FYI: CompUSA 12x10x32 TEAC $149 possible Burn-Proof Drive

[JJWalker]

Thanks!

 

[SteveS]

Hi,

Just opened my box (installation scheduled tomorrow). It shows the B-02 and a production date of September 2000 so I am optimistic.

Best,

Steve S

 

[daveinpa]

Hardware question:
Can I install on a PII 250 machine?
This is one of the only lines that seem like they are not compatible with my machine. Hate to go to Cendyne, but please help me out. Thanks.

-DG

Teac Site

 

[jaybittle]

Dumb question -- How can I tell the firmware that my drive has? I went out on Wednesday and bought this drive and it works great! But I don't know how to tell what my drive firmware is -- I believe I have 2.0A..

Can ne1 help ?

thanks,
--jb

 

[chien]

when you boot, you can see it on the screen. Another way is to check your device manager under control panel/system... Check your cd-rom device. you will see...


Chien

 

[SteveS]

Hi,

Okay. I installed my burner this morning. Was burn proof with firmware version 2.0A (note to jaybittle: go to system properties, click on the CD burner and select properties. Then go to settings and the firmware version will be listed).

I then followed TEAC's instructions and updated my firmware to version 2.0B and had a mini heart attack. When I rebooted Windows did not see the burner. Did the Easy CD update patch and rebooted a couple of times and it finally showed up as firmware version 2.0B so everything is great.

If anyone is afraid of updating the burner will probably work fine without the update UNLESS you want to use Clone CD. If you do, I think you have to do the update.

Best,

Steve S

 

[jaybittle]

Thanks guys, I will check my firmware when I get home.

thanks,
--jb

 

[wumpuskiller]

All,
Can anyone who got an "EB" model from CompUSA please post your drive's serial number?? It sounds like you can't tell from the box if the drive inside is BP or not, but the serial number should be able to give a prospective buyer (like me) a clue if a range of serial numbers are BP.
Thanks!

 

[K-squared]

erikatcuse / Sept1967 - have either of you found a source for the SCSI version of this CD-RW drive?

 

[chien]

check www.pricewatch.com. It is about $240 for scsi version.

Chien

 

[VNamee]

I just picked up a dribe myself, on got a burnproof one. Version 2.0A which I upgraded, and everything seems to be working fine. Got it at compusa, and I didn't even bother to check the box or anything. I just opened it up and there it was. I'm assuming that most of the drives you will get will have this burnproof on it. Besides, thats a good reason to exchange a product, if you say your friend bought one, same store, and has burnproof and yours doesn't. Its not exactly a minor thing.

 

[wumpuskiller]

Well, opened the TEAC 512 I picked up yesterday and its a BP model
Right on the top label on the drive is the model number and version "-B02".

I saw a page from Teac's (denmark, I believe) website that said they made only 5,000 of the non-BP models. They're marked version "A02". So anything that's new on CompUsa's shelves is probably a BP model.

Definately a sweet deal.

 

[Sept1967]

The serial number on my unit is 1378520 if that helps.

 

[wumpuskiller]

Sept1967,
Thanks for the SN. I already installed mine - yep, its got BP. Flashed the firmware to 2.0B this morning. I've burned 2 CD's so far, neither burned at 12x. Best so far is 8x. One CDR was labelled 8x (from CompUsa) and they only burned at 2x in an old Philips 404 I used to have. The other CDR was an Office Depot 12x. I'm running a P3-600 w/256MB RAM and CPU util on both burns was right @100%. I was on the web during the second burn and the system was pretty slow.

Are you having similar results??

 

[DongTran]

from my experiences, teac drives are very good quality. if only they would sell as many cd drives as they do flappies

 

[chien]

Hmmm, mine burns without problem with 8x media (verbatim) at 12x ...My computer is Duron 950(o'c 600),192M PC133SDRAM, ABIT KT7.. no slow down while surfing the web..

Chien

 

[wumpuskiller]

Chien,
I'm running an ABIT VA6 mobo. My primary IDE channel has 2 Maxtor HDD's (20GB & 27GB both 7200 UDMA66). Secondary IDE has Afreey 10X DVD (master) and the TEAC (slave). The IDE drivers are VIA bus master 4.23 (Jan, 2000). There's no DMA both in device manager, so DMA is "on" with the VIA drivers. I think the KT7 is VIA chipset also. Which disk controller drivers are you running and what is the rest of your config??
TIA,
Wumpus

 

[chien]

Hi,
I'd suggest you conncet the CD-RW to Secondary Master. I've owned a TDK 12x10x32 before this drive. In TDK's manual, there are only three configurations allowed but in all of them, CD-RW also is Master. So, I guess this is the same thing for TEAC. Maybe you can try to switch your DVD and CD-RW and see what happen..

Chien

 

[Tung]

According to Maximum PC Jan 01 Issue, the Teac CDW512E 12/10/32 lacks Burn Proof technology.

 

[gellar]

The drive's labeled an 512E on the box, but the drive itself is actually an 512EB. I was going to head out and pick this one up myself, but I hate CompUSA's return policy and would rather take my chances with the people at Esbuy.com.

gellar

 

[ssrgp0]

CompUSA charged 15% restocking fee for return open box items, just in case is not the burn-proof plextor drive.

 

[chien]

I asked people in Compusa. As long as you exchange for exact same item, there will be no restocking fee.. maybe just my local compusa..
oh, btw, it is "not" a rebadged plextor drive

Chien

 

[wumpuskiller]

Chien,
Thanks for the suggestion, but the manual clearly says TEAC "strongly suggests" making the 512 the slave on the ide channel if a CD/DVD drive is on the channel.

But, since my problem was high CPU consumption, I suspected a problem with my IDE controller driver. Sure enough, the bus master driver as one from VIA (Janaury,2000 date), when I thought I had reverted back to the generic MS drivers.

So I just switched back to the MS default BM driver, and presto, 12x burning, about 65% cpu utilization, and surfing/other tasks with no slowdown.

Made an archive copy of my Win98SE disk in total elapsed time of 6min48secs, including leadin/leadout processing. Data alone was completed in 5min51secs for a 627MB disk. A quick calc shows that the data was burned at 12x.

Thanks for your help,
Wumpus

 

[Sept1967]

I have burned the opposite...

I have burned "8x" CDRs at "12x" , just to try it, and they have worked.

 

[chien]

hehe, I didn't really read the manual of TEAC drive At least, no problem so far for me. I will take look at the CPU load later,though.

Chien