Second (retail) unit. The first one was defective, this one is dying after less than two months.

Makes screeching, scratching noises during burning at each WOPC step. The drive slows down each time, sometimes down to 0%, and I had I/O errors during the last two test burns. Of course, huge errors at each of these WOPC steps. Lost 4 discs this way.

After the similar bad experience I had with the 1620, despite the extraordinary writing quality and speed of this drive, I wonder if I'll take the Benq route again. Four times in a row... too much for me.

Prepare youself for the funniest scan....

Just out of curiosity, I re-flashed the drive (silly, but who knows?)

Just as I expected, no joy. Definitly a hardware issue...

Sorry to see that Francksoy. Maybe an RMA will result in a new BenQ1650. BenQ 1640 are almost impossible to find on this side of the pond. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Hi Crossg

Looks like it's still widely available here. My usual retailer has some, and two days ago I saw dozens of retail units on a megastore shelf (shelve? damn english!).

I don't mind if I get a 1650 instead, looks like it's more or less the same drive, quality-wise, judging from the extremely similar scans. Actually I have a hard time judging what is really different with this 1650.

When I said I didn't know if I'll take the Benq route again, it's when buying a new drive in the future... for now I want my 1640 replaced! - I still have more than 200 (good old stock) Ritek G04, and none of my other burners can burn these @12X with good quality! Burn them @4X again? Nooooooooo....!

There's also the jitter reporting... great feature...

Damn I love these Benq drives, why are they so fragile!!

Hi Franck. Yeah been there done that with 4 1620's but my 1640's seem to be holding out ok so far (fingers crossed). You could also keep an eye out for the Plextor 755 review, might turn out to be a winner (fingers crossed again) Yes zevia I know this is the BenQ forum.

You can allways try the crossg first aid trick, drop it. (Or was that a 1620? Can't remember)

Q.

That's too bad, Francksoy. My take is to go OEM next time - prices have come down so far that if my OEM BenQ packs it in, I'll just toss it in the garbage and try an LG next time. And no RMA worries, shipping costs, or hours on hold on the phone. They only cost about as much as a decent spindle of blanks anyways. Disposable!

Or, you could go the opposite route and pay 100 Euros for a Plextor PX-755. Phenomenal warranty service, and they pay shipping in both directions (EU only). But I bet you could drive it directly to Plextor's EU headquarters in just a few minutes...

Yep that was my one of my 1640's, still working well today.

Glad that you have warned yourself.

Francksoy: why did you cover the MID? To shy to show us the fake or cheap media? Sorry to hear that btw.

hey Francksoy, have you ever had any other brand burners die on you? I'm asking since you've had so many failures, could your power supply be the problem!?

*LOL* no it just happened this way, didn't notice that actually. I wanted to put the error message out of the way of the scan, while keeping it in view. Didn't pay attention to where I dropped it -

Was a Traxdata G04 actually. The 3 first I lost were TYG02 Verbs. I first thought is was either the discs or the writing speed so I tried another MID... Good point - but my two 1620s were in another machine at the time, and in this one I have a Nec 4550 which works flawlessly. Agreed, maybe the Benq drives are more sensitive...

BTW the first 1640 unit was defective from day 1, it didn't fail from use.

Do you think I should give it a shot?

Definitely not a good idea, mine was on it's way to the garbage can. (I think of them as disposable like ftp1020). Just figured hey why not give it a calibrated whack. Yours looks way worse than mine did.

*LOL* I was joking of course.

I suddenly realise that I haven't even tried to clean the lens... (who knows?) - I have the RMA number but I can still try this (am I naïve...!)

Hehe, I realized you were joking but figured I should say something because sure enough someone would think this is a tried and true fix.

I also had a problem with a BenQ 1640 and an Nec on the same channel. Try the drive (BenQ) without the Nec 4550 connected to the channel and see if that helps. It did for me.

They've ben together in the same machine for two months without any problem, but to be sure I tried your suggestion, no joy.

Cleaning the lens didn't help either.

RMA!

Your first picture remember me this thread, for LG, but applicable to other brand I think ? "grease on the railings"

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=158612

This seems to work, very very clearly here :

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...9&postcount=62