Plextor PX-54TA Black and Plex Tools Pro ... problems!

[V I P E R]

I have purchased Plextor PX-54TA Black CD ROM drive, but I didn't received anything with it. Just the drive and nothing more. I know that I can use the Plex Tools Pro 2.06 with this drive but I can not download the whole version. On Plextor sites there are only upgrades to Plex Tools 2.06, but I don't have the starting version of the program. Please tell me what to do, because the reason to buy this drive was that it can work with Plex Tools.
If you have links from which I can download Plex Tools please post them here or send to me a Private Message. Thank you in advance.

P.S. Sorry for any spelling mistakes .

[dodecahedron]

start looking here:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=43 cdfreaks Plextor forum
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?threadid=49767 cdfreaks Plextor FAQ

you should find a link to download an old version of PlexTools...from there you'll be able to upgrade.

[V I P E R]

Thank you very much dodecahedron. Now Everything is running well.

[dodecahedron]

welcome!

[V I P E R]

I have one more problem with the PX-54TA.
I can not enable speed read through Plex Tools and when I enable it with the button when I change the disk in the drive I have to enable again the Speed Read function. Please tell me what to do.

Also this drive is very loud when the tray is opening and closing and it don't have the quality of the Premium. If there are people who have this drive please tell me are your drives loud when your are opening or closing the tray?

[dodecahedron]

maybe try contacting pelxtor tech support about the problem of not being able to enable it in PlexTools?
i think it should be possible.

[V I P E R]

I have sended an e-mail to Plextor Europe . Will see what they will tell me.

I have found one review of this drive and there the firmware was 1,05 and mine is 1,00. Maybe this causes the problem, but I can not find the 1,05 firmware.

[V I P E R]

So I have received an answer from Plextor. Here it is:
MY QUESTION:
I have one problem with the PX-54TA Black.
I can not enable speed read through Plex Tools and when I enable it with the button when I change the disk in the drive I have to enable again the Speed Read function. Please tell me what to do. Mine firmware is 1,00

Also this drive is very loud when the tray is opening and closing and it don't have the quality of the Premium. Please tell me is it normal for this drives to be so loud. Thank you in advance for the help.

With best regards
VIPER

ANSWER FROM PLEXTOR:
Dear sir ,

This is normal for this unit.
If you want to use the speedread fuction then you'll have to enable it everytime.

Kind regards ,

Peter Vermeulen
Support Engineer
Plextor Europe
Excelsiorlaan 9
B-1930 Zaventem
Belgium
tel : 00 32 2 718 03 99
fax : 00 32 2 718 03 90




I wonder what to think? I feel that this drive is crap and it does not justify the money that I have given for it (it is the most expensive CDROM drive on our market). I think that such things should be mentioned on Plextor's site. I purchased this drive because it is advertised as 54x speed CDROM, but the speeds that it achievs are far beyon the mentioned from Plextor. Just for information this drive can extract audio tracks @ 16x max. I expected that the quality will be the same as Premium but...
Thank God that I have purchased Premium.
Please suggest me some 48x-54x CDROM that is able to reach these speeds and that is quiet when openig and closing the tray. I want mainly to rip audio CD's at high speed.

[dodecahedron]

i don't know about quite, but a good CDROM with many followers is the Asus 52x (i think it's called CD-S52).
look in the CD-ROM forum you'll find a few topics about this drive with plenty of (very positive) opinions.

check out:
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=daeresults.php3
for DAE performances, and
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link ... sults.php3
for data reading performances of various drives, including CD-ROM drives.

you might as well use a CDRW drive for your ripping rather than a CDROM drive...

[aviationwiz]

My Lite-On CD-ROM drive was good to me. I would just use the Premium to read if I were you though.

[V I P E R]

Yes, for now I use the Premium, but I expected that the 54TA will be one good drive and that's why I have purchased it. Maybe I'll sell it and will wait to buy DVDRW +- Plextor 708.
Plextor are loosing clients by making such devices, but that is their business.

[dodecahedron]

i don't remember the details, but when it (the PX-54TA) came out i think there were some posts about it being a rebadged drive...can't remember exactly what of, maybe Mitsumi.

[V I P E R]

Yes it is a Mitsumi drive. I figured this after I have purchased the drive. One of my friends purchased the Plextor DVD 116 and told me that it is also crap. I wanted to have all Plextor drives machine but it will not happen . I want to see real performance of the DVD +- RW 708. If it is like Premium I'll buy it, but if it has some problems the Premium will be my last drive from Plextor.

[dodecahedron]

yes.
the 54x CDROM and 16x DVDROM drives were released around the same time, and both were suspected of being rebadges.

as i recall (not sure), the suspicions were that the CDROM is a Mitsumi, and the DVDROM possibly BTC ???

not up to the standard the Plextor name suggests!

[V I P E R]

I think that the Plex DVD is a Pioneer 112 DVD.
It does not matter any more. Only the Premium is what we can expect from the company ... but for the money I have paid for the 54-TA I expected more... nevermind. I hope Plextor will release some new firmware for the 54-TA to make it a bit more competitive but who knows.