Warning: Non 4X or 8X drive owners: Upgrade firmware or...

[VEFF]

One guy didn't bother to upgrade the firmware on his TWO Pioneer 2X A03 drives to allow them to write 4X media properly (at 2X).

He bought some Memorex "2X" media that the mfr had mislabled
as 2X when it was really 4X.
Both his drives died the SAME day, which was the day he burned the Memorex discs.
It wasn't till he looked into why the drives died, that he checked the media, and found it to be 4X media.

Just something to keep in mind!
If you have one of the affected 2X or 2.4X drives and haven't updated your firmware to allow proper burning to 4X media,
then always verify the media speed rating carefully before burning.

[CDRecorder]

That's terrible that that guy's drives both died to to the mislabeled media...

BTW, why should this cause a problem on DVD drives? Burning discs rated for a faster speed on an old drive doesn't seem to hurt CD-RW drives at all; I've burned 100-200 discs on my LTR-12101B, and every one was rated for faster speeds than the 12x speed which that drive allows. The drive still works fine.

[VEFF]

I am not sure what is so different about 4X media, but I do know that there are warning cutouts on top of Memorex media spindles and on sites selling DVD burners about this.

The worst part is that this user was aware of the issue, but he didn't upgrade his firmware because he wasn't planning to use 4X media, and probably didn't want to risk doing a firmware upgrade (always involves some risk), since it may not have improved anything else.

[seaegg]

Speaking of Memorex, my DVR-104 is using FW1.41 I bought a 10 pack of Memorex 4x from Best Buy and they all burned great. I went back a week later after the sale and bought another 10 pack and guess what out of 8 blanks I had 4 that refused to burn and I'm not even going to bother trying to burn the last 2 I have. You know there's no fool like an old fool. I had sworn never to buy Memorex discs again after I had to do over something like 100 audio discs that went belly up after 2 years. However I was desperate and needed media fast so after the first ten burned without a problem I thought hmm maybe Memorex has finally put its quality issues to rest. Big mistake, the hurtful part is that the 1st 10 that burned fine cost $19.99 and the 2nd 10 which were crap quality cost $29.99.

I'm sorry but this time I mean it I will never buy a Memorex DVD blank again ever and fellas if I waver give me swift kick in the butt.

[burninfool]

Memorex DVD-R is made by CMC and is crap but the DVD+R are made by Ricoh and are very good,I use their +R with great results.

I know what you're thinking"yeah but my Pioneer A03/A04 only burns -R" and I say "it's time to retire it and get a dual format".

[seaegg]

Yeah I'd like to get a dual format burner or maybe a cheap reliable 4x +R burner. I noticed prices have dropped significantly recently so maybe I'll wait a wee bit longer all good things come to those who wait.

[CDRecorder]

Have there been any cases of damaged drives for the reason mentioned above that were not Pioneer drives?

[MonteLDS]

scary

[VEFF]

Have there been any cases of damaged drives for the reason mentioned above that were not Pioneer drives?

Great question.
I'd like to know too.

I do know that the warning on Memorex media lists a bunch of manufacturers' 2.4X drives, not just Pioneer...