CD-R Problem (HP 4020i)

[nehalmistry]

Hi,

i have a 4020i made my HP.... it was one of the first mass produced and mass marketed cd-r drives. unfortunately, it wasn't well made.... here's my problem(which is quite common):

even though the cd-r is given a letter drive, when i try to read the drive from explorer... i get error "device not ready" which obviously means windows doesnn't recognize that there is a cd inside it... and the only time the light flashes is when i close the tray.... i can't even upgrade or downgrade the firmware... (but i do have the latest anyway)
i cant even write to it!!! which renders the drive no more useful than a paperweight...

what is wrong and how do i fix it???

thx for all ur help...

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P5A-B AMD K6-266@300
Matrox Milleniumm G200 AGP (oh, lets party)
Creative SB Awe32 (a classic, superb card)
Realtek 8029A NIC Card
64meg Ram
Ali V agp chipset
ICQ UIN: 24730025

[thecurse]

http://www.cdrecorderclassnotice.com

dunno how good it will do you tho if you are not in USA......


/edit blah i typed in the url wrong the first time... edit/

[This message has been edited by thecurse (edited 16 August 2000).]

[This message has been edited by thecurse (edited 16 August 2000).]

[nehalmistry]

well i live in canada, and it doesnt say anything about USA only.... but i would prefer fixing myself.... i dont want to go through all that hastle and i shouldnt hafta... but i guess if i can't fix it i have no choice... thx for the link....

edit: mispelled a word
------------------
P5A-B AMD K6-266@300
Matrox Milleniumm G200 AGP (oh, lets party)
Creative SB Awe32 (a classic, superb card)
Realtek 8029A NIC Card
64meg Ram
Ali V agp chipset
ICQ UIN: 24730025

[This message has been edited by nehalmistry (edited 16 August 2000).]

[The PIT]

Has it ever worked?

[cjolley]

Assuming it's IDE, try this....
1, Put it on a separate cable from your HD ie Put it on the second IDE channel.
2, If you have the option, disable "Delay Transaction" in your bios.
chuck

[thecurse]

see but thing is with the lawsuit you can get a new cd burner.

but _if_ you want to fix it yourself and not get a new burner go here: http://www.cdmediaworld.com and click on fixing the philips drives

[nehalmistry]

i went to many sites regarding the lawsuit, and all of them tell us to not replace it ... waste of time.... because they have not fixed the bug in the hardware and it WILL break down again...... VERY few people have had a HP burner and been satisfied... especially owners of the 4020 or 6020....

thecurse: i cant find it... can you point me to the exact url please.. thx..

------------------
P5A-B AMD K6-266@300
Matrox Milleniumm G200 AGP (oh, lets party)
Creative SB Awe32 (a classic, superb card)
Realtek 8029A NIC Card
64meg Ram
Ali V agp chipset
ICQ UIN: 24730025

[thecurse]

well see as part the the lawsuit they must repair to satisfaction or upgrade to newer model.

ok now for howto do the repair urls:
i have not tried any of these repairs myself, but i was looking at them yesterday night. the burning part has not worked on my 2 philips drives (a cdd 2000 and a cdd 2600) for a long long time and now the one does not even read cds.

http://www.rict.freeserve.co.uk/cd26.htm http://www.rict.freeserve.co.uk/cd20.htm http://www.maxtarget.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_repair.shtml

[Tinnes]

Yeah my Philips 3610 has just packed in. I was thinking about replacing it with the HP 8250i but after some of the stories I've heard about earlier models I'm thinking again. Does anybody know if they suffer from the same problems?

[Snake-Eyes]

I don't know from personal experience how reliable the 8250i is, since I have a Yamaha 4416S SCSI unit (nearly 2 years old and going strong). But I'm subscribed to the Adaptec CDR listserv, and of all the problems I've seen owners of that burner have, nearly all have been software problems, and not hardware related (other than maybe making sure that bus-mastering is set properly, etc.)

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Ace

[thecurse]

hardware problem can also vary depending on usage.

i go through a cdr drive every few years. the one for me that lasted the longest was a ricoh drive that used a caddy.

[nehalmistry]

forget it now, well i learned my lesson never by a cd drive from HP... and not only that, since it was one of the first ones out, it cost $700-1000 US if i can remember correctly... which is more than what you can get for the top of the line cd-rw...

i mean you can get a cheap cd-rw for 200 bucks...

------------------
P5A-B AMD K6-266@300
Matrox Milleniumm G200 AGP (oh, lets party)
Creative SB Awe32 (a classic, superb card)
Realtek 8029A NIC Card
64meg Ram
Ali V agp chipset
ICQ UIN: 24730025

[EchoWars]

Ummm...$200 will get you a seriously nice Plextor....

[Wombat]

I've heard mixed things about Ricoh. Plextor had a while where they made bad stuff, but seem to be doing better again ( I just ordered a Plextor 12/10/32A ), and Yamaha has been good.

I don't know what the HP 8000 series is like. HP licenses their CD-Rs. They used to use Phillips, and I don't know what they've been doing, but the new 9300i is a Sony. HP's CD-R support isn't the best (glad I don't work for that part of the company).

[Greebe]

Don't know about that Rob, I converted my Imation 4x4x20 IDE CDRW today into a Ricoh 6x4x20. Works like a champ

I'd definitely reccommend CD Media World to anyone (and have in the past)