PX-708A - Partially dead in less than a day.

[Markz2k]

Well, it seemed to work well with DVD reading and writing. Burned a movie onto a Princo -RW, and was able to play it on my set-top DVD.

Then I burned a CD-R with no problems. Then, later I tried burning a CD-RW. About 80% done, Nero quit with a Write Failed error. I tried erasing, and re-using the same disc, failed at about the same place. This was using a Verbatim High-Speed CD-RW disc. It's worked fine in other drives I've tried it on.

So, I tried an Imation CD-RW I had. Tried to erase it, the erase dialog box just disappeared after 10 seconds or so. Drive didn't eject disc. Tried another Imation, LED on drive just turned off completey a few seconds after inserting disc, Nero/XP both reported no disc present.

Had a new, unopened Verbatim High Speed CD-RW (4-10). Put it in drive, after 30+ seconds LED changed from yellow to 2 Amber blinks, then a pause, then repeat. Tried stamped CD-ROMs, the CD-R that it burned a few hours earlier, other known good CD-R's - nothing. It no longer reads/writes CD's. (I did try rebooting/powering off drive several times during all this, no help.)

It still appears to read/write DVD's fine, though. I took the drive to work, and I'm burning a DVD+RW right now.

Glad I bought it locally, it's going back to BestBuy. I'll try another if they have any more left. Haven't seen a DOA optical drive in over a year, and that one was a DOA plex too. (24-10-24) Fortunately, I still have the NEC ND-1300A.

For what little it's worth, this drive was made in Japan, I've seen threads at CDFreaks with comments about most of their drives being made in china.

And Plextor, if you're reading - why isn't PlexTools on the software DVD that comes with the drive? It's got the old Plex Manager 2000. $300, and I don't even get PlexTools?

[tazdevl]

Wow, sorry to hear about that. LOL mine just showed up today, I read this before I checked out the drive. First time I've been happy a computer component was made in China.

You sure it was made in Japan? The address @ the top is just Plex's info. The manuf location is to the left of the manuf date, small print.

Couple thoughts...

Maybe the drive isn't supposed to work with Plex tools. Dunno, maybe somehow the software borked the drive.

Also, drive just could have had the crap beaten out of it. I noticed that the box my drive came in had gaps around the styrofoam, more than I have seen in any package before. Maybe all the shaking caused an early death.

BTW what is Plex Tools about? I took a look on the site and couldn't find any info. Haven't had one of their drives for a while and it wasn't available when I had my 1610A.

[VEFF]

Sorry to hear that
I hope it works out, and that you get a quick replacement.



I haven't tried CD media with my PX-708AS, since I have three 52X LiteOn CD burners between my two PCs, which I hardly use anyway now that DVD burning is affordable and has many advantages.


taz,

Interesting that you mention that the software might have "borked" the drive taz.
I am sometimes a tad nervous when using utilities (like the DVD information utilities that provide media ID), since they may have been written by non-professional programmers, who may accidentally issue drive commands in sequences that could harm the drive (if that is possible?).

[Markz2k]

Wow, sorry to hear about that. LOL mine just showed up today, I read this before I checked out the drive. First time I've been happy a computer component was made in China.

You sure it was made in Japan? The address @ the top is just Plex's info. The manuf location is to the left of the manuf date, small print.

Yep, absolutely positive. It clearly (in small print) says "Made in Japan" As for PlexTools, I never installed it cause Plextor doesn't provide an installable version with the drive. On their site, however, the changelog for V2.07 says added PX-708A support.

The box was in good shape. The one thing that was weird is that there was no Plextor sticker sealing the box like on other Plextor drives I've seen. It doesn't look like there was a sticker and it was removed; it looks like no sticker was ever there.

Just bad luck, I suppose. I'll be going back to BestBuy soon to return/exchange it.

[VEFF]

I think the "no sticker" thing could mean it was a defective exchange that shouldn't have been up on the shelf in the first place.

[Markz2k]

I think the "no sticker" thing could mean it was a defective exchange that shouldn't have been up on the shelf in the first place.

So, did yours have a sticker? Was it made in China or Japan? I exchanged it today at BestBuy for a new one. Same thing, drive made in japan. (With a black Made in Japan sticker on the outside of the box) Box didn't have a sticker, and looks like there was never a sticker there. Must be part of a very early production run, or maybe even a pre-production run. (S/N ends with 5633; TLA is 0000) So, far it works ok; I was able to read CD's.

Neither this drive or the previous one appears to be a return. The s/w disc and the blank DVD were still sealed, and the bag the drive was in appeared unopened.

Looks like I forgot to put the original blank DVD+R disc in the box when I returned it. Oh well, now I have 2.

[VEFF]

Mine had a sticker.

The box says "Made in China".

TLA # is the same as yours.
S/N ends with a different set of four digits.



ADDENDUM (added after originally posting this message):

You mentioned that yours might have been part of an early run.
Mine was manufactured in August 2003 (according to the sticker on drive itself).
I forgot the exact date in August, although it might have only mentioned the month; I can't remember exactly.

When was yours manufactured?

[bobmitchell]

I purchased one from Best Buy on Saturday. Mine did not have a sticker on it, either. The only thing holding the box closed was a flap...When I was in the store...I checked the contents in the box...everything was there. The drive was in a plastic (sealed) wrapper. The manual and software were both in sealed bags as well. The Plextor DVD+R disk was still sealed as well. I think that this is the way they were put together. I don't think you got a return...they weren't out long enough to be returned. My box has the "Made in Japan" sticker on it. Everything works fine... I have been using with Nero 5.5.10.42, InCD 3.5.24 doesn't recognize the drive...but InCD 4xx is junk thus far. In addition, I installed Easy CD Creator 6.1.1.7 off the enclosed software as well. All in all...nice drive. To push the issue a bit...I first burned three or four full 700 MB music disks....Then I copied my WinXP Professional disk...then did a few movie backups using DVD Decrypter, DVD2One and Nero...using Verbatim Data Life Plus 4X DVD+R. The burner did the movies in 7:23 and 7:26 respectively...both in good quality....Also erased 6 2.4X DVD+RW disks using Nero to erase...took 24 minutes each...I am very happy with this drive so far....It's a winner.

BTW...my TLA is also 0000. Build date is August 2003 as well.


Bob

Addendum:

I just examined my box with a magnifying glass. There was NEVER a sticker on this box. As stated earlier...the only thing holding the box closed was a flap. No glue residue, nor leftover markings at all. The box is perfect as is.

[Markz2k]

You mentioned that yours might have been part of an early run.
Mine was manufactured in August 2003 (according to the sticker on drive itself).
I forgot the exact date in August, although it might have only mentioned the month; I can't remember exactly.

When was yours manufactured?

Mine is also August 2003. Doesn't specifiy a day.
So far, it works fine. The brand new verbatim worked fine, the older one failed partway through. Did a full erase, and tried again, it wrote it ok. The disc is a bit scratched, but not that much.

Drive seems a bit more sensitive to media than other drives I've used. Hopefully, a firmware update will improve things a bit. I just copied a DVD+RW to another DVD+RW. (Source drive is Pioneer DVD-106S)

[VEFF]

Markz2k:
I am glad to hear that your replacement drive works fine
I guess it was just bad luck...

[aviationwiz]

There's always that one drive in every batch that just doesn't work right.

Glad to here your new one is working. Enjoy your PX-708A!