PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8631

all of you who have purchased a dell computer which came fitted with a philips 8701 will be having problems becuase of a piece of software called Sonic DLA. its some crock of shit that dell installs with out your concent to prevent you from copying material illeagelly. go to the control pannel, then to add/remove programs, low and behold Sonic DLA will be there, remove it from your pc and you should have no further problems with your dvd writier.

im not gona check back on this forum as if what i said works for you or not it is of no consiquence to me but i had a huge problem with reading cds in my 8701 and the problem was that shitty software dell installed, im telling you this now becuase i dont want any replies or any follow up, it works if it works, and if it dont then its simply not my problem, and with that im done

 

I have never tried to copy a DVD purchased through a DVD club or at Meijers, Walmart, Best Buy, or a video store. I was told it couldn't be done without causing problems. Now, my refurbished 8631 drive, which is my pc's my only disk drive, seems to work OK. I would need more than the word of just one person, who doesn't plan to stick around to see what happens to those who follow his davice, before I removed something that might cause untold havoc to my pc and damage a recently repaired drive. I have no desire to spend hours going around in circles with Dell to have them approve another repair/replacement job. Mark.

 

I must say that I have been a DELL customer since early 1998 and found out quickly after receiving my first pc from them that it is best to uninstall much of what they put on my computer. MusicMatch for example: even after uninstalling this invasive program, it took me close to 2 weeks to find absolutely every reference for it on the computer. It took 2 weeks, but now I know the secret. Now (as I did then), when I receive a new pc from DELL, I pop in the Windows CD, reboot my computer and perform a complete format and clean install. If you're worried about them saying your warranty is void...I just called in to have them replace this DVD8631 piece of crap. The last thing they told me to do before I tore a strip off of the manager was to reinstall Windows. I told them I did that just last week and that I'm not about to do it again. Needless to say, I'm getting my new burner soon...perhaps tomorrow when I get back from work, it will already be installed. Incidentally, the rep was very persistent in a lot of things. Actually, it wasn't so much persistence as that she couldn't here me as she was reading to me. Whereas some things I was able to get by without doing, other things I had to sit there saying "done, done, done" until she was finished reading her step-by-step so that she could move onto the next process that I knew wouldn't work. Repeated references to this forum and many others like it solved that problem. Fortunately for them, that won't stop me and many others from purchasing another DELL.

 

Yes, this is Robert D. Hoenigke. I want to know if you know what a fully EFM capable burner is ? You can copy a disc protected by safe disc 2/3 or 3.x, 4.x
I want to buy one for my computer. I have a dell demention 4700 computer. It is a P.C
The burner that i have is only partially EFM capable. I want to buy an external drive for my computer. Can you help me ?

my email address: rhoenigke@yahoo.com

 

I got banned for advertising.

 

Hey guys,

Just thought I'd check in and let everyone know that I received my new NEC-3530A burner yesterday. Incidentally, someone wrote a while back that they will only give you something comparable to what is already in your system. Prior to getting that Philips DVD8631, I had a single layer 8x DVD burner from TEAC so I guess that isn't always true. Especially considering that the TEAC was 1 1/2 years old and they probably couldn't find them anymore. I'm not complaining though. This new NEC is fine with me...as long as it works.

 

I'm getting my drive replaced with the NEC ND-3450a. Can anyone confirm if this drive supports book typing?

 

Hi,

Well, after reading almost all of the posts in this thread, I decided to join this website and contribute.

I've got a DELL Dimension 3000 3.2GHz that I bought just over six months ago and everything was going fine. My PHILLIPS DVD8631 driver was good, I could burn CDs DVD-Rs and watch them also. But my problems started yesterday when I tried to burn a dual layered DVD (or DVD 9 as it is also known as). The PHILLIPS drive would not register that there was even a disc in the drive! So, after stuffing around, trying out other DL dics that I had..ect. I rang up the DELL PHONE SUPPORT. I got straight to an operator (lucky eh) and told him my problems. He confirmed that it must be the drive (who would have known?) and after running through some steps, I was eventually lead to the dell support site to download the update for the driver. I downloaded it and ran it while the guy was still on the phone. Then I needed to restart and.... nothing changed! He then told me to restart it again and I will be put on hold but he will be back shortly. So after I restarted it (1min), nothing happened (4min) and waited for him to come back to the phone (10min!!) so I hung up. Now today I see this forum and tried to call up DELL again but it's sunday, nobody home

So, to cut a long story short, I wrote them an email (wich I have saved if any wants to see) and basically said that:

1. I am not happy
2. PHILLIPS DVD8631 sucks
3. My computer is still under 1yr warranty
4. Send me a new DVD drive with the same capabilities
5. MAKE SURE IT'S NOT PHILLIPS!!

I made sure I used some of the points that have been raised in this thread, so fingers crossed, I hope it works and I get a new NEC drive.

Thanks for all your help,

Matt

 

Well, everything seems to have worked. I received a phone call today from DELL and they are replacing my drive with an NEC! The on-the-spot technician is calling me tomorrow.

Very impressed!

 

Recently got a dell dimension 5100. Came with a Phillips DVD 8701 +/-RW drive. So I stuck a DVD-R disk in. Dialog pops up asking what to do so I select the - drag and drop files using explorer. Then I tried dragging some files - simple text files. I keep getting windows errors writing to disk. According to the user guide, it should write to a DVD-R format.

Am I missing something here... should I be able to drag windows files over or do I need some special s/w like Easy CD Creator? (I couldn't find any patches for the 8701 on dell's website and don't have any other dvd s/w on right now.) Also, had a pretty nasty experience with tech support earlier so I'm loath to call them again.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Does your new Dell have Sonic Record Now! s/w ? You should try using it, it's alright. Otherwise, if you've tried it, get back onto DELL SUPPORT. But don't bother ringing them up, just send them an email, their phone support is crap.

 

thanks's for the suggestion... i'll download and try it. but i still would like to know if it's normal to be able to drag and drop to a DVD using Windows. I can definitely do that with CDs.

 

In Windows, you can drag and drop to a CD, but you can't drag and drop to a DVD. The Windows program actually writes sessions. Windows does not use a packet writing software. There is a huge difference, namely realiablity. Packet writing software (Drag to Disc, InCD, and DLA) is unreliable, at best, and should NEVER be used for backing up important data.

 

Thanks Grandpa. I saw a couple posts on the Dell website also indicating the same - can't drag and drop to DVD.

 

You are welcome. Dragging and dropping is a bit faster than using Roxio's Creator Classic or Nero's Express, but it isn't that much faster, and it is unreliable, at best.

 

Well, I thought I might write a quick update about my DVD8631 Drive. I wrote the email to DELL, there were no questions asked and I got a technician to install my new NEC 3530A drive for free. It recognizes DL Discs, so everything is good

Thanks to this thread!