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Slimtype DVDRW SOSW-833S Media Problems
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sahmraw
Newbie
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15. March 2006 @ 13:10 |
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But who would I return it to? My insurance company was only authorised to offer me this laptop as a replacement for mine which was an emachines. I am using my trusty NEC in an external caddy. It burns nicely at 16x. My friend has an aspire with the sempron. His dvd burner is burning fine and it is the same one. he is going to load win xp pro on it for me this weekend. He says that has helped him a lot. The soft loaded xp in the acer recovery make sthe pc less efficient. Will keep you all posted.
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TEW999
Newbie
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24. March 2006 @ 01:25 |
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hi i had the same probs when i first got my acer aspire 3003wlmi and i couldnt work out wot was wrong so i got rid of the softload winxp home and tried xp pro sp2 and it worked fine after that i can burn a full dvd in 13 minutes and it picks up on datawrite 8 speed DVD-R and burns then at that i am still on vrs2 firmware aswell i have come to believe that it is the winxp softload also since i got rid of the softload and hardloaded it i can play games better like unreal tournament 2004 etc hope this helps
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sahmraw
Newbie
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24. March 2006 @ 04:34 |
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TEW999 If am not mistaken you also reformatted my hard drive the other day as well. Since the reformat, it has worked a lot better. It burns +RWs faster and will pick up my 8x discs @ 8x, though it can still take around 20 mins to burn a disk. BUT.... this is a lot better than it was before. So thanks for the reformat:) The softload is terrible and eats the ram a lot. Now it is hard loaded it runs faster, never locks up and will even play tso better. The drive is still terrible and I think the fact that AMD chips run burning programmes a lot better than intel chips. The 1640 series is centrino and your 3000 series is sempron. COuld this also be a factor?
BTW welcome to Afterdawn Tom :) hugs
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mikmik21
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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31. March 2006 @ 01:18 |
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hi guys i have the same drive in my laptop and was having trouble with the media i was using for a couple of years on my desktop with no problem so i went to pc world last night and bought some new discs i got sont 8x +r which showed at 8x in Nero and i burned a full dvd movie and it took 13m 12s i also got verbatim 8x-r which took 14m10s for the same movie now it says it burned successfully at 8x and the movie played no problems on my dvd player as well but that timing is very close to 4x which took 16m 5s i also got verbatim cd-r 52x and they burned perfectly at 24x i'm very happy with the cds but speed for the dvds is still not right. it is illegal to advertise something that won't do what is says so if this drive does work at the full speeds that they say then acer should inform us of which media that works at the stated speeds
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mikmik21
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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31. March 2006 @ 01:22 |
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hi guys i have the same drive in my laptop and was having trouble with the media i was using for a couple of years on my desktop with no problem so i went to pc world last night and bought some new discs i got sony 8x +r which showed at 8x in Nero and i burned a full dvd movie and it took 13m 12s i also got verbatim 8x-r which took 14m10s for the same movie now it says it burned successfully at 8x and the movie played no problems on my dvd player as well but that timing is very close to 4x which took 16m 5s i also got verbatim cd-r 52x and they burned perfectly at 24x i'm very happy with the cds but speed for the dvds is still not right. it is illegal to advertise something that won't do what is says so if this drive does work at the full speeds that they say then acer should inform us of which media that works at the stated speeds
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sahmraw
Newbie
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31. March 2006 @ 02:14 |
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Have just contacte Acer Support to ask about the illegal advertising issue. They told me to do a system restart using the bios and dvd backup as the files "Must be corrupted". When I read a few Afterdawn posts to him, he was not amused. I said that the drive is faulty and isn't it illegal to advertise something that does not do what it says. He said if a system restart did not work then I would need to bring it in for them to check.. Yeah right and lose my laptop for god kows how long? WHen the laptop is out of warranty, I will consider replacing the drive with one I can get from SVP for £55. This is an NEC burner and ake care.they are always reliable. Seems to me the only thing to do..... T
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Fishman
Newbie
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1. April 2006 @ 14:39 |
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I've been playing with ACER Aspire 3610 since november last year. I have the same problem with burning the dvd and also the ordynary cd discs. Moreover when I copy/burn anything from/into dvd/cd the system slows dow n horribly too. It takes about 11 min to copy 700 MB from cd!!! I realy do't know what to do with this piece of sh... When I'm playing a dvd movie on it, it also is slowed and the sound is going blocky... I thought at first it might be some kind of virus and now, when I had read all the posts in this topic, I know the fault is in the hardwear. If you had any problems as mine (the system slowdown) please, post it. Maybe you know how to repair it.
:)
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sahmraw
Newbie
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1. April 2006 @ 22:27 |
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If you are still using the original software then you will really need to get a copy of windows xp (pro is better than home and you can get a cheap oem copy on ebay) and reformat your pc. You need to backup as much data as possible using the NTI backup software first.
Once the pc is reformatted install the drovers from your restore cds/dvd that I presume you made when you first activated the pc. Then you load all the correct drivers onto the pc. Then install any programmes you choose. I recommend Nero instead of NTI. It took over an hour to burn a dvd yesterday even though it said 8 speed! Using Nero it takes about 30 mins on an 8 speed disk.
I also use imgtoolburn to burn ts folders, erase rewriteable discs etc. It is freeware. Just put Imgtoolburn into a search engine and go to coujo's portal.
I find that having the PC hard loaded it is a lot better. It is not the best laptop I've seen, but as I got it as a insurance replacement I can't complain too much! I find that I can now run The SIms 2. I also use freeram XP by Yourware. This freeware programme frees up ram and helps to keep your pc running smoothly. I find that by having the ram optimised things run smoother, but only on a hard loaded system. Hope this helps :)
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wowseruk
Junior Member
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7. May 2006 @ 08:06 |
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I had an Acer laptop - it was stolen - it did most things fine - the main problem with it was that I could not burn DVD's -
it was always hit and miss as to whether they'd have CRC errors or not - even writing at the slowest speed in safe mode.
I was told that probably this was due to lack of memory - it had 256mb....
The (insurance) replacement was a higher spec machine with XP Pro instead of XP Home and 512mb instead of 256mb.
However the new laptop had a CD-rw/DVD-r combo instead of a DVD-RW that the original had - I had this upgraded (at the
insurers expense) to a DVD-RW with a proper Acer drive (guess what a Slimtype DVDRW SOSW-833S) fitted by a local (but non approved) computer shop.
After about a month of use my machine developed a problem that meant that it could not play any media from any source -
audio (mp3/audio CD/wav etc) or video (mpg, AVI, DVD) from any source (CD/DVD, hard disk, Lacie external hard disk) without
jumping and stuttering.
I tried everything I could think of and eventually 'bit the bullet' and decided to rebuild it - to find that the recovery CD
supplied would not work with the new drive.
So I took it to the aforementioned computer shop who rebuilt it.
All was hunky dory for about a month - but now I'm back in 'jumpy/stuttery media mode' again without any real reason
(no new programs/no viruses/spyware/defragged etc) - AND - I've discovered that it seems incapable of writing either a CD or
DVD reliably without CRC errors - even in safe mode at the lowest write speeds.
I really feel like throwing the bloody thing out.
My questions are:
1. Should my machine be capable of writing clean CD/DVDs (why do laptop makers sell machines with DVD-rws if you can
never actually write one with it!) - out of a dozen CD/DVDs written only 2 DVDs are clean.
2. Can I copy my old 'recovery' disc to my hard disc and write it with a new bootstrap that will work with my DVD-RW - so at
least I can rebuild the machine myself (I've tried this - but see point 1).
3. What might be causing my machine to be unable to play media - it seems to me that it must be a 'system' rather than a
'sound/graphics card' or drive problem as it's so universal.
I'm really pretty fed up with it all.
Any help you can give would be much appreciated - and feel free to ask any questions that may be of use.
Thanks in advance.
Tony
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Fishman
Newbie
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7. May 2006 @ 08:33 |
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I've had the same problem with my acer laptop (As I had written earlier in this topic). I made the recovery (with my Acer recovery DVD) and than it was OK but there was still a problem with reading/writing cd's/dvd's. At firs, when I had bought that comp. it was everything OK and beautiful. But than, one day it started going "jumpy/stuttery" as you had written (Tony). And I also think it has something to do with the system. A friend of mine, who has got a Sony Vaio, said there was a hidden particion on his disc containing some recovery system data, and he just removed it. I don't know if there is sth like that on our comp.'s but I will try to find out if there is and try to make sth with it. Maybe it would help.
:)
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wowseruk
Junior Member
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7. May 2006 @ 08:40 |
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Thanks Fishman!
Was the jittery/juddery playback on all formats from all sources or just the dvd drive?
Tony
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wowseruk
Junior Member
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7. May 2006 @ 08:43 |
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I've just discovered something - the instructions that came with my recovery disc told me to go to BIOS and select the cd/dvd drive then reboot.
This doesn't work..... in fact it seems to make a perfectly good boot disk not work.
I've just inserted the recovery cd and rebooted ignoring all the rubbish about the bios and the recovery cd works fine.....
Tony
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Fishman
Newbie
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7. May 2006 @ 08:50 |
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I think it was not beacause of media or anything. I've noticed huge jumps of CPU usage in the Task Menager... It's the same now when I'm copying data from CD/DVD or when I'm writing a CD/DVD. As far as I am persnaly concerned, I think it's some kind of system fault. Once when I was copying a big file from DVD the system once again started to go blocky but than I've done system recovery, but the one that Win XP provides and it was OK since than excluding the problem with the optic drice I've mentioned earlier.
:)
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sahmraw
Newbie
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7. May 2006 @ 22:25 |
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I still of the acer as a piece of junk. I've found it ok to use, but have given up on using the dvd burner for dvds. I can burn dvd rws that play, but now I am just going to buy an external setup from SVP. Get a USB caddy for 14.99 and a dvd burner (Philips writes everything) for £20 and cheap postage (sign up for their buyers club for free and get special offers emailed). You can slo get your discs damn cheap from there as well. The external will not burn as fast as with other laptops, BUT it will burn reliably and somewhat faster than the piece of c in this laptop. Not a perfect solution, but a reaosnable one at under £40 inc postage.
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vanstam
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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4. June 2006 @ 15:48 |
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HOW I MANAGED TO BURN DVDs AT 8x with SOSW-833S
Hello to all
I know this thread is a month old but I recently figured out what was wrong with my SOSW-833s drive and I post the solution here as it might help others with similar problems.
It is going to be a long post. I will describe my problem first; then the solution and I will give some general advice in the end.
So,
The problem:
I got a new Acer 5024 (1Gb ram, 100gb hd Samsung, ati x700 e.t.c.) back in November. Since the beginning I had problems with the SOSW-833s burner, more or less the same with those described by many other people in this thread.
Briefly,
-Write speed was very slow (less than 1x) despite Nero showed 8x or 4x or 2x during burning. Usually it took 3-4 hours to burn a 4gb dvd. I had the ?buffer level? problem. During writing buffer level was fluctuating between 20%-40%.
-The same occurred with CD burning at high speeds >8x (if memory serves right)
-Video playback was slow and crappy
-Copying large files was slow
-NTI software and NTIbackup refused to recognise the drive as a DVD burner (still do!). Only CD burning was possible.
I didn?t do anything (like firmware update e.t.c) because I suspected a hardware problem and send the laptop back to Acer immediately. They diagnosed a faulty drive and installed a new one.
Notably Acer support was very good (UK). I phoned them, explained the problem and they give me their courier details along with their customer number to arrange a pick-up. Next week I had my laptop back with a new drive (oh joy!).
Unfortunately, the problem persisted!
I guess they don?t bother troubleshooting and why should they? The description seemed like a faulty drive so they change the drive. I think it is easier and cheaper for Acer and any other company to change the drive and get refunded by the drive manufacturer rather spending a whole day or more troubleshooting.
Anyway, I was very pissed off (for a second time). This time I updated the firmware from VRS2 to VRS3 and to my surprise the problem (almost) solved.
-Video playback was OK
-Copying files was improved
-Burning DVDs was possible at 4x. At 8x, I got the usual ?buffer problem? and burning a DVD took 4 hours.
-NTI DVD Maker still didn?t recognise the drive as DVD burner
I was (almost) happy.
However, after a couple of months the same problems showed up. DVD burning was not possible at reasonable speeds (not even at 1x), video playback crappy e.t.c. Now, I can recall that the problems showed up after a friend of mine tried to burn something on a cheap, crappy DVD. Unfortunately, I don?t remember the brand.
And while I was ready to send the machine back to Acer for the second time, I accidentally found out the real source of the problem (at least in my case):
It is not the drive that is faulty, it is the IDE channel that transfers data very slow.
In my case Windows (XP Home) had downgraded IDE transfer to PIO mode instead of the much faster DMA. I believe that this is the problem in most cases described in this thread although it is possible that some drives are indeed faulty.
I solved it and now I am able to burn DVDs and CDs at maximum speeds (8x) and (24x) and video playback, file copying are perfect.
Just for the reference: 4.3gb burning takes 11-12 min depending on the type of files (large files, DVD images e.t.c). During burning, buffer level is always at 98-100%
SOLUTION
What to do if you experience similar problems:
First, go to Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE/ATA/ATAPI controllers,
double-click secondary IDE channel (that?s the DVD drive) > Advanced Settings.
In Device 0, Transfer mode should be ?DMA if available? and Current Transfer mode ?Ultra DMA mode 2?.
If it is in PIO mode then you have the same problem with me. Good news is you can solve it.
Even if it is not in PIO mode give it a try and do the following things. Windows home sucks, so you never know!
The solution is to change the transfer mode back to Ultra DMA mode. The simplest way is to uninstall the DVD drive from Device Manage > DVD/CD-ROM drives and reboot. Windows automatically installs the drive on the next startup and reset IDE channel to the fastest possible mode.
That?s what happened with the firmware update I did and I thought it solved the problem. Actually, what happens is that after the firmware update Windows re-install the drive and subsequently reset the IDE channel mode.
If it doesn?t work see here for a detailed overview and troubleshooting of the IDE channel modes
http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm
Actually, ?DMA reverts to PIO? is a very common cause of DVD burning failures.
A more drastic solution is to install Windows XP PRO. Windows Home uses different version of drivers from Windows PRO and I believe that Win Home?s IDE/ATAPI drivers are crap. Also, the weird implementation with the NTIDRV.SYS could be another problem. Why Acer decided to use a driver from NTI for their laptops is something really strange.
Interestingly, when I installed Windows PRO on the second partition the drive worked fine without the NTIDRV.SYS. Just imapi.sys and cdrom.sys were used. After installing NTI CD/DVD Maker the NTDRV.SYS showed up.
Now I have dual boot WIn Home and Pro. Under Win Pro NTI Maker recognises the drive properly and burns DVDs while in Windows Home it still cannot recognise it as a DVD burner. However, Nero burns DVDs at maximum speed in both systems.
General Suggestions:
1. Check the transfer mode. It should be in Ultra DMA and not PIO mode
2. Defragment partitions and convert at least one to NTFS. It is also necessary to burn large files > 2gb. Defragmented hard disks is another hint for efficient DVD burns.
3. Use blank DVDs that you have tested working. Crap or incompatible DVDs are common causes of burn failures. If you use crap DVDs Windows might downgrade transfer mode to PIO! Note that DVD drives cannot read and write some DVDs even if they are of good quality. It?s a common issue with most DVD drives. Firmware updates sometimes help to solve it.
Use Nero InfoTool or something like that to check the disc?s manufacturer. Personally, I have only tried few brands. I managed to burn at maximum speed with
Octron DVD-R 1x-8x (RITEKG05)
Gigatain DVD+R 1x-4x (n/a)
Creation DVD-R 1x-8x (OPTODISCR008)
TDK DVD-R 1x-8x (RITEKG05)
Mitsubishi DVD-R 1x-8x (MJC ME) is totally CRAP! They are supposed to be max 8x but Nero detects max speed 1x. Actually, I ?ve never managed to burn something on those shits because of a "could not perform disc-at-once" error. So stay away.
4. If possible install Windows XP Pro
5. Get rid of NTI CD/DVD Maker and NTI Backup and use Nero.
I hope my post helps and saves form the hassle of returning the machine or buying an external drive.
Van.
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Fishman
Newbie
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5. June 2006 @ 01:15 |
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You are geniuos Van ... thanks a lot!
:)
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sahmraw
Newbie
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5. June 2006 @ 06:40 |
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Thanks mate will try. I have gotten xp pro on it within a week. Still burns discs badly. I have been using ridsik. Anyway I tried and tried to get narnia to burn and play, but it would only play on a rw. I hd the image on my external hard drive and burnt it to disk on my desktop. The disk plays perfectly. So it was the crappy acer that was the problem. Will try the ultra dma thingy and see. Thanks a lot mate :)watch this space
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sahmraw
Newbie
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5. June 2006 @ 08:44 |
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I have just checked all the details on my device manager.... Your laptop is unique in that acer bothered with 2 IDE channels. Anyway I have both HDD and DVD on primary IDE channel. BUT it is already set up for DMA Ultra DMA so this does not help me. I guess I will only ise RW discs on the laptop and use my desktop for dvd burning with my external HDD. But thanks for the help an glad it helped you :)
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vanstam
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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5. June 2006 @ 11:29 |
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It is really strange that you have only one IDE channel. Other people with the same machine confirmed that? The common setup is to have one dual IDE controller and two channels (like mine).
Anyway, give it a try and install WIN Pro on the other partition, not on top on the WIN HOME. It could be some sort of system fault / driver installation issue e.t.c.
After installing WIN Pro, install Nero and nothing else! Not NTI crap, no Daemon Tools, no alcohol e.t.c. I 've read somewhere that they can interfere with the ATAPI/IDE drivers.
Oh and check out the link I gave in my previous post. It is really good and you might find something useful.
Good luck
Van.
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sahmraw
Newbie
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6. June 2006 @ 02:01 |
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Hi there I have a 1642 wmli I have reformatted the hard drive and installed XP Pro as a clean install. I just have one IDE channel. I am annoyed as I build and fix PCs all the time. This piece of junk was a replacement for an older emachines and is actually worse than the older machine. But still that's by the by. I have done everything and the burner will not work properly. Thanks for the help anyway.
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vanstam
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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12. June 2006 @ 16:34 |
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I know this can be frustrating...but a friend of mine has a 1642 wlmi.
I was really curious about the one IDE channel you said and checked his laptop. Indeed it has only one IDE channel with two devices. Device 0 is the HD (Ultra DMA 5) and Device 1 is the DVDRW (Ultra DMA 2).
However it reads and writes discs with no problems. He burns 4.3gb within 12-14 minutes at 8x.
The drive is not the Liteon SOSW, it's a AVX X-something..
So maybe it's not the one IDE channel your problem...
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sahmraw
Newbie
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13. June 2006 @ 00:20 |
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As i thought.... cr@ppy liteon. Can I replace the drive with another one? I can get an NEC from SVP.co.uk for about £50. WOuld it be easy to change?
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TEW999
Newbie
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13. June 2006 @ 00:24 |
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hi you can replace the drive but to take the existing drive out is not how you would think the screw to take the drive out is under the keyboard
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sahmraw
Newbie
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13. June 2006 @ 08:53 |
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eeek. so I could end up busting gthe silly thing? Gah! Why couldn't acer just use a decnt drive after all the complaints they get about his one. It costs enough money to buy and they are allegedly a decent laptop manufacturer, though I personally think their build quality it cr@p
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Tanya69
Newbie
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25. June 2006 @ 15:17 |
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I Have an Acer Aspire 3610 with the Philips DVD +RW SDVD8441. I had problems burning anything to DVD backing up or copying anything. I resolved the CD burning problem, by updating Nero, but i'm having problems again. I end up with an unsuccessful or failed burn whenever burning anything in Nero. Nero is fully up to date. I can copy photos to cd no probs, but not anything else! I am updating drivers as we speak. Its also appears I only have 1 IDE channel (not that I know what that means!)
Anyone got any suggestions if updating driver doesn't work?
In fact, its found no new drivers. Aaaarrrgghhh. I have wasted so many CD's as it is, getting increasingly frustrated. Sat near a window, laptop may get thrown out soon...!
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Tanya :o)
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