Topic: dell laptop dvd recorder?

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

anyone have a functioning DVD recorder in their dell laptop?  this thing IDs as a sony but it doens't record using roxio or dvd-decryptor when I try to put an iso to a blank disc?

[Gordon]

mine works fine using nero.  dvd-decryptor doesn't burn just rips.  I had to upgrade my firmware to get 8x. 

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

which drive do you have?

i upgraded to a sony/dell DW-Q58A.  It reads fine but I get errors when I try to write. 

and I waited until the night before we leave to test it 

[Gordon]

that's what mine is.  upgrade the firmware.

here are some threads on the drive

http://club.cdfreaks.com/search.php?searchid=1870453


firmware, post 40

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=148989&page=2&pp=25

or go here

most of the way down

http://codeguys.rpc1.org/firmwares.html

Sony DW-Q58A (rebadged LiteOn SOSW-8?3S)
• UYS2 - stock (2005/05/16 and 2005/06/30)
• UYS3 - stock (2005/08/12)

I am using the UYS2 without issue.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Thank you!!!



BTW, i believe that dvd-decrypter has a mode that will write ISOs for doing exact copies of DVDs.  It won't write a file tree but I have mkisofs that works for that.

[jlykos]

I just got mine switched after having nothing but problems with the Sony that it came with.  I never got over 2.4x on the writer, even after upgrading the firmware.  The Sony also wouldn't read discs properly and had all sorts of issues.  Dell came over this week and switched it with an NEC that works a hell of a lot better than the Sony.  If your machine is still under warranty, it may be worth a shot to replace the drive altogether.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I bought the drive off ebay so Dell isn't involved. 

I did the firmware upgrade and it is working now.  Hopefully it will write good discs.  I'm keeping master copies on HD too just in case.  The discs seem to play fine in my Denon player but I've burned exactly one show.  Maybe I'll be OK.

Edit for future reference:

I tried several versions of firmware trying to resolve some issue with dvd-decryptor not working and I ended up with the version UYS3.  I had a lot of random problems and burned about 30% coasters.  It wasn't reliable even using known good TY media.  I'd have days with no issues then I'd ruin every other disc.  I stepped back to UYS2 and it has been performing solidly for a few dozen DVDs and a few dozen CDs.  Speed is slower than I would want (around 2.4 as mentioned in other post) but good enough.

[Gordon]

hope it works for ya.  the firmware should do the trick.  I bought my laptop new last nov.  the burner came with it and is 24x for cds and 8x for dvds.  out of the box the cds would only burn at about 8-10x and dvds would  burn at 2x or so and coaster.  firmware fixed everything.