BenQ 1640 question

[Goodfella_no4]

I have this drive for 4 months or so. I have burned more than 30 DVDs and many CDs. But I have this funny question.

Does this drive support multiple reading from the same disc? I don't know the exact technical term or if the term I described is right or not, but here is the problem:

I was copying a DVD to my hard disk when I tried to copy another thing from the same drive at the same time. (i.e. having 2 copy processes at the same time) I know that this is wrong. Previously when I did this on my old drives, the copying will take a lot of time but it will finish. What happened was that the second copying process didn't start (I got the window, put no progress) and the first one stopped (again, the window is shown but the progress stopped). I told myself that this was wrong and didn't try it again.

A few weeks ago, I downloaded a Linux distro (Ubuntu Live CD). When I tried to boot it from the BenQ drive, it gave me a read error and the loading stopped. I tried this disc on many drives (including writers) on the same PC and on my other PC and it worked perfectly. So, my guess is that it did the same thing I did before, tried to make a multiple copying process.

Is this thing common with DVD burners or with BenQ drives? Or is it a faulty drive? I am 100% sure that the Linux disc is ok. Tell me what you think please.

Thanks for reading this long message.

[dolphinius_rex]

I have this drive for 4 months or so. I have burned more than 30 DVDs and many CDs. But I have this funny question.

Does this drive support multiple reading from the same disc? I don't know the exact technical term or if the term I described is right or not, but here is the problem:

I was copying a DVD to my hard disk when I tried to copy another thing from the same drive at the same time. (i.e. having 2 copy processes at the same time) I know that this is wrong. Previously when I did this on my old drives, the copying will take a lot of time but it will finish. What happened was that the second copying process didn't start (I got the window, put no progress) and the first one stopped (again, the window is shown but the progress stopped). I told myself that this was wrong and didn't try it again.

A few weeks ago, I downloaded a Linux distro (Ubuntu Live CD). When I tried to boot it from the BenQ drive, it gave me a read error and the loading stopped. I tried this disc on many drives (including writers) on the same PC and on my other PC and it worked perfectly. So, my guess is that it did the same thing I did before, tried to make a multiple copying process.

Is this thing common with DVD burners or with BenQ drives? Or is it a faulty drive? I am 100% sure that the Linux disc is ok. Tell me what you think please.

Thanks for reading this long message.

Hey there,

Well, I can honestly say it's been at least a VERY long time since I've tried to copy multiple things off of a CD/DVD from 2 different windows. As I recall, it "worked" but it was much slower then doing one and then the other. I haven't tried specifically doing this on a BenQ drive however. I *AM* fairly sure that no OS installation would be trying to do multiple copy processes from the same disc though... it wouldn't make any sense.

Ok, I took a pause writing this, and I'm currently copying two processes from the same disc, using my DW1640. It took about 3-4 minutes for the second process to even LOOK like it was copying though, and both processes are showing more then 100 minutes remaining, when individually they should both be around 6min (which is what the first one started at).

So the BenQ DW1640 *CAN* handle this... although it's not recommended. Maybe you gave up on the double copying too quickly?

As for why the Linux disc won't install... I have no idea. But I don't think it's related to double copying. Even if the disc is fine, maybe try making another copy of it? Or maybe burn it to a DVD instead (if it's currently a CD), if that'll still work.

Good luck!!

[Goodfella_no4]

Thanks dolphinius_rex. You are always helpful.

I will try getting the Live DVD. But it's a bit of a large download (about 3 GB). In the mean time, I'll try to make another copy of the CD (and maybe on a DVD) and see how things are doing.

It's not an irritating issue at all, I was just curious. As for this double reading "theory", it was the only thing I was able to think of. MAybe it's not the cause of the problem, and maybe there is no problem in the first place! I wasn't going to install Linux on the PC with the BEnQ in the first place.

And finally, as we are talking about the BenQ 1640, is the new firmware worth it? I have BSMB, I think the new one is BSNB or something.

[dolphinius_rex]

And finally, as we are talking about the BenQ 1640, is the new firmware worth it? I have BSMB, I think the new one is BSNB or something.

Sadly I haven't had time to play with the newer firmwares. Maybe someone else can make a good firmware recommendation?

[burninfool]

The latest f/w is BSOB and it works fine on my writer,it supports the latest QSuite.

[thegdog]

Sadly I haven't had time to play with the newer firmwares. Maybe someone else can make a good firmware recommendation?

I cross-flashed my BenQ 1640 with the external version of the firmware. I am using BEGB.

My reason for this is that it has all the features of the 1640 (I believe it's the same base as the 1640 BSNB firmware) but it makes the drive UDMA 4, instead of UDMA 2.

While in theory, it doesn't change things much, when writing at 16x, the buffer doesn't fluctuate as much when I am doing other things on the system. With the 1640 BIOSes, when writing at 16x, the buffer would often dip (sometimes emptying completely and causing the drive to slow down) when I would do other things.

[Goodfella_no4]

Is this safe?

[thegdog]

Is this safe?

Cross-flashing to the external version of the firmware? Yes.

Well, technically it voids your warranty, but I haven't had any problems with the drive with this firmware. And judging by posts on other forums from people who have done this, it seems to be safe.

The BEFB firmware is equivalent to the BSLB firmware, although full QSuite compatibility is not present in the BEFB firmware. All the important stuff like OverSpeed and SolidBurn is there, however.

The BEGB firmware is equivalent to the BSNB firmware, and features full QSuite compatibility.

The BEHB firmware is equivalent to the BSOB firmware, though BenQ has not officially released it for some reason. The only difference between BSNB and BSOB was a fix for reading a certain type of dual layer disc. Apparently, it is something that very few people would ever run into.