A Waste of Time
Written: Feb 14 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: It was easy to connect & the software straightforward to install
Cons: It works only sporadically on my Win 2K system
The Bottom Line: Maybe it was just my combination of PC and operating system, but this device would not do what it was designed to do.
|
|
|
| kawininja's Full Review: La Cie USB CD-RW |
I purchased my LaCie CD-RW drive on 01/16. It arrived two days later and, as stated in the pros, installation was very straightforward and well documented.
I was attaching it to my USB port on my Dell Latitude CPx running Win 2K, V5, SP2.
My main reason for the purchase was to create CD's for Realtors I support and also to back-up data from my hard drive.
I successfully backed up a whole bunch of data to CD-R's. Then, since I wanted to back up my Outlook 430MB PSB file daily, I decided to use CD-RW's. The burn went fine -- just as before. However, when selecting "eject", my system black-screened and crashed.
With the system down, I could not eject the CD manually, either by the button or the emergency "paper-clip" hole. It took about three reboots and crashes for the DirectCD software to eject the CD.
I called the LaCie support line. Here is another pro -- their taste in music while you spend 20 minutes or more on hold is great.
Their technician went through some details with me and then said it was obvious that the device was faulty and I should return it.
Just to make sure, I tried with a second CD-RW, but the same crashes and frustrations resulted.
Buy.com is one of the best companies to do business with. They e-mailed me a pre-paid UPS label and I packed up the drive and back it went. E-mails from buy.com kept me up to date on the progress of the replacement.
My new drive arrived on 02/12. Once again, install and connect went smoothly.
A CD-R burn was OK. I put in my previously-recorded CD-RW and could read all the data off it. I pressed the eject button and black-screened again.
I called LaCie support and listened to light classical music. In fact no technician interrupted the entire Elgar's "Pomp & Circumstance March".
I went through some two hours of debugging, including downloading the latest driver from the Roxio site. No change.
Eventually the tech told me that, after discussing the issue with colleagues, this was a known problem and I should wait for the next release of software due out "in a few weeks".
I cannot afford to wait: the drive is going back and I'll buy another supplier's drive.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
kawininja
|
|
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.