LG GSA-4163BB DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner

Pros: great performance at a great price
Cons: none

My external CD burner stopped working a month and a half ago. That was a cause for concern, as this time of year, I am heavily into promotion of my band to park districts, festivals, etc. for the following summer. My demo CDs, actually CDRoms, figure ...

Pros: Great compatibility. Accepts multiple formats of media. Fastest speeds available. The most OEM sold drive.
Cons: None.

I talked to a few people about these drives before I bought one. The quality of these drives are awesome. The greatest feature of this drive is that it can read or write almost every available type of CD/DVD media on the market. I bout this drive, so ...

Pros: Quiet, fast, rarely makes coasters.
Cons: Trouble with startup on Windows XP boots up as another device.

I purchased this burner and at the beginning it operated fine. No glitches and I was impressed with the speed and quality of the burned DVDs. Lately I've been having issues with the LG burner. Sometimes it won't let Windows XP boot up, and sometimes when it does it boots the burner as HT-ET-SU DWDSAM GSA 5163C. Needless to say it didn't work when loaded this way. I have to open my computer up and unplug it reboot then shut down plug the burner back in and reboot, and then it will work. I though it might have been the firmware, but I also updated the firmware and still having the same problems. I just emailed LG to get their side on what's going on. I will update this when I get an answer from them. In the mean time any one else with these issues?

Pros: Quiet, fast, nice software, attractive design, smooth drive action
Cons: Only one LCD color, no headphone jack

I bought this after reading several very positive reviews. I bought the retail version of this, which comes with lots of nice software. The drive is very quiet, fast, and easy to set up. The design is quite attractive. I have had no problems yet with the drive and definitely recommend it.

There is only one LCD color (green), but I haven't found this to be a problem. It flashes when writing to signal that writing is in progress. There is also no headphone jack, but I don't use this anyway. These are very minor nitpicks though, and I still recommend this drive.