Damn. I barely used it and it’s dead. Basically, it is recognized by the system but it doesn’t spin up. So, it looks like a bad motor.

I’m going to try to contact Sony Parts tomorrow to see if I can get an exchange considering that the drive is only two months old. I assume there’s at least a 90 day warranty on the part…I hope.

I doubt this is indicative of bad DVD-RW drives in general. It just sucks as it meant an unnecessary system open to put back the stock DVD/CDRW drive.  :(

On the topic of dead DVD burners, we took delivery of a new PowerBook G4 at work Monday with a DOA Superdrive. Kind of frustrating to see a new machine come in the door and go right back out. As a side note, I would love to see a slot-loading optical drive in a future Sony notebook, it would be a really nice addition in terms of keeping things thin and sleek. Sorry about the bad luck gr00vy!

Thanks. Yeah, it’s not too big of a deal although I did want to use it for an upcoming project. Also, since I paid a decent amount of money for it I’d like it to work or at least last for the next year or so….not just two months.

I’ve been having a few problems myself…have burnt 5 dvd’s till date, 2 failed during burn process and 1 burnt fine but failed at some stage during data verification…I use Nero Ultra ed. 6.

I used to get a lot more bad burns until I switched blank media. I was using a lot of Made in Taiwan discs before, but now I use discs made in Japan or Austria with no problems.

Yeah, the media makes the biggest difference. I’ve actually never had any bad burns ever with my TR…with the DVD/CDRW drive or the DVD/RW drive. I attribute that to good software (Nero 6 Ultra), good media (I normally buy known brands on sale) and generally reliable hardware (except in my case for the DVD/RW drive).

For audio CDs I use those verbatim Vinyl discs. They’re a little more expensive but then they’re neat and make my life easier when looking for CDs. I can automatically know whether a CD is music or data (which uses you typical silver colored CD-R). At any rate, I rarely burn CDs anymore unless it’s for a friend or relative.

Sorry Groovy, that sucks. I thought my DVD CD-RW was on the outs which is the main reason why I wanted a DVD-RW…not being able to burn the recovery CDs on Sony Media got me a little worried.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

Erik

The 2 discs which failed during burn were some compuserve brand. The 3rd one which failed during verification was a Ritek brand…I suppose those one’s are good dvd’s