Question for owners of Plextor PX-716SA

[mooncancook]

I had a bad experience with my PX-716SA so far. I have updated bios to latest 1.07 version, and the drive still can't read a lot of disc, including most of my games (retail not pirated), and the blank TDK CD-Rs so I can't even burn any CDs. This is frustrating for a drive that cost me over a hundred bucks, I think I'm going to RMA it.

 

[Zepper]

Are you sure your mobo is compatible with it? Plextor is the only maker of SATA optical drives right now for a reason - very low compatibility with existing mobos. Works best with some Intel mobo chip sets and SiliconImage controller chipsets. One sure solution is to add an SI based PCI SATA controller (Syba <$20. on newegg). Another possibility is to go to the Plextor section of the cdfreaks.com forum. If there is a solution for your mobo, you're likely to find it there.
. First and cheapest is to try using the different modes of your integrated SATA controller - try it in IDE mode, if that doesn't work try it in RAID mode. SI controllers work best with the SATA burners in RAID mode. Even though you don't plan to use the controller in RAID mode, be sure to install the RAID drivers. Also install or update the ASPI layer software - DL from the adaptec.com web site (I know it says for SCSI - humor me...)

.bh.

 

[mooncancook]

hmm... thanks. I'll try.
Strange thing is that the drive reads all the dvd movies fine, and reads most of my cd-r disks with data (just not the blank disc). I remember with one game, it read the first two discs fine during install, then it failed to read the 3rd disc. I can hear the drive laboring when it can't read a disc. i suspect it's a lens problem, but i'll try your suggestion first

 

[Bar81]

It sounds like a problem with nvidia's IDE drivers (what's new) Do yourself a favor and uninstall nvidia's IDE drivers and use the Microsoft standard ones and see if that helps. Alternatively, it could be a motherboard BIOS issue as the nvidia board BIOSes are all over the place in support for SATA opticals. I would think it's an IDE driver issue though.

 

[knothead34]

i know there was a firmware upgrade for that burner on plextors site. if you dont get it fixed get the ide version which is what i have. i almost got the sata version but got the ide version instead. i hope you are able to get it worked out.

 

[Zepper]

And if you OC w/o locking the PCI bus at a normal speed (or the SATA alone if that's possible, that can also cause problems with the SATA contrtoller. You may need to OC when gaming and return to normal when using the burner.

.bh.

 

[imported_g33k]

Yep its one of the reasons I didn't buy the Plextor SATA. It would probably fubar my OC settings. That and it's over $100.

Good Luck OP!

 

[Bar81]

There's no truth to the SATA is not locked theories. The SATA is locked on all nForce3/4 boards.

 

[imported_g33k]

Originally posted by: Bar81
There's no truth to the SATA is not locked theories. The SATA is locked on all nForce3/4 boards.

Yes but only 2 out of the 4 are locked. Usually ports 3 and 4 are locked. It will work if you only have 1 hdd. But if you are using two hdd's plugged into 3 and 4, you might have problems using ports 1 or 2 if you have OC settings. If you are not OC then it doesn't matter.

 

[Bar81]

That's news to me. My K8N-E Deluxe only has two nvidia native SATA ports so I can't comment other than to say SATA ports 1 and 2 are locked. Thanks for the heads up though, interesting if that is the case, wonder why they wouldn't be locked. Doesn't make much sense???

 

[HardKard]

Whew, thanks Bar81 - - I just installed my 716SA in my new SHuttle SN25p and lo and behold it would just freeze when a CD/DVD was inserted!!!

No love with the Nvidia drivers for the board or Plextors website, but the problem resolved with a combination of changing from DMA to PIO and installing the standard windows IDE drivers (which makes me go ??? n e ways since it is SATA??!!).

Thx for the tip.

-hk

 

[Technonut]

Works great for me... Takes any kind of burning / data reading I throw at it.

Sweet drive IMO....

 

[Bar81]

Originally posted by: HardKard
Whew, thanks Bar81 - - I just installed my 716SA in my new SHuttle SN25p and lo and behold it would just freeze when a CD/DVD was inserted!!!

No love with the Nvidia drivers for the board or Plextors website, but the problem resolved with a combination of changing from DMA to PIO and installing the standard windows IDE drivers (which makes me go ??? n e ways since it is SATA??!!).

Thx for the tip.

-hk

Glad to hear. nvidia couldn't make a quality set of drivers if their lives depended on it. In particular, their IDE drivers have been sh!t since they were introduced and thanks to everyone continuing to buy their sh!tty products they have no incentive to fix anything.

 

[mooncancook]

thanks for all the replies! I got it to work now! All I had to to was change from nVidia IDE mode to PIO mode for the drive. It's that simple. Didn't have to install drivers or anything. It didn't have to do with SATA mode or locking (not with the DFI NF4).

 

[Ronin]

Originally posted by: Bar81

Originally posted by: HardKard
Whew, thanks Bar81 - - I just installed my 716SA in my new SHuttle SN25p and lo and behold it would just freeze when a CD/DVD was inserted!!!

No love with the Nvidia drivers for the board or Plextors website, but the problem resolved with a combination of changing from DMA to PIO and installing the standard windows IDE drivers (which makes me go ??? n e ways since it is SATA??!!).

Thx for the tip.

-hk

Glad to hear. nvidia couldn't make a quality set of drivers if their lives depended on it. In particular, their IDE drivers have been sh!t since they were introduced and thanks to everyone continuing to buy their sh!tty products they have no incentive to fix anything.

Thanks for that constructive post, Bar. Good to see you're still out there making an ass of yourself and providing nothing productive. Good show!