HP CDWRITER 8200... help

[dizzynoodle]

hey all,

I plunged into converting my external HP Cdwriter 8200e into an internal drive... the process was easy and it strated working again ! It burned a whole CD with no errors...but the problem was it did it only once.... the first try ! After that i am back again to not being able to burn any CDs... it keeps telling me to put an empty CD into the writer [i am using Adaptec/Roxio EasyCD Creator 5 Platinum] i have tried to put about 20 brand new CDRs into the drive it did not work keeps telling to put empty CDR !!!

I need to write so many CDS...no more HDD space as well as bacvkups...

I tried to uninstall the software and re-install, itried to re-install the drive physically, did not work. The drive seems to be recognized correctly by Win2k...

any ideas to help me out ???


thanx

Dizzynoodle

[Liquid Snake]

Converting an external drive to an internal drive? How did you do that?

[dizzynoodle]

easy !

just open up the HP provided casing ... una sseble the intenal kit and you will have an internal drive in your hand ! cool !

[ayoub_ibrahim]

have you tried looking for a firmware update?

[PowerHungry]

Does it read any CDs?

It is possible that the laser lens inside is dirty, and is not correctly picking up the inserted CD.

I had that happen (though not with a CD-RW drive) a couple of times.

I did the same external/internal conversion to an HP 2x2x6 drive and stuck an old HDD into the old case. Instant BU Drive!

[Fat Tone]

What speed/type of discs are you using? From memory the 8200e is only 4x, and I used to have problems with some types of discs more than others. TDK blues were best. Samsung golds and Imations were just expensive coasters.

HTH

Tony.

[EchoWars]

The HP 81xx and 82xx series were steaming piles of dog-doo. If you ever burned anything with it, you got your money's worth. Chuck it and find a new burner.

[dizzynoodle]

wow

thanx guys for all the help.... these are my comments on the replies i have received ;

1. I have to find a way of cleaning the lens !!! Should o use one of thos cleaning CDs ! It seems to read Cds fine, writing is the problem though ! SO shall i clean ???

2. I am using Multispeed CDs [from a spindle] as well as Kodak Gold which all work on my office HP9500 [12X8X24 or something !] do u think i need to try other brands... i have my doubts it's the CD brand....

3. I checked for a firmware... none available for the drive under win2k

4. Is it true? these drives are crap ? Should i not be wasting time with it... even though i cannot afford a new drive ! ;(


thnx all.

[dizzynoodle]

DID THE HARD DRIVE WORK FINE ?!?!

GREAT IDEA... did the HDD work fine without any further tweaks ? was the speed slow, Plug'N'PLay suported ?!? I would purchase a new HDD to achive that kind of a setup id it works, it will save me burning CDs to transfer big fikles daily from office to work and vice versa. Thanx

[Fat Tone]

Dizzy

1. It never hurts to clean the lense on all your optical drives every so often. A CD with bristles on it can only go so far. The most effective way is to dissasemble the drive and use an invertible air duster.

2. Many will tell you of preferences for discs. Trial and Error will show.

3. Firmware is not OS specific, it is machine specific.

4. I used one for quite a while. The miss-rate was quite high, but if you keep the burn-rate down, ensure NOTHING else is running whilst burning and choose the right discs, then it wasn't bad for its day. I'm using a 7100e as an internal drive right now. If i treat it gently its ok.

Good Luck

Tony.

[dizzynoodle]

A fact i guess !

I guees u are right, the 7 and 8 series are moody. I have the 9500 in the ofice and boy is it stable... nearly 100% performance at 12X writes ! Maybe i should upgrade after all.

Is pulling the drive apart a very sensitive process ? i don't mind trying it as a last resort

Also do you if i should go for a Plextor 16X as the safest choice ? It is a bit expensive for me, but i NEED to be able to write Cds often. I have come across an ACER 16X10X40 for quite cheap where i live about US$ 140! were as the plextor is about U$ 220
watcha think ?

[Fat Tone]

Pulling a drive apart is not too sensitive. Its mainly a question of figuring out what clips to what etc. As a general guide you have to loosen the face plate and remove top and bottom halves of the case. As long as you don't prang anything you should be ok.
I've found that manually relasing the tray by an inch helps sometimes.

If you are buying a new drive, make sure it is BURN proof (there are a couple of different names from this), and biggesr cache is better. Can you get CDRs at those speeds readily?
As to which model is best - opinions please. The only fast drive I've used is the Richoh 12 speed which so far works 100%.

Good Luck

Tony.

[dizzynoodle]

it is very common to find media supporting 16X around.

Thanx for your help.. i guess i wll take my 9500 from the office tonite just so i can copy my stuff at home and look into cleaning the drive as well tonite ! Just before i buy a new one !!!

Do you think i will have a problem with a 16X CDRW ona PII machine with 384mgs RAM, ie.e will the drive choke on the speed of the machine ?

dizzynoodle

[Fat Tone]

16 speed is 2.5Mb/sec. You could bench your hard drive to see if it will do that, but I guess it should if you ensure nothing else is happening. I doubt the cpu will have a problem.

Tony.

[Wombat]

The 16x drives only burn at 16x some of the time. It burns at 12x for a good portion of the disc.