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Gericom External DVD Writer

Discussion in 'DVDR' started by vitascope, Mar 5, 2005.

  1. TheLatics

    TheLatics Member

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    Good news - Installed the drive as a slave in the PC, as an internal drive, and all seems well.

    Not bothered with the firmware as yet, but have downlaoded it to do later.
     
  2. Scoobs136

    Scoobs136 Member

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    TheLatics - how did you install it internally?? Have you tried burning with it?

    Cheers
     
  3. TheLatics

    TheLatics Member

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    Unscrewed all the screws (including the warranty stickered one), and then unplugged all the wires.

    Took out my old DVD-ROM drive, made sure the jumpers were the same on the Samsung as the old one (little white plug that can be moved), and plugged it in.

    Re-booted and it finds the drive as J -That's it.

    Burned a DVD @ 8x, and will try a CD later, and let you know.
     
  4. Scoobs136

    Scoobs136 Member

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    hehe, just installed mine internally, and am reading a dvd as we speak.. i'll post again once ive burned a dvd
     
  5. TheLatics

    TheLatics Member

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    CD burned sucessfully at 24x - FAST.

    I did get an error in Roxio to do with null something or other, but this went after a reboot.

    No beermats made now.

    Next question is what to do with the case - is it saleable on Ebay for somebody with a laptop and a bit of knowhow to install their own writer?

    NB I haven't upgraded the firmware; it seems pointless as it is working just fine.
     
  6. Scoobs136

    Scoobs136 Member

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    Cheers mate, I just backed up a 4.1gb dvd movie on 10 mins, and an audio cd from mp3s in 4 mins! Dunno what speed its burning at, but I assume its pretty high!

     
  7. Asak

    Asak Member

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    it's best to upgrade the firmware of external usb2/1394 drives by connecting them internally via ide cables. on this model it's easier than most - due to the fact that it has a small panel underneath, so you don't have to remove it from the case. simply run ide/power cables through the panel. it's an issue with the case/ide interface and not the drive. it's happened on every external burner i've seen that comes in a caddy like this.
     
  8. Roystonnn

    Roystonnn Member

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    Ahhhhh - I will reapply the latest firmware with it connected via IDE and see what happens. Ta
     
  9. npenllyn

    npenllyn Member

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    Has anyone been able to register (for warranty) the external DVD drive online?
     
  10. Scoobs136

    Scoobs136 Member

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    I've installed mine internally so my warranty is void anyway :)
     
  11. TheLatics

    TheLatics Member

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    Snap - no warranty, but it works a treat inside now.
     
  12. Roystonnn

    Roystonnn Member

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    I connected my drive via IDE cable and successfully updated the Firmware - no errors - US05 has JUST been released BUT it sstill doesn't fix burning an Audio CD via USB !
    Still its more important to me to have an External DVD writer.
     
  13. TheLatics

    TheLatics Member

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    Thanks for the tip - firmware done.

    Can anyone help with a setting somewhere.

    It says something like 'allow DVD's to be played on any machine' or something.

    This drive is writing DVD's fine for 5 of the 6 DVD drives I have, but not the other, yet the old rubbinsh DVD writer I have plays DVD's in all 6 drives.

    I've tried slowing the write to 2-2.4x to no avail, still sticky and pixelly, even with 100% unshrunk files.

    It's not the brand of DVD, as these are Ritek and have worked fine in the past.
     
  14. delwal

    delwal Guest

    Hi,
    Ive been using the Gericom drive to burn DVD+R (Lidl Octron DVD+R) successfully. However just tried some DVD-R (Verbatim and Octron DVD-R) and have
    had no luck. Sectors errors or just unable to read
    the disk on drive.
    Burned using DVD Decryptor and Nero. Both fail. Burned
    at x2 speed.

    Anyone with similar experience.

    (have upgraded to US05 firmware)
     
  15. adrian123

    adrian123 Guest

    Hi

    Re the Gericom External DVD Writer I have had no luck burning a music Cd, I have tried differant media, speeds ect all with no luck, always hangs at 5mins. Upgrading the firmware seems useless as well. Can anybody help me before I take it back to Aldi for a refund or throw it through the window!!
     
  16. TheLatics

    TheLatics Member

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    You may struggle with a refund - I gather they don't have great customer service in this respect and may direct you to the helpline (which I hear is also no good as it is manned by Germans! and is 0870).

    The drive itself does work, what has happened is the test machines that Gericam have used are obviously so clean that they work perfectly.

    Everybody else in the real world has Nero, Roxio, Microsoft, and god knows how many other applications installed - and something betweenthese lot is making the drive not 100% effective.

    You can read other threads in this forum that go on about External drives, and Gericom is not the only problem.

    The best solution is to install it internally, but this defeats the object of buying an external one in the first place, and does not help laptop owners.

    Also you can buy an internal one for £50 now so this one at £60 was not such a good buy as it first seemed.

    Rant over!

    Oh and I'm still getting several sticky DVD's when writing at full speed on Ritek disks.
     
  17. adrian123

    adrian123 Guest

    Thanks for your comments, I own a laptop so no chance of fitting internally. I would like to get the thing working if possible. As for a refund the law states it has to be fit for the purpose that is intended, ie burn cds. In the Uk when you buy a product from a retailer they are resposible not the maker, as any trading standards office would tell you. Having said that if anybody has a cure for burning music Cds I would be grateful of any new ideas.
     
  18. TheLatics

    TheLatics Member

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    Has anyone else noticed some of the improvements to DVD Decryptor.

    The latest version says,

    "Fixed: Hang on some usb/firewire drives (enclosures)"

    So there was a known problem and at least this piece of software has tried to address it.
     
  19. MartinRub

    MartinRub Member

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    I also got a Gericom burner from Aldi to connect to my AJP laptop (5 years old). Whilst Windows shows it in Device Manager, Nero doesn't show it - that is, when I try to burn, in the Nero Express dialogue box "Final Burn Settings", there is only one listing under "Current Recorder" and it is "Image Recorder (DVD)" - the burner doesn't show up. So all I can do is make an image file that gets saved to the desktop. I've sought help from the Nero people on this.

    I can't get audio cds or dvds to play using the burner - I assume they should - but it does play a Linguaphone language cd-rom without problem using either the USB1.1 connection or the USB2 PCMCIA combo card I got. Being new to burning, I could do without all this additional heartache, and unless things improve, I may well be taking it back to Aldi. However, as I am starting to get bad blocks on my hard drive with Scandisk, I am keen to back up my data asap.
     
  20. roypp

    roypp Guest

    This is an SIMPLE fix despite all the above,
    Simply change the media you are using, ie try differant DVD's. I have the exact same external Aldi DVD drive,

    GERICOM External USB 2.0 & Firewire DVD plus & minus R/RW Dual Layer which is actually a
    Samsung TS-H552U packaged as a Gericom.

    I tried all the above flashing the drive on the samsung site, I also used USB 2 & Firewire none of which worked.
    I got countless differant errors regardless of which software I tried, including using the drive on numerous pc's with W2K & WIN XP, differant errors, same result though, countless wasted discs.

    My main error was "Session Fixation error".

    WHAT FIXED THE PROBLEM
    Changing from RITEC G04 MINUS Dvd's I was using to Datawrite Plus DVDs.
    I read an article which states that these drives for some strange reason seem to struggle writning too Minus DVDs even though they are meant to happily write to either, and it certainly appears its true.
     

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