Testing Plextor drives from eBay

So I got a 716SA and a 755SA from ebay. I am a little disapointed in the 716SA because the guy said he never installed it. However what he failed to mention was he purchased it used.

So the first thing I tried was my memtest CD and it wouldnt boot from it. I almost just packed it up and sent it back but decided to test further... updated the firm ware and tried again. Nothing... drive just blinks amber twice when I place the memtest CD in it.

So I put the plextools DVD in and installed plextools. Now I am running the PI/PO test and it started at over 200 and then came down to around 50... but just now it spiked to over 500 and has stopped progressing. EDIT: I think it just got to the end of the DVD but when I restarted it it was consistantly over 200 PI for the first couple minutes... I really don't know what I am doing lol

Think I should send it back? He is giving me 30 day warranty on it.

The 755SA however I am more happy with because it came in a brand new sealed box. I still want to test it though. How should I go about testing it?

I have another known good 716SA and a Lite-On 20A1H (I think thats the model... the 20x litescribe IDE one...) availible for scanning/burning.

EDIT:

The 716SA is being sent back. Any CD I put into it casues the drive to just blink amber and plextools fails to detect the drive after that. However I just testing hotswapping DVD drives and it works slick Put the 755SA and the PI/PO test doesnt even go over 40 PI errors at any point... the 716SA is going back tomorow I think...

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Last edited by Tkaya; 09-08-2007 at 09:45.

Ok I tried to install oblivion with the ratail boxed 755SA I got and it crapped out part way through with a CRC error and hung the system until I ejected the disc. So I tried installing it with my 716SA and it worked fine. So I did some quality scans.

755SA




716SA



Now the disc is a bit scratched but teh 716SA has no problem with it (and my first 755SA had no problems with it before it died...) And what gives with that error?

So I did a copy DVD on the fly from my Liteon to my 716SA and did a scan with the 755SA of the new Oblivion disc.


755SA



Barely anything... the first disc was a Sony DVD+R that I burned almost a year ago and developed some scratches... the new disc is a Verbatim DVD+R.

So what should I make of this? What other tests should I run on this drive to make sure it is ok?

Burn some discs, then compare them w/ scans in the related thread.
From the scan your 716SA should go back, if possible.

huh? I think you misunderstood. The 716SA was able to install from the DVD that was a bit scratched and that was the scan of that DVD... yes a lot of errors but it still worked. That 716SA is 3 years old and I have never had a bad burn from it.

The first scan was the new 755SA which got that error while scanning that same DVD ... thats what scares me. I have 3 drives here that can read that disc fine but the new 755SA gets that weird error...

The third scan was a copy of the DVD made with the old 716SA and scanned with the new 755SA and that scan looks almost perfect... so the 716SA produces good burns... and the 755SA can read un scratched DVD's... but the 755SA gets that error on my scratched DVD while 3 other drives dont.

Ok so now to find some ISO's to fill DVD/CD's...

Sorry for misunderstanding. Reading scratched media is Lite-On's job in my drives array.

Yeah I used my LiteOn to rip that disc on the fly burning to the 716SA and thats what produced that good third scan. I just did a burn with the 755SA and am currently scanning it with the 716SA... looks good. PIE hasnt gone over 10 at all and POE only has a few spikes up to 200 but thats it.

So you don't know what that strange QC PI/PO unknown error I got in the first scan is all about?

Where is this thread that I should post scan's?

Like this one: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=187436 for 716 scan.

And this one: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=197218 for 755 scan.

Ok so I want to use Nero CD-DVD speed to do the scans because that is what most people use around here but the Start button is grayed out... why would it be grayed out?

Nero CD-DVD Speed cannot perform quality scans on Plextor drives.

You need to use PlexTools with your Plextor drives.

PxScan/PxView also works with PX-712 and PX-716, but you need unofficial firmware if you want to use PxScan with the PX-755 and PX-760.