The big external enclosures thread

Kenshin, I noticed that your 5163B writes at 12X on USB2 on MCC 004.
Does this model also have 1394 connections? Somewhere I think I saw in your posts that it did????
Are you held to 12X on USB2?

I would be very interested if you or someone, picked up a 4163B and installed it in an off the shelf combo external enclosure. (Not one of your 1394B capable boxes) to see what kind of results one would get.

Hi All,

I have a HPDVD630i (internal) dvd writer. It shows as 630C in sonic recordnow software. I am not an expert as you in this field...Please help to figure it out the following things..

- How do I find the firmware version on this drive?
- How to update firmware?
- While reading thru the thread, I see write quality, speed tests and so on. How do I find out write quality, speed, burst rate and etc. of my drive. Any free tools available.
- Is hp a rebadged?
- Final question..I am still confused on choosing the external drive..My budget is around 30$. Which is the best external enclosure for my drive?

Thanx everybody for sharing your knowledge.

cheers

Do a search on your drive in the BenQ/Phillips forum. You should find the answers you seek there.

As far as external drive? You mean external case? I prefer the combo PL 3507 chipset that comes in the Plumax 5.25 case from Dealsonic. Reference to it is made earlier in this thread.

Just a note to you folks that are waitng for the PL3507 V185 firmware. You can find it here:

http://member.newsguy.com/~siccos/PL3507%20Firmware.htm

Many thanks to shoarthing for getting this for us

Thx everyone involved with these files dishinit, which version should we use since there are 2 now? There is a 10/06 & a 11/09. Both you and b-h are using the latest of the two.

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Last edited by crea78; 31-12-2004 at 13:53.

crea78 - Hi - this v185 'B' & 'C' [only] firmware has been pretty thoroughly tested now, thanks to dishinit & Beach-Hobo: I sourced it from a Japanese colleague & it is apparently seen as a fairly mature development of PL-3507 performance w/ HDs . . . there is another version in the pipeline from the same source [don't ask when] which addresses a few more issues.

Beach-hobo & myself are both using the 11-09-2004 firmware......I would flash straight to that version.
I see no changes (positive or negative) with my ext BenQ drive & no conflicts with my ext HD. This firmware allows you the run either a DVD burner or a Hard drive, with no drive recognition problems (both types of drives) or delayed write problems when using a Hard drive with your ext prolific case (Big Issue).
Use Rom Updater 2.2 or 2.21 to update from Sept PL-3507 firmware over USB.
A tip I'll pass on is to always place the slowest 1394 device at the end of your daisy chain, that being your DVD burner.
Good luck with the upgrade.

Thx shoarthing for providing the file for the rest of us to get & also for the info you provided. dishinit, once again, thx for your insight on all of this matter. Everyone here appreciates what you have done for us 'external' users.

Many, many thanks gentlemen, for your efforts. I really hate wandering around this maze of enclosures without any guidance. I did get the ALI chipset to work once I put the HD on Master, then I gave it to my wife. I ordered a stortecc w/prolific chipset for myself, I hope it has the 3507 chipset on it.
Kudos again gentlemen

I have to say: THANKS TO EVERYONE who help with the Prolific Firmware. This has been a long time coming. All the DVD issues were fixed from what I can tell on the 9/7 version. The latest version 11/9 has fixed the delayed-write issue with hard drives.

If there a later November version coming out, I guess Prolific has found a problem(s) they are correcting. Will have to wait and read the readme file to find out what was fixed.

I don't know were you purchased yours, but if you use DealSonic you can choose the model by chipset (Prolific or Oxford) on many of the cases they carry.

I did use Dealsonic, got the Black with Prolific chipet, I'm hoping it's 3507 C or better, If I'm not mistaken that letter C is important.

There are 3 hardware releases of the 3507 chip (A,B,C). If you have the B or C chip version you can use the UpLoader (ROMWrite) to update the firmware.
The A version requires a hardware modification and a special loader and special firmware that doesn't get updated any more.

The version are like cars, you can ONLY purchase a new C currently.

If you buy a used car a few years old, it pot luck on the version chip that's in the case.

THEREFORE:::: STAY AWAY FROM EBAY !!!

FYI flashable Pl-3507 chips

Nice consolidation of stuff, here.

I've got a Lite-On 812s I've wanted external for awhile, but now it simply must be done. While I was originally thinking of getting th basic Prolific Speeze one, being encased in plastic did not seem like a good idea. I want it silent. So, I've found the following enclosures...

Newegg PPA
This one has external power, no fan, and an open mesh case, so no big cooling worries. But for the life of me, I can't find the chipset. If it has a favorable chipset, this will be the one.

Newegg Speeze
Ugly as can be, but looks to be built well. But, I can't seem to find chipset info.

Newegg Rosewill
Oxford/Cypress. I don't like the design (though not ugly), but not a bad price. An alright standby in case I don't find out about the others, or decide not to be adventurous and just buy the PPA.

Anyone have info about the top 2, or experiences with the Rosewill (or an equivalent, as I'm sure there are others that are exactly the same)?

Then there are FW controllers. This should be simpler.
VIA, NEC, or Agere?

VIAs are dirt cheap, but they *are* VIA. Their USB chipsets are good, but I don't know about FW. NEC I know is supposed to be OK. Then there is Agere. Out of nowhere, as far as I can tell, there are some reasonably cheap cards with a Lucent chipset (Agere used to be Lucent, in case anyone doesn't know already). I've never had any trouble with any Lucent chipset products of any kind, so I think I'll get one, unless anybody has had problems. But if there are problems, I'm sure someone on here would have had them by now .

Go to the individual Brand name sites via Google search, ie:

http://www.ppa-usa.com/product_pages...sures/2230.htm

Contact them & inquire about chipset.

Stay away from Oxford 911/922 for 1394 use with a DVD writer. Limited to 13MB/s transfer on 1394 unless new info is out. Great for Hard Drives though.

I'd trust NEC for FW controller.

I would be interested in a "Quiet" enclosure, mine are noiser than my computer. But then I have a Dell server! Super quiet.

dishinit, I recently upgraded to the 47L9 firmware. The flashing did very well, but when I tried to do a burst rate test with Nero CD-DVD Speed, I got an error. Afterwards, my enclosure turned itself off and I had to do an on/off sequence several times before it stayed on for good.

Not knowing what this would do to my BenQ drive, I decided to go back to the "B" series firmware. I'm wondering if there is a reason why I got this error when doing a burst rate test...

Did you use a copy protected pressed movie DVD for the test. If so you must play it first before running the test.

beach-hobo, I didn't use a copy protected disc. It was a Sony +R blank media which I did a "Create A Data Disc" beforehand.

One other thing, the Sony blank media I have seem not to be working well with either B7T9 or 47L9 firmware. I read that B7P9 is better for this particular media.

Crea78,
This is odd. Perhaps you can answer some questions:
What make External case?
What firmware is your Case?
Was your power cord to case firmly connected? To wall socket?
Was there a possibility of power interuption when you were doing this test?
(I do not notice this when on my laptop)
How were you connected to computer to do your burst rate test?
What version Nero CD Speed?
Did you flash your BenQ to 47L9 in Safe mode originally?
(I've re-flashed my BenQ with Original BenQ 47L9.exe in safe mode after cross flash to 47L9......I like to be sure)
What else might have you done to your system between firmware flashes?

What make External case? StorTecc - US Microlabs
What firmware is your Case? PL3507-1109B (11_09_04)
Was your power cord to case firmly connected? To wall socket? I believe so / yes
Was there a possibility of power interuption when you were doing this test? no, connected via power cord
(I do not notice this when on my laptop)
How were you connected to computer to do your burst rate test? firewire
What version Nero CD Speed? 3.61
Did you flash your BenQ to 47L9 in Safe mode originally? yes
What else might have you done to your system between firmware flashes? nothing but run Nero CD-DVD speed by using Create A Data Disc

OK, some more questions.....
What was the exact error that you got from CD Speed?
What media were you using?
Was this your 1st burn on the 47L9 firmware?
Did you do a disc quality scan after create data disc.
Did you burn any discs and what were the results before upgrading to V185 on your case firmware? or did you upgrade case & benQ firmware all at same time?
Using the B7xx BenQ firmware, how does the drive perform?

FYI, I have had a DVD writer drive lock up on really bad burn (usually bad media) for god knows what reason???

When I asked about power interuption, I meant fluxuating house current....For instance, I lost power briefly today and if I was on my laptop, I would probably not have noticed unless I was using a peripheral device.

There is a possibility you may have a defective case?
Find out by testing the same media with the B7xx firmware. If it errors out again, I would suspect the media or quality of burn?

What was the exact error that you got from CD Speed? not sure exactly because I closed the error window afterwards
What media were you using? Sony D11 (+R 8x@12x)
Was this your 1st burn on the 47L9 firmware? yes
Did you do a disc quality scan after create data disc. no b/c the "Create A Data Disc" looked pretty bad... stopped it 3/4 way so this might have had something to do with it??
Did you burn any discs and what were the results before upgrading to V185 on your case firmware? or did you upgrade case & benQ firmware all at same time? only did one scan using 47L9 firmware ; I upgraded to V185 abt 2 hrs before I did the BenQ firmware
Using the B7xx BenQ firmware, how does the drive perform? performs very well with RICOH-RO1 & TY media. Sony +R/+RW is a completely different story. Getting 50s on qlt. scan
There is a possibility you may have a defective case? maybe but seems to work fine with the "B" series firmware.. burst rate and all
Find out by testing the same media with the B7xx firmware. If it errors out again, I would suspect the media or quality of burn? I'll give 47L9 a try again and hope the same thing doesn't happen
** Also no power outages occured before or after the flash

Maybe I'm taking the 47L9 prematurely but it sort of freaked me out getting the error than the enclosure shut off by itself

Crea78,
Thanks for telling me you had aborted the burn. This was the cause of your problem. Discs that are not finalized can wreak havoc! Just so you know, an incomplete disc can happen without your intervention.
I have not had much luck with the Sony 08D1 discs myself. So much so, that I returned a 50 pc spindle that I got on sale at BB. Picked up a couple of 25pc Verbatim 16X (on sale) instead. Just paid a few dollars difference when 10% cupon was added. Blah, blah, blah.......Sorry
Reload the 47L9 when you are ready. I like this firmware. Have not really flashed back very much, except for experimental reasons.
I really don't think there is anything wrong with your drive or External Case other than you giving it "shock therapy"
As far as which firmware to use on your BenQ....Truthfull I rarely burn at 16X, the thrill is gone & I know I get better burns on the same media if I slow down to 12X. Recent B7xx firmwares will all achieve good 12X external burns.

dishinit, I appreciate your concern on ppl's problems with their drives. I know I shouldn't abort a write procedure, but didn't realize it could actually screw up your drive. Oops... About the Sony discs, not sure if I want to keep these (write @ 8x) or just give these away since I purchased them about a month ago when CompUSA had them on sale.

I've also noticed that 12x burns do really well for external burns, so I may stick with the "B" series firmware.