PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8631

Ok I've read this from front to back and basically it sounds like my drive BLOWS.I've got a Dell 4700 with the Philips 8631, I know nothing about burning but have been trying and get all the errors everyone is talking about i've downloaded everything that anyone has mentioned and tried every way possible with failure. Now my issue is trying to find support through Dell Canada has anybody been through this in the North? Can't even get technical support here except a stinking phone number!!!!

 

Hi there,

I had made a mental promise to myself to never talk about this Philips DVD8631 ever again

But I'll be nice and help you out HEHEHE !

Question: When did you purchase your Dell 4700 ?
Reason I ask is, I bought my Dell Dimension 8400 in Jan 2005.

It seems that's it not all the Philips DVD8631 that are bad, but just a BATCH !

People from, let's say Late 2004, up till about March 2005 had issues.

I have read (You too probably) that people getting Philips DVD8631 with the Manufacture Date of March 2005, that the drive works well.

2 firmware updates since I had my Philips DVD8631.

The only way to see that date, is opening the case up, and pulling the drive out, since that manufacture date is on the drive itself.

I say, if the manif date is between Late 2004 and before March 2005, you probably have one of those awfull awfull drive from that bad batch. (My personal opinion).

Anyway, I had to phone Dell Support (Yes over the phone) and argue for like 2 hours that I wanted the drive replaced.

Sir, please try this, sir, please try that.
I've been a PC technician since I was in highschool, and I am now 37.
I did enought testing to know and PROOVE the drive was worthless.

And *NO* I didn't want an other Philips 8631.
I knew for a fact that other people received NEC-3450a drives (That was in Feb 2005).

I told them (Politly) if the tech showed up at my door with a Philips DVD8631, I was not even going to let him in the house. I also said with an evil grin, I hope I don't scratch my neibought's car, because it's how far it's gonna go and I throught it out the window, this is how BAD I feel about this burner, SIR

I finally argued enought, they sent me a NEC-3450a (Nec-3500 Dell OEM).

Ahh man, been a happy customer ever since.

Since then, I have heard Dell sending out NEC-3530a (Dell OEM of the 3420 ? NO sure on that one).

Anyway, either get a NEC (I hope for you), or at least a working Philips 8631.

 

Hi EhJay,

Give the tech ph number a call. Then before you start talking, ask them if they have an email that you can write to. Then make sure you tell them that you have already updated the firmware and have restarted the computer (they always ask you to restart the damn thing). Tell them it didn't change anything. If they say that they are just going to put you on hold to find out more 'details' about your computer, hang up. I was put on hold for 10 minutes before I did. Then, with your email address that you got from them, send an email saying that you have problems with you PHILLIPS drive and have tried talking to phone support. You have updated the firmware and restarted the computer (again) but then was put on hold for an extended period of time, so you hung up. Tell them that you have read through dells online forums and have seen so many complaints about this drive, that you are requesting a replacement drive, BUT not another PHHILIPS. Tell them you want a replacement NEC drive, as you know that they have them. NEC 3530A is good.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

I also reported it. Time to ban him/her/it.

 

@ Creaky
Hope you kick his ass all the way to jupiter.

@ GrandpaBW
You should do some old war moves on him.

 

Thanks for the response's> Cougar_ii I got my 4700 Jan. 2005 as well so that info will be helpful. I emailed their sales address just to see if I could get a response they told me that regretfully I would have to call the support number, plan to do that Monday, to busy this weekend to fight with them, which sounds like it is going to be a time consuming battle, although worth it in the end. Will let you know what happens

 

EhJay, I will pray for you my son

Do like me, take a deep breath, give em a call, and let them know you have read all the problems knows to man with this burner, and its probably a bad batch since everyone who had issues got their drives prior to March 2005.

They still have to do testing, it's a MUST (So I was told).
Let them dick you around a little but then say.

Listen, I know you have a job to do, but hear me out.
I am 100% happy with my Del PC, but 200% unhappy with this burner.

Give me the same great service and curtisy you have given others.
Make me a happy customer by sending me a NEC drive.

Do you really want to loose a customer for a $45.00 drive ?
Come on, send me a NEC and let's get this over with

Good luck man !

 

Hi, having the same problems with philips 8631 so dell sent me out the philips 8701. Guess what it is an even worse drive with more problems.
I telephoned dell support back and to cut a long story short they refused to send me a new(working, not a philips) drive. They were to call me back inside an hour to sort this problem out, 3 days later still have not been contacted by dell. What do I do?
Also was looking for alternative drive ie. nec3550a, nec4550 or the Samsung TS-H552U. Can anyone give me some advice on which of these is a dood drive, or if there are any better ones out there.
Many thanks, hope this makes sense as this is my first post.

 

I appreciated all the helpful advice from this board and because of it I was able to get Dell to replace the Philips DVD-RW 8631 with a NEC 3530A drive. Unfortunately the drive was not the problem at all and it is a software problem that is causing my BSOD's(RDR_ missing files). The drive works fine for all the complex writing stuff but not for simple DOS file writing. Apparently somehow necessary files were deleted and probably when installing some new software. So it looks likely that I will have to backup my files and reinstall the operating system (( If anyone has any alternative suggestions, I'd surely welcome them.
I have to say that Dell did respond very well and I am very happy with Dell's response to my issues. I found hardware support email to be the best avenue to getting quick attention.
BTW the computer technician who replaced the Philips with the NEC told me that Philips is actually the manufacturer of the NEC drive!!

 

I was blissfully unaware of the problems with my dvd burner (philips DVD 8631)...although I have had a lot of problems with it.
I am now in the process of buying Adobe Premiere Elements 2...a dvd editing and making software program...but they can't guarantee that it will work with my dvd burner. I was just wondering if anyone has given it a try out there?
When you say you've had a lot of problems with your burner, could you give some eg's please?

 

@sandik17: Read the entire thread. Lots of eg's.

 

I just installed a Philips DVD8631 today and have not tried it out yet. I read some of the first posts and people said they had trouble using DVD-R discs. I found the spec sheet for this drive at http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/p82123/en/specs.htm and they showed:

Write: DVD+R 2.4X: 3.2MB/sec.
4X: 5.4MB/sec.
8X: 10.8MB/sec. (MAX.)
16X: 21.6MB/sec. (MAX.)

but only

Write: DVD-R 4X: 5.4MB/sec.
8X: 10.8MB/sec. (MAX.)

and

Write: DVD+RW 2.4X: 3.2MB/sec.
4X: 5.4MB/sec.

but only

Write: DVD-RW 4X: 5.4MB/sec.

It seems that the "+" media works better than the "-" media.

I had my case open today to replace my two year old Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Motherboard which failed on power up 10 days ago. The three year warranty was great because the board is still selling for around $200 even though it is getting outdated.

I got the drive free and thought that I would try it out since I had my case open and I only had a DVD reader before.

I had trouble finding info on it because it says that it was made by HP. The label on top of the case only mentions the "+" media. I hope that I have better luck than what I read about here.

 

Hello humanoid,

I don't think it's just because it's a DVD-R that might be the problem, it might be cause of the "MEDIA ID" (Brand of DVD).

Each drive has their own firmware.
Each drive will recognize and treat media differently.

Let's say you use:

DVD-R 4x (Taiyo Yuden) Media ID: TYG01
DVD-R 8x (Maxell) Media ID: MXL RG02 (If I recall)
DVD-R 4x (Memosux) Media ID: CMC Mag

See, these are all DVD-R with different Media ID, and different burning speeds.

Your drive may like 1 kind, and have issues with an other one.

Baseline is: Use quality media

Taiyo Yuden, Verbatim, Maxell DVD-R Media ID: MXL RG02 are pretty good.

My 2 cents...

 

I just had a nice (yeah right) long conversation with DELL about my DVD8631 which has never recognized. Thanks to this site I demanded a new NEC driver recommended here. At first they said they couldn't replace it with anything other than a new philps... which I flat refused to allow. I told them that I had researched the driver and have found where they have had repeated issues with the DVD8631 and that I know for a fact they have replaced other DELL customers dvd burner with the NEC. This was the 4th phone call I had to make, being hung up 3 times prior and I was quit pissed at this point. I had to give the phone to my hubby who has done tech support so he argued with them over it... the outcome... we refused to do their "tests" and they are sending a tech out within the next few days. Thanks for all the help.

 

Bought my Dell in January 2005, came with Philips 8631. Only used it with +R and +RW DVDs, CD-R and CD-RW. Absolutely thrilled with it. Updated firmware twice without any problems. I love my one.

 

Same here, 40+ burns and no problems. Only used DVD+R. Bought mine in Feb 05. Wonder if they had a bad run of drives during a prticular time

 

this thread brings me back to when I first joined AD...... I bought this computer (in my signature) in April, 2005 and it has the Philips 8631. I never had a problem with it and I did update the firmware to the latest out there. Since April I burned almost 700 DVDs and still going strong! I recently ordered 100 Thermal Shiny Silver Taiyo Yuden,8x DVD+Rs from supermediastore.com (for less than 35.00!) and also some Injet hub printable Taiyo Yuden (100 count). the drive is still going strong and I love it..... and my brother got tired of hearing me boast about my computer so he got the same one! ahhahahah but he is a bad luck guy and always seems to do something wrong to his computer and messes everything up! But, he has the external HD drive for his back up so he is constantly restoring his computer! hahahaha As for me....... the Philips 8631 has always been a champ and never gave me a problem! I'm one of the lucky ones that didn't get the bad batch one!!!

 

They Philips 8631 is a rebag of the Benq DW1620. Due to similar problems as the above discribed, I've crosflashed mine to Benq 1620 and it performs much better with no Philips related woes. Use the info to learn how to: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=151467
Philips (oem for Dell) limits all the advanced functions and for some ungodly reason Dell castrates Benq drives with Philips lame firmware. The same drive was very weak and lame using the Philips firmware now it runs strong being Benq 1620. Burns all i throw on it with no glitch at all (-R & +R). Keep in mind that only its embeded software (firmware) changed, the hardware is the same. Now conclude your self how lame the Philips/Dell firmware is...