Am I the only one having problems???
Written: Dec 07 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Different coloration of the cd-rw itself, easy set-up, nice software
Cons: it hasn't worked for me yet, different coloration of the cd-rw itself!
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| jghanisco's Full Review: Philips PC Internal CDRW 400 Series |
I've been on the look-out for a CD-RW drive, but wanted to make sure I got a good drive for a cheap price. Black Friday comes around, and CompUSA has the Philips PCRW404K available for $129, so I jumped at it. Unfortunately, it hasn't jumped at me the same way.
This system records and rewrites in 4x speed, and is one of the first that has 32x read capabilities (all of the ones before it have been 16, then 20, and lastly 24x max).
The hardware installed easily, as the jumper was already set for slave, so there were no manipulations that had to be made. One thing I did notice is that you really have to have the screws in, or else this sucker makes an obnoxious roar! (I guess it's that 32x power)
The software installed easily, but as the installation was going through, I was asked if I had a driver diskette. I received nothing like that out of the box, so I hit no and continued. Everything set up nicely, and I had no complaints so far.
When you access the software, you get a choice of what you want to do - audio, disk backup, or data transfer. Very straightforward. I started with audio, but I couldn't finish combining a pair of CD's to one. It kept giving me an error and locking up my system. I read about a few other Philips CD-RWs, and it seems that other owners had this problem also. I never completed a single CD, ruining 3 blank disks in the meantime, and 4 hours of my time. I will give it one bit of credit: if you are hooked up to the internet, the system gives you an opportunity to log into a site and get all the disk info set into your cd (Band, album name, tracks, etc)
Then I tried the data transfer. That worked perfectly until I reached the 98% mark, then I got an error which told me to look in my manual for the code - I DIDN'T GET A MANUAL THAT GAVE ME THOSE CODES!!! And I couldn't find it online. There was an update, but that hasn't seemed to help any. I ruined another 3 disks here...
I was able to transfer a disk in the back-up option, but I gave up after that. This thing is going back to the store. I just have to hope they take it back. The HP 8200i worked perfectly in my computer, so I'm probably going to be going with that unless a 6x or 8x catches my attention.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
jghanisco
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Member: Joseph Hanisco
Location: Houston, TX
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 7 members
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