PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8631

Well Slapped in the new drive and the thing still can not burn a CD or DVD with any decent amount of data on them. AUrgh...I have lost 12+ hours working with softwrae and replacing drive. Dell S*CKS.

 

Oh alomost forgot - dell did say theyu would swap my drive with that of a diffrent mfg. When I opened the box it was and refurbed Phillips. LOW LOW lOw = Dell No support = DEll. They talka bout award winning support but I have not seen it. one of those myths like a jackalope.

 

Dell Support has done good by me. They've been to my house twice to install a new DVD drive. At no cost, and within a week both times. You just can't beat that kind of service.

 

Hello. I also have a Dell Dimension 8400 with the Philips 8631 drive. I have a problem that is similar to a couple of other people who posted on here. My drive works fine, no freezes or incomplete data or video. But when I burn on Verbatim -R DVD's, they will not play on any players I try them on. They will play on my computer, so I know they did burn. I tried burning the exact same video file to Verbatim -R's on my friend's computer (not a Dell or a Philips), and the DVD plays in every player I try it in. I can burn a Verbatim +R on my computer however, and it will play on everything. But if I burn the Verbatim +R in my friend's computer, it will hardly play on any players we try.

All literature stresses that -R is the most recognized format and should always be used over +R. I even took my +R to a company to duplicate it, and 50% of the copies failed. They said the same thing about -R being the best format to use. So it seems to me that this is an issue with the manner in which my burner is encoding the DVD's. But because the burner actually functions, before I start wasting my time with Dell I was wondering if anyone had any specific thoughts on this specific matter? Thank you.

 

Dell came and installed a new NEC drive in my computer and now everything works ok.

 

All I can say is good luck with Dell Tech Support.

All I have used in my Dell is DVD+R and I have had no problems. Originally I used Memorex media and it would play in every DVD player I have except the one in my pickup. Some one on this site suggested that I change Media. I switched to Verb DVD+R and they play in EVERY DVD player I put them in. The only problem I've had with my 8400 is the DVD-ROM drive, but thats a long story.

 

bcope16 (Newbie) 6. September 2005 @ 20:35 - what type of drive do you have in your PC?

Why they have to come out twice? I installed my drive in seconds - A bad drive is a bad drive. DEll should recall the drives so we do not have to spend hours debugging a dell issue.

 

Thank god for this site.

I having been having problems with this drive for months. I have created at least 25 coasters. I have a DELL XPS with the phillips 8631 DVD+-RW.

I called DELL today. I told them it never worked right, I've used multiple programs and it crashes my computer. They agreed to send me the NEC drive with no argument.

I will let you know how it works

 

Thank you guys for the feedback. I guess I'll have to try the new NEC drive. I'll post follow ups. Best of luck.

 

heh this is funny in a strange way. I Just called Dell and the guy in India told me my trouble was a BOOT SECTOR VIRUS...not the drive! He said the drive was quite dependable and I probably needed to reset a few things in the setup window, which i did. After being put on hold at LEAST 35 times ( I swear to G*D) he finally said that a new drive was on the way. The trouble shooting episode lasted for over 2 1/2 hours.
(This is...the second phillips 8631 in less than a year to crash and burn.) Mmm- then I discovered that my dell 84000 would NOT boot up again. He directed me to a 1-888 number where I could pay for a tech to reset the computer! Geez this is a blatant rip. I simply re-installed windows xp and now I guess I will be taking the advice given here by NUKING the HD and replacing the DVD units with what I want.

By the way, with our old dell they had to replace:

Hard drives 4 time. (The forth one worked , the third one was too large for win me and crashed) The first 2 lasted 2 years total.

1 keyboard.

Speakers.

CD rom drive

Ordered a CD burner that failed instantly. They then sent 2 (TWO!) replacements. One was worth 200$ which I kept -I sold the other for what it cost originally. They owed me I figured and NO I was never asked to pay for the second larger one. A techie told me I earned it and I did agree.

Building my next system seems right now, I have replaced almost every major part now and I feel...confident...hehehe.Thanks Dell for the hands on "experience". The first phillips 8631 replaced was a refurb too probably one of you guys. Owww.

 

Hello everyone
***************THIS WORKED FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!*****************
**************************************************************
I have:
Dell Dimension 8400 w XP
Philips DVD8631 drive

i contacted dell and there is a compatability issue or something but i guess they got enough complaints to create a patch to fix at least my problem....
For everyone w my same problem with the philips dvd drive not recognising that there is any blank cd inserted and then the drive just re-opens, here is the fix:
go here and upgrade the firmware:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=1...

then..

here for the pio patch:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=1...

Then if you still have your resource cd that came with the dell cpu then the last step is to test everthing to make sure it isnt another problem:

Please Run the Built in Self Test in Dell Diagnostics if available.
To determine whether the optical drive supports the built-in self test, perform the following steps:

Insert your Dell Dimension Resource CD into the CD or DVD drive, configure the system to boot to the CD drive, and then boot to the Dimension Resource CD.
NOTE: For more information on how to boot the system to the optical drive, please consult the Dell Knowledge Base article: "How do I configure my Dell computer to boot to the CD-ROM drive?"


When the Boot Menu appears, press the <Down Arrow> key until Dell Diagnostics is highlighted, and then press the <Enter> key.
Press the <Down Arrow> key until 32-bit diagnostics is highlighted, and then press the <Enter> key.
The Dell Diagnostics menu appears.
At the Diagnostics menu, click the Custom Test button.
From the list of devices, click the (+) plus sign next to CDROM/DVD.
From the list of drives, click the (+) plus sign next to the drive which you wish to test.
Click the checkbox next to Built In Self Test

I HOPE THIS HELPS!..I just want to help others bc i know how frustrating it is.

 

I bought a cheap Dell about 4 months ago and haven't had any problems with the DVD burner yet. Reading all of these threads makes it sound like a piece of **** that I need to get rid of. But basically I was looking around on the internet to see if this particular DVD burner is dual layer compatible. And if it is not, is the NEC DVD burner you all were talking about dual layer compatible?

 

Not everyone is having problems with this drive. I have been using mine for about six months now with no problems.

But I do intend to use it alot, the warranty runs out in five months.

I would like to point out however that critical thinking is a lost art in todays world. Think about this: In a forum like this you will always here about problems, but when there is no problem there is no post. If Dell sell 10000 of these units and 100 goes bad you have a 1% failure rate, a little higher than acceptable but that means that 99% are working properly. If this is a little difficult for you to understand then consider this, just because your friend says the world is flat doesn't mean its true.

I AM NOT defending this drive, I am just saying THINK.

 

So does anyone know if it is dual layer compatible?

 

If your talking about the NEC ND 3540A it is dual layer

 

i've had problems with this drive too, it doesn't seem to recognize certain DVDs i try to play on my computer. I have a Dimension 4700 which I bought earlier this year. i'm surprised to see so many ppl have the same problem, i thought i was the only one with a crapped out dvd drive. but anyways i'm gonna do what most ppl here have done, call dell tech support and get them to replace it with the NEC drive.

 

sorry about the links not working..dell must have changed the pathways on their site.
go to http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/
and then type in your service tag...its found on the back of the cpu unit. It will have letters and numbers.
then click on "find downloads"
then click on "Removable Media Storage Devices"
then click on "Philips DVD8631 HH 16X DVD+/-RW" if this is your particular drive<------download the firmware there.


http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/
copy and paste this into the search field on the right hand side "Utility to set Secondary"
click on the first search result and there you have it.

good luck!

 

I have a Dell Dimension 3000 that came with a Phillips 8631 DVD RW. Under "My Computer" it used to be listed as the D drive. It magically changed to the E drive today (I didn't download anything) and the computer won't recognize it. I uninstalled it and tried downloading the driver for the 8631 from the Dell website. That doesn't work because the computer can't find the hardware. Of course, Dell won't deal with this because they claim it's a software problem. I'm thinking it sounds more like a hardware problem. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be appreciated.

 

I posted back on Sept 8th about the phillips 8631 drive and all the problems I was having. DELL sent me the NEC drive and man what a difference!!

The NEC drive works seemlessly and I have had no problems with it. Not a single coaster yet.

BTW, I hate YAHOOs who get on boards and start preaching about how dumb everyone else is. Clearly the guy posting about critical thinking skills fits into that category.

Thanks to everyone for helping to solve my problem.