Hey!

A couple of weeks ago I exchanged my NEC ND-3500AG for a BenQ DW1640 (actually a Sony DRU-810A) and I've been *very* pleased with the upgrade until now.

I still have a Lite-On LTR-40125S CD ReWriter in my system and lately I've been wondering if there's *anything* the Lite-On can do that the BenQ can't or even can't do better. I know for a fact that the Lite-On hates older media since it's only capable of burning coasters of my good old 8x-12x rated media. I still have a stash of older TDK RefleX (8x/12x), Pioneer Gold (8x), Kodak Ultima Silver/Gold (12x) and Kodak Ultima Gold (12x) media from when the Danish government started to put a heavy tax on media for copyright compensation (yeah, right!).

Anyway, the Lite-On writes on the TDK media are a total write-off regardless of the write speed, while the Kodak media (both types) is readable but with a low-quality score in CD Speed. The DW1640 has problems with neither of the media with not even 1 damaged sector and a quality score in the high 90s. So, as far as I can tell, on pure write quality the DW1640 already wins hands down over the Lite-On.

This leaves things like correct writing of EFM patterns for backup purposes. Does the DW1640 handle this just as well? Also, there might be some other advantages the Lite-On has that I might have forgotten.

Please chime in with your opinions to tell me if the there's any reason to keeping the Lite-On around...

TIA,
az

Azra3l,

If you have a spare empty bay on your PC, I think it's not going to hurt to keep the LTR-40125S CD burner in your system. It can be useful to compare the quality scanning of C1/C2 errors on both drives.

And yes, BenQ DW1640 burns CD very well. There is a thread that you might be interested in: Post your BenQ DW1640 CD media here

Thanks for the reply, Zevia! And also congrats on becoming the latest BenQ forum moderator!

I have plenty of drive bays, so the Lite-On isn't taking any valuable space. It was merely a question of me wondering if the Lite-On still had a special usefulness.

As for C1/C2 scanning, for some weird reason I get a BSOD when using Disc Quality in CD Speed with the Lite-On. It's one of these nasty MACHINE_CHECK_ERROR crashes that are more or less impossible to pin down. Funny thing is, I got the same type of crash with my NEC ND-3500AG (using Scan Disc, since the NEC can't do DQ). The DW1640 that's replaced it works flawlessly, though. Even funnier, neither the Lite-On nor the NEC used to cause a crash. It just started at some point, and sadly I've never been able to nail down the cause. I've had absolutely no issue writing CDs and/or DVDs with either burner, though...

Oh, and just to clear things up. I *do* have current high speed CD media (mostly Riteks in the guise of TDK and Fuji media). I just also happen to have the other stash lying about, including a very limited supply of Mitsui Gold media...

Best regards,
az

Hi Azra3l, thanks.

Nero CD-DVD Speed doesn't support the 40125S (I own the drive) so you need Kprobe to do quality scanning.

Hmm... it used to support the drive, since I've scanned a lot of media with the LTR-40125S. Of course, that's been a while so maybe support for the drive was dropped. I've never been a big fan of KProbe, I have to admit. Seems a bit clunky, even though it does the job.

Maybe I should try an older version of CD Speed. In any case, causing a BSOD isn't a graceful way of letting you know that your drive isn't (any longer) supported. CD/DVD Speed is a great tool, though, so a big "thanks!" from me to Erik Deppe!

Regards,
az