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PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8631
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mega6
Newbie
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6. March 2006 @ 12:31 |
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hi,
dell changed my 8631 about a month ago, and the new one appears to be okay. the technician said it was 'probably just dust on the laser lens'. anyway, the problem was sorted, but i had asked for the NEC to replace the Philips, and this request was not seriously entertained - i thought that was a heavy-handed attitude: 'the customer is always wrong'? but i am keeping an attentive eye on the replacement Philips; i would have been happier with the NEC
ric
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marsue
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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7. March 2006 @ 08:00 |
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Today I received another courier delivery from Dell. This time they had packed for me a NEC Model ND-3530A. I have tried to find out about it on the internet, but it does not seem to be mentioned much. Anyone know about it, or can I assume that all NEC are better than the Phillips 8631? There are no instructions, or a installation disc with the NEC drive, so I am hoping that I can just fix it into the machine and it will go??? Any information will be much appreciated.
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Senior Member
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7. March 2006 @ 10:18 |
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Hey,
Quote:
Today I received another courier delivery from Dell. This time they had packed for me a NEC Model ND-3530A. I have tried to find out about it on the internet, but it does not seem to be mentioned much. Anyone know about it, or can I assume that all NEC are better than the Phillips 8631? There are no instructions, or a installation disc with the NEC drive, so I am hoping that I can just fix it into the machine and it will go??? Any information will be much appreciated.
You have won the Jackpot !
I have a Dell OEM NEC-3450a (Replacing this crap Philips DVD8631) and purchased a NEC-3550a and cannot be more happy, with both drives.
You should be a happy customer too !
I have read the NEC-3450a is the Dell OEM of a NEC-3500a
Now for this NEC-3530a, might be a Dell OEM of the 3550, man you are in business !!!!
VSO Software Golden Membership Proud Owner / VSO Software Beta Tester
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marsue
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7. March 2006 @ 11:07 |
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"You have won the Jackpot !
I have a Dell OEM NEC-3450a (Replacing this crap Philips DVD8631) and purchased a NEC-3550a and cannot be more happy, with both drives. You should be a happy customer too ! I have read the NEC-3450a is the Dell OEM of a NEC-3500a Now for this NEC-3530a, might be a Dell OEM of the 3550, man you are in business" !!
I am pleased about this Cougar, I was not sure about the model number, I asked for the NEC 3450A. It took a "polite" battle and Dell again sending me another Phillips unit, but I refused, spoke to the manager and told her I would not accept the Phillips. She was not pleased. But yes, I am happy as my warranty runs out in a couple of days so wanted to be sure to install a better drive. I hope that I can get it working - I have never fitted a DVD drive before!
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mega6
Newbie
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7. March 2006 @ 13:44 |
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"I was not sure about the model number, I asked for the NEC 3450A. It took a "polite" battle and Dell again sending me another Phillips unit, but I refused, spoke to the manager and told her I would not accept the Phillips. She was not pleased. But yes, I am happy as my warranty runs out in a couple of days so wanted to be sure to install a better drive. I hope that I can get it working - I have never fitted a DVD drive before! "
try < http://club.cdfreaks.com/ > - they are a friendly bunch and very knowledgeable
ric
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marsue
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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8. March 2006 @ 00:54 |
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Thanks mega6. I have visited the CD freak website and joined. I have posted a question there, so look forward to a reply. Much appreciated.
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UGBIT
Junior Member
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27. March 2006 @ 15:26 |
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Just tell them that you have done some research on the drive and found that a lot of people have had some major problems with it. If you read through this entire thread you'll find some good points to hit them with :)
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marsue
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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27. March 2006 @ 22:42 |
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I received NEC model ND3530A and have fitted this in successfully - so much easier than I had anticipated. So I am very happy with the outcome. My Dell year's warranty has now expired, so I don't suppose that I will have much to do with them now.
Good result though - well done Dell for doing the right thing and not off loading another Phillips drive.
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chanchan
Newbie
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28. March 2006 @ 06:56 |
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thank you all.... thought i was goind mad arguing with PC World about the phillips dvd8631 which is a complete pile of crap. all pc support lines shoud be told of the problems by phillips and stop people wasting money on phone calls to tech support. Hope i get my NEC very soon...
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dylan10
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4. April 2006 @ 06:34 |
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Hi,
Joined this a bit late and i have read almost every comment from day 1.
I have the offending writer bought in conjunction with Dimension 8400, been using mostly 8 speed DVD-R discs, with mostly positive results.
However now I have started using 16 speed DVD-R discs in conjunction with Nero v 6.0 my drive only wants to burn them at 4 speed???
I have downloaded GD30 and flashed drive and now it still will only burn at 8 speed!!!
I am doing something wrong here?
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marsue
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4. April 2006 @ 07:45 |
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Sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems with the Philips DVD8631. I was getting good results with DVD-R 8x speed Datasafe media, then suddenly the blank discs were not being burned, although the I was getting a "Successful burn" message. The Philips would then work for another couple of burns and again fail - all using the same media. I also downloaded the update for the drive, without any further success. I am afraid that the drive is inferior and initially works well before collapsing in a heap. If you are still within warranty get back to Dell asap.
Good luck
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dylan10
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4. April 2006 @ 08:28 |
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Thanks for reply,
I am using datawrite titanium 16 speed, which burnt at 16 speed in the sony DW-Q30A-B2 until fairly recently.But in this piece of crap only burn at 8 speed!!
I have emailed Dell and await their response don`t fancy spending loads of time on the phone.
Funny all this just being down to problems on DVD media, I have had no problems on CDR media
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marsue
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4. April 2006 @ 11:21 |
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I do wish you luck with Dell Dylan. In my recent past experience with Dell they will try to send you another Philips 8631. Although they promised on the telephone that I would receive a NEC, a Philips 8631 arrived by courier. I refused to install this and spoke to a Dell Manager(ess) and she told me that I would have to accept what Dell sent to me. I refused to accept this and I did eventually receive a NEC. I really think that it is the DVD drive that is at fault, rather than the Media. I have used Verbatim, Datawrite and Datasafe (8x) blank media and all work perfectly.
Good luck
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DellHead
Newbie
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9. April 2006 @ 20:28 |
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Hello all! This is an AWESOME forum! N.1 on Google for Philips DVD8631. Ok, so by reading the posts i updated the firmware to GD30 from the Dell website by a link that was posted. I originally had firmware 9D03.
So my question is, what is the difference between firmware and a driver? My driver is 5.1.2535.0. Can I update this too?
Also is the GD30 upgrade the latest one?
Thank you for all replies!
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DellHead
Newbie
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9. April 2006 @ 20:35 |
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And I forgot to mention that Microsoft is the one providing the driver. Should't it be Philips??
Thanx again for any and all replies!
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nickincal
Newbie
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14. April 2006 @ 15:26 |
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This is the worse burner ever! I've burned about 3 CD's in a year and the thing simply stopped working (won't eject, read, burn, close, nothing!). I call Dell and they tell me sorry, your warranty expired 31 days ago! What a piece of junk. NOw I have to go out and spend more money to replace the junk.
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marsue
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14. April 2006 @ 15:52 |
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I am so sorry to hear of your dilemma with the Philips DVD driver. Such a pity that you are out of warranty.
Dell if you read these Forum letters, please change your choice of DVD drives and replace them with something more reliable. You are losing more future Dell customers by using such mediocre drives. I would not recommend anyone to Dell presently because of the problems I have experienced. What could be a very good system turns bad with the use of inappropriate hardware. Wake Up Dell!!
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afty8
Newbie
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3. May 2006 @ 17:16 |
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Hey all! First post, I finally registered, after browsing around this site for years. I have a phillips DVD+-RW that just started acting up, so i took your advice and called dell. I dug around and found a dell tech support number that connected me right to their call center in austin. Thought i'd drop it here, incase anyone here didnt want to take their chances arguing with someone who's hard to understand.
1-800-624-9896
there ya go, have fun.
-afty
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jess76
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9. May 2006 @ 12:02 |
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Hey All who have been frustrated with this peice of junk 8631! It's my first time here and after reading all the posts regarding this 8631,I just wanted to add my two cents. I bought the dell Dimension 4700 at the beginning of April 2005 so I think the "bad batch" is a little larger than what has been thought.
My house was broke in and robbed of my digital camera and camcorder last summer so I never had the need to record onto DVD until now. I FINALLY saved up enough cash to buy replacement cameras and just last week went to burn some images and learned that my DVD-RW is CRAP! My warranty just expired a few weeks ago too! Talk about sh*tty luck! I am clueless about computers and dont know where to go or what to ask for when it comes to purchasing a new DVD-CD RW drive.
Will any work with this computer or do I need a special type? I just want to get pictures and video onto CD or DVD of my family since the damn robber took all of the tapes of my childrens first moments. I'd like something decent (anything will beat what I have now right?) but I am tight on cash too. I dont know what is an average price to pay for a new DVD-RW drive. If anyone can help me get some answers on where and how to purchase- I would REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!!!! Dell stinks! Shouldnt they have some kind of recall for this kind of problem occuring? Ever since my warranty expired I've had all kinds of strange things happening to my computer as if it is programmed to become faulty after warranty expires. Are those of you having problems with the 8631 drive having any other problems as well? just curious THANKS!!! sorry so long here!
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mega6
Newbie
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10. May 2006 @ 13:17 |
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hi,
sorry to hear about all this - trouble-shoot first: check disks for any grease or dust, give drive a burst of canned air in case there is dust inside the writer, messing up the laser; check blank media brands, some work better than others; also make sure there is no program/software clash on the pc - is there another burn software on there? is the anti-virus cutting in? is the pc set to 'hibernate' after a certain amount of time - this can put an invisible blocker on all time-consuming projects, such as edit/burning dvd's
i have no faith in any writer over say 18 months, cause the technology and its requirements are changing so fast - this Philips is my fourth writer: i've said goodbye to an Hitachi whilst a Samsung + Sony which were working great 12 months ago can't be used for burning now - it ain't just Philips!
hope some of this helps?
ric
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ciano
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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22. May 2006 @ 10:18 |
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hi people just thought id share my dell/philips 8631 experience with people,got my dell dimension 3000 in early july and i was very happy.......until 2 weeks later when my philips cd/dvd drive just stopped reading and burning discs..called dell and after they emailed me loads of troubleshoot sheets they eventually said "o i think you may have a technical problem" so they said they would come in 2 days to look at it........1 WEEK later a big red courier truck came to pick up the computer and i was without it for 3 weeks.....they replaced my drive with........another philips 8631...i didnt really mind then because the machine was under warrenty........months passed and one day the drive decided to just die.........i emailed dell but it seems they are just ignoring me so ill keep trying......im guessing from all the posts that it would take a miracle to fix dis drive.....+++++ can anyone tell me wat drive dell puts in their inspiron 1300's
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DellHead
Newbie
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26. May 2006 @ 00:20 |
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Hello All! Good news (for me anyways)! I talked to the Dell phone technical help and when I told him that I had d/l the latest firmware from the Dell website he told me I had done half his job. Then he had me have Windows recognise the drive again. He told me that he wanted me to reseat the cable to make sure it was not ajar but luckily for me he seemed to forget about it as after he returned on the line from putting me on hold he did not mention anything about it. The most AMAZING thing about this story is that even though the guy I talked to could said he was not allowed to request the brand of drive, I got what I wanted anyways THE NEXT DAY!! The next morning a technician came over to install a NEC DVD ND 3530A!
I am SOOO happy!
On a side note... does anyone know where to get the latest firmware for this drive?
ThanX!
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26. May 2006 @ 00:20
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DellHead
Newbie
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26. May 2006 @ 00:28 |
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One more thing... there seems to be another possible solution to getting the drive to work which i found recently. It seems that it is a software update. I found it too late to try but it might help someone else.
Here's the link:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=di...
This forum has been extremely helpful to me! I hope this helps contribute to others!
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Member
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29. May 2006 @ 12:54 |
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I hope I'm not gonna jinx myself for saying this but so far, I'm very happy with my Phillips DVD8701. I tried it with a variety of blank media. Fujifilm -R (TYG02), Verbatim +R and also Verbatim +R DL with not one Coaster so far. Probably because I use good blank media. From hearing all the horror stories about the 8631, I'm just happy I bought my Dell after they stopped shipping that piece of junk (8631).
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Computer: Intel Pentium D 3.0 Ghz dual core CPU, Philips DVD+-RW DVD8701, 1024MB RAM, ATI Radeon 256MB, Nero 6
Always use good quality blank media. Verbatim is always a good call. Don't be seduced by those 50-spindles you find in the $2.99 bin at your local car wash! :) |
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AfterDawn Addict
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1. June 2006 @ 05:55 |
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ok.... here is an update to my Philips 8631!! I bought my Dell XPS last year... it's a year now and I never, every had any problems that your guys are having with this drive!My brother has the same computer as I do and I found out that the drives made before April of 2005 must have had a defect in them. My philips 8631 has produced 1200 DVDs as of this date and here is a scan of the quality of one of them:
 quality score of 99.80% and notice the firmware is GD30 and it's been great since day one April 30,2005!
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 1. June 2006 @ 05:57
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