Don´t you worry. The "drive" itself is okay...
More likely there is still a problem with your HW setup and the USB bus.

The best thing to do when troubleshooting HW problems is to LEARN more about your hardware. User Manual can provide a lot of information and be to great help.

You mentioned you still have detection problem. I agree with dishinit, there might be a problem in power supply.
In your BIOS, you can change the strenght of voltage on USB bus. (see attachment.)
Enter BIOS on POST (when compu boots up) by holding down "Delete" button. In BIOS use arrow buttons; --> Advanced -->down to "USB2.0 HS Ref. Voltage", hit Enter and change to "High" with arrow button. Save and Exit with F10+Enter.

BTW, the latest BIOS version is 1014...
Already answered by me above. XP uses STPI for detection of external (USB/1394) devices.

Thanks. I don't know if there power (house current) fluctuation during the day where I live. I don't seem to know much about anything.

But a disc quality scan with the DVD+RW which I recorded some info on with RecordNow. Also does the read speed really get to 16x.

I just got the EW162I (external) drive today. I have not burned any DVDs yet, but I have run the Nero CD-DVD speed test. For the Burst Rate Test (F6) I am only able to get 20 MB/s. My system is a Dell Latitude D800, Pentium M-1.6, 1G RAM, XPSP2. Has anyone been able to get more than 20 MB/s with this drive? Is this fast enough to burn at 16x?

Patrick

Hi Patrick,
I have been following this thread in the hope of learning more about the EW162I external drive that only has USB2 connectivity. This is the first time someone has posted details of their equipment along with a burst rate test.

I have an internal 1620 installed in a Prolific PL-3507 enclosure. With the stock internal drive firmware my burst transfer rates were 19MB/s on USB2 and 22MB/s on Firewire. With the drive flashed with the external firmware my rates went to 20MB/s USB2 and 24MB/s on Firewire.

It's my understanding the internal is UDMA2 and the external is UDMA3. With the external firmware & firewire I can burn at 16X. On the USB side I can only burn at 12X.

I also would like owners of the external to report their findings. It appears the EW162I will only burn at 12X on USB2. I can't believe that BenQ would sell a product that can't burn at 16X.

Would love to know the chipset they are using on the bridgeboard within the case. Maybe this will give us something to work with to resolve the thru-put problem...

With the sony, infodisc and daxon, it is best to record those at 4x if their purpose is movies. Those particular medias can produce choppy playback if recorded fast. Although, results will vary with each different set-top DVD player.
The very next firmware update for that drive is supposed to fix that problem (similar to T9 for the internal).

Hi, seeing how i was stupid and didnt remeber i need usb2, i went and got a pcmcia usb2. prior to doing that, i brought the drive to a friend's place to test and found that it was working fine. But not that i try to connect to my own usb2 ports and burn, using recordnow to burn some documents onto the disc, when ever i press burn, the burner's light flashes red as though it is burning and then after a minute or two, the light switches to a solid green and the next moment i know, it says that there's an error and ejects my disc with no apparent burning done on the disc. Anyone have any ideas?

For those who want to know the chipset of benq ew162i...it is an ALi... the numbers on the chipset are:
ALi
M5621 A1
0428 TH05
XHGNM500000I
Hope this one helps....