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HAD TO REPLACED THE OLD ONE DUE TO MOTHERBOARD UPGRADE. NO PROBLEMSWITH SOFTWARE OR USING IT, PLAYS AUDIO CD'S FINE AND BURNS CD'S FINE.NO PROBLEMS.
You can't beat the price and the item was shipped as quickly as promised. I highly recommend this item. It does everything advertised. My 17 year old son swapped out my old DVD and put in this new one without a hitch. Although I was not entitled to free shipping, the price was so low ($299) that I couldn't resist. I purchased the Samsung SH-S203N 20x DVD±RW DL SATA Drive from a seller associated with Amazon. I bought this to replace my older DVD/CD burner that no longer worked. I have not tried the DVD DL yet, but it certainly burns and plays regular DVDs quickly and well.
I am marking this down specifically because important information is lacking. There is no documentation, no mounting screws, no SATA cable, and no power cable. The drive itself is excellent. The advertisement fails to mention that this is the drive *only*. Shop carefully: I found the proper cables at Radio Shack for about $15, but some places charged much more for just the SATA cable.Even with the price of the materials not included, this was an excellent bargain.
The DVD+-RW's firmware was updated with the SB02.exe firmware update (free on-line download from several websites). Yes, the drive is cable of quite high write speeds but as optical drive writing goes, haste-makes-waste. As I quickly found out, it wasn't the Samsung SATA drive that was not working, but, rather, the DVD software.I downloaded a free-ware version (donations are recommended to keep updates and new products coming.). (newer version 2.5.0.0 is also available). version 6.5.1 does not recognize the SATA's double-layer capabilites and repeats prompts to insert a blank media. We use FujiFilm CD-R, HP CD-R ,Playo DVD+R and DVD-R, and a recently purchased 50-pk spindle of Philips DVD+R DL rated at 8X (Amazon $39.99 + 6.49 S&H).The reason I purchased this SATA optical drive was because of the price ($26.99 + 5.87 S&H), and also because our GM Nav Disc (GPS overlay DVD) was getting scratched up a bit (replacement from GM or eBay can run anywhere from $75 to $199).
of ImgBurn v.2.4.2.0 from Lightning UK. Burning CD and DVD (single and double layer) media has been foolproof provided you follow the common advice and use lower write speeds. The motherboard's BIOS was updated to the most current version a few years ago (free on-line download from Dell's website). version.
Franko. I've polished the original DVD, kept it at home, and am now using one of the two perfect copies in our vehicle for GPS navigation. Unable to find XP driver updates for the DVD/CD-ROM drive. The DVD+-RW was connected to the motherboard's SATA-0 connector (SATA-1 connector still open, will use for SATA hard drive later).
WinXP's Device Manager for DVD/CD-ROM drives indicates a driver date of 07/01/2001, version 5.1.2535.0 with firmware version SB02 successfully installed.The installed Sonic's RecordNow. DON'T GIVE UP, THOUGH. The ImgBurn software has no issues whatsoever with the new Samsung SATA and the older Sony DVD+-RW DRU-530A. Good luck.
Hello All,I finished the install of the Samsung SH-S203N DVD+-RW DL 20X Serial ATA optical drive in our Dell Dimension 4600 running WinXP-Home SP3. Unable to find free updates to the RecordNow. Compared to the Sony DVD drive, the Samsung SATA drive is much quieter and can read CDs/DVDs which the Sony cannot (especially during DVD decryption prior to copy for backup purposes) because of surface scratches and smudges.
Combined with speedy shipping, this whole experience gets an A++ from me. If you have SATA ports, it comes with everything you need. It's also very fast. This alone is worth $8 if you live near a computer store, around $20.00 if you don't and don't plan on ordering anything. What noise you may here is a very pleasant spinning, like a small well balanced fan. I haven't tried the light-scribe abilities yet, but I'd assume they work.
End result, this is a great deal, especially if you don't know much about computer hardware. Also comes well packaged and with Nero 7 and 8 essential (you'll only need 8). The drive itself is very quite. It has cut my game loading times by a third, and reading files off of disks to almost nothing. The firmware on it is the most up to date, so no flashing/updating is needed there. Very nice, comes with an 12 or 18" SATA cable of good quality, and an molex to SATA adapter if you are out of SATA's for removable storage.
All and all it's ready to go, right out of the box. Granted, this was coming from an 8 year old Sony IDE, but Sony still sells that exact same model I had.
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