Dell DVD Writers - A Total Mess?

Duras

I recently bought a new laptop from Dell. It's a nice Inspiron 6400. All nice and smooth except for the DVD writer... Once you ask the fella to write more than 4 Gigs it messes the DVDs.

Unlucky I'd say, but the thing is that the older laptop I have, Inspiron 6000 has the same problem.
I tried writing with whatever software (dell's sonic, roxio, nero) but not a chance... Also I have tried different blanks (now I use Maxell which AFAIK are pretty OK).

The DVD from Inspiron 6000 is a NEC DVD+-RW Dual Layer (hahaha, dual layer in your dreams - never managed to write 1 Meg on a dual layer dvd without getting some error).
The one from Inspiron 6400 is a TSSTcorp (whatever that is) +-RW which they have the decency not to claim that is knows dual layer....

Is messed-up DVD writers a general issue for dell (laptops) or am I just the most unlucky?

kmick

My DVD writer is not even recognised by my laptop. Well known that the cheaper laptops have 'issues' with DVD-Writers. I thought the NEC ones were ok though. Did you check the Dell forumns?

Duras

kmick wrote:

My DVD writer is not even recognised by my laptop. Well known that the cheaper laptops have 'issues' with DVD-Writers. I thought the NEC ones were ok though. Did you check the Dell forumns?

What do u mean by cheaper laptops? I thought Dell is a decent brand... I thought my NEC one is good as well, till I actually started to verify what it was writting... Lots of DVDs wasted...

Looked at the Dell forums as advised... there are some other people there complaining about the writers.

I found new ways of playing with the writing sw settings: track at once, disk at once... Waste my dvds hoping I will find the magic combination.

My laptop is still in warranty but I fear that the best they will do is replace my writer with a brand new one that works as "good".

BostonB

I've had a load of Dell laptops recently and never had a problem with any of them writing DVD's or CD's. Mind you I use Nero most of the time. I use Roxio at work, which I think is rubbish.

TerrorFirmer

I have a fairly decent dvd-rw in my laptop, forget the brand but it's something you'd normally associate with relative quality in any case. It, however, refuses to read 99% of copied media, be they CDs or DVDs - so I've to use a fuppin usb key or external hd to copy files on it. I had it replaced twice, thinking, as you would, that it was just faulty - not so. Just a shoddy piece of hardware. Thinking back....should have demanded the laptop be replaced. Ah well....anyway. point: despite good brand names, some components of certain lines are just plain poor.

Sponge Bob

I tend to build an .iso on the hard drive and write the .iso out to the dvd on my inspiron 6400 . seems to work ... I think its a 'track at once' write see

http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/Premastering/DAO.html

its a tsst corp ts-l632d model

MjM

I've got a Sony qw-58 or something like that in my Inspiron 6400 which is supposed to be one of the most unreliable drives you can get!! I've read reports of the drive totally packing up after a few weeks refusing to read and write! , however I've had mine since november and its grand and out of the 40 or so discs i've burned only one I think was a coaster. I've never tried any dual-layer discs though. Also my drive supposedly favours DVD+ media.

I did notice one annoying thing and this was using the Sonic/Roxio software and also using CDBurnerXP the drive is really slow at buring. I have had Verbatim DVD+R discs which are rated to 16x (yes i know the drive only goes to 8x) and they have burned at speeds from 3x to about 6 or 7x. Usually focusing on the lower speeds. Other than that its a good enough burner and is quick with CD's.

I think aswell that Sony burners are rebadged LG burners?? Some of them anyway. Also TSST are Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology. They merged awhile back.

Anyway I read that the NEC was the best of the lot!! Also i've always managed to get a full 4 gigs and over on to my DVD's. Its strange that both drives are like that.

Duras

Well, I bring up the thread as I accidentaly found a solution and maybe someone else runs into the same probs as I did...

I have found a combination of blanks (Maxell and -R) which my 6400 with it's shady TSSTcorp likes. Been able to fill the discs to maximum, burned around 10 so far and no error.