band.

This latest problem was with a 2nd drive and it wouldn't read commercial software release CDs 15 minutes after being installed in a brand new PC.

I'm trying to shame Plextor into fixing the thing - but no email today....

dpd wrote: I got Plextor to issue an RMA for the PX-716A that died 15 minutes after install. When I was swapping out different drives to debug the problem I wrote 'DEFECTIVE' on the drive's label.

Cucco wrote: Hey DPD - I don't mean to sound like an Ass, but I do it so well.....

......As for the support and the warranty - I bet their warranty paper work states that if you in any way permanently alter the device, it is no longer servicable or covered under warranty. Well, magic markers are fairly permanent. And, it's kind of a slap in the face to them to receive back a product with "Defective" written on it.

I truly do hope that your situation gets resolved to your satisfaction (sincerely) because I know I'm very pleased with Plextor's hardware, software and support and I'd hate to see anyone start trashing them - justified or not.

Can we all say LMAO?

Seriously why did you do that dpd? Now technically they are justified to not honor the warranty because you did void it by writing on it, (hence your losing email battle).

I would of opted for the classic little yellow post-it with the word defective written on that and then slapped that onto the drive..

Good luck though with your resolution to this problem.

--UPDATE--

Well, I got in touch with the Plextor engineers and they said that this claim is completely erroneous. However, (understandably) no one would give me their approval to "quote" them specifically. Instead, they gave me the number for their PR firm. Once I get an official answer from the PR firm, I'll add it here.

J.

Mr Nice: I had a pen with me, no post-its right at hand, and needed to mark the bad drive whilst experimenting to find the source of the problem, not knowing that this would void any warranty.

Plextor has gone silent since my last email, so I'm going to send them the drive once more, and ask them to fix it. If not, I still have options :D

So then you write on some printer paper and wrap the drive in it... For the love of GOD dont write on the device itself! :)

Yeah, well, it's a bit late now.... I'll be re-shipping the drive back to Plextor and we'll see what transpires.

Good luck!

Gonna write them a nice note and stick it in the box. I've learned more expensive lessons over the years. We'll see how good my power of persuasion is.

All's well that ends well

I must have better powers of persuasion than I realized. Sitting on the coffee table when I got home tonight was a box from Plextor with a reconditioned PX-716A.

I'll be shooting them a letter of thanks shortly.

Plextor makes good. :thumbsup:

BTW there's yet another new Firmware update version 1.09.

Glad to hear Plextor is taking good care of it's customers.

We've got 3 of the 716's ...all working well.

Use 'em to burn PQ Masters and DVD back-ups.

Peace

Thanks for the update, Jerry. Guess it's time go go downloading.