Hi Folks, maybe this thread should be named LG DVD Blues ....
BEWARE: LG DRIVES FAIL and Have INCONSISTENT BEHAVIOUR!
I Had access to try and test 3 different 4040B drives made in july, august and september 2003. ALL OF THEM ARE PROBLEMATIC.
The one from july came with firmware version 1.01, and the other 2 with A300.
I have tested them with firmware version A300, A301 and A302.
Tested with different media with
GOOD RESULTS:
DVD-R [ProdiscS03 4x; PRINCO 4x; maxell MXL RG01 (MasterG 2x); CMC MAG.(Samsung 2x); BeALL(LG 4x); RITEKG03(Imation2x); OPTODISCK001 (noname2x); PRODISCG02(SmartBuy 2x); etc.]
DVD+R [RICOHJPN R00 2.4x (Imation), PRODISC R01 +R (Princo)] ;
DVD+RW [RICOHJPN W01 2.4x(HP,Imation) ; CMC MAG W01 2.4x (Imation,Samsung)].
BAD RESULTS:
DVD-R [Yi Jhan 001 (NoName 2x)-writes ok, read's ok on 4040B, read poorly on many drives and stand alone DVD Players];
DVD+RW [PRODISC W01 2.4x(LC)-writing uncorrectable bad blocks-unusable]
Sory, No DVD-RW or DVD-RAM data for now.
All of the 3 drives write good, readable disks (without damaged sectors, tested with nero cd-speed), but only one drive (the august built) could sustain 4x writing.
The other 2 would have a kind of erratic speed ranging typicaly from less than 1.4x to 1.9x in a continuous up and down when writing 4x media at 4x. (The other one is awrites at a 4x strite).
After checking everithing else I simple exchanged drives and those problems where not machine/cfg/sw/fw dependent just drive dependent.
(Same media, same machine, config, firmware, etc., just exchanged drives!)
The one that wites ok DVD-R @ 4x can't write good CDs. It will burn Sony 32x and Imation (CMC) 48x media with damaged blocks. The media is exelent, with near 0 errors in any drive tested til now - more than a dozen types.
Sometimes exchanging media types would make the drives blind for some type of media, usualy DVD+RW. Powering off and on again would correct this.
Had Oportunity to briefly test a 4081B. It was able to read -R ProdiscS03, +R Imation/Ricoh, and failed to recognize a +RW (CMC,Samsung) recorded with Philips DVDR75 (not edited) saying it was a BLANK DISK, updating the firmware to the newest one (only on the korean LG site
http://www.lge.co.kr/library/opendata.j ... 081A101(kw).zip)
while the disk would happily play on LG4480B, or any other DVD-ROM, on HP DVD 100i, and even in my 4040B ... even thogh it would read other medias, my friend is returning the drive and wouldn't even bother to test writing speeds...
The power toggling that worked for the 4040B didn't make any difference with this 4081B problem.
Other LG drives as the combo GCC-4320B had a failed at an astonishing rate. 3 out of 5 dead, mine and from friend with technical skills. The 2 surviving ones practically aren't used, may have burned less than 10 medias ....
I'd say one just need to start the countdown... and the drive's optics will blast. What was a cheap decent choice has turned very expensive.
And I'm back with old trustworthy HP9500i (12x non-brurnproof CD-R), while my old HP 4x drives given away are still in a daily use ....
Those faulty drives were bought from multiple sources. No correlation between sorce and defect.
I'd apreciate to know if that happens to everybody or we're having such a tremendous (improbable) bad luck, and those of you evaluating those drives BE WARNED: Til LG explains and recall the falty ones everybody is at risk!
Tools & credits:
Tests done with Nero CD-SPEED [
http://www.cdspeed2000.com ];
DVD creation with philips DVDR75 (stand alone DVD-Recorder);
DVD IDs with [DVD Identifier -
http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com]
and Nero CD-Speed (always matched, as expected);
Firware source: [
www.rpc-1.com ].
