BenQ 1640 "in stock" in Canada and USA

I want a retail benq 1640. from where can I get it?

My black DW1640 arrived today. Made in May 2005, came with BSGB firmware, updated to BSHB. A little dissappointed that I can only burn YUDENT02 at only 8x, hopefully they'll get the overspeeding going in the next firmware release.

Hey Eluder did you simply do a straight flash using the BSHB FW or is there a particular set of hoops to jump through? I just ordered a black Benq 1640 from NCIX as well and would just like to know beforehand what to do.

Was yours made in China or Malaysia, Eluder? I just ordered mine today- I went for Beige.

Eluder: Ignore my post I really need to change these glasses. For some unknown reason I thought I had seen that it came with 'G' FW as opposed to 'B'.

im gonna be ordering a black 1640 from NCIX mid august. i wish NCIX would check if it had OEM or Retail firmware before shipping it out but they said they wouldnt =[.

what are the chances of getting OEM firmware and is there a way to make your OEM drive a Retail drive?

I've just ordered an beige 1640 from NCIX and wanting to know whats the difference between the OEM and Retail drive? Isn't the hardware the same? Is it just the firmware thats different between these two? plus it could be retail box and some burning software. I hope the NCIX Benq drive I'm getting comes with the BENQ "Q Suite" software!

OEM benq 1640's are supposed to come with G series firmware which is for the OEM/bulk drives but, a lot of people get B series firmware which is for the Retail drives. If you do get a B firmware, you will be able to use the B firmware on the BenQ website. If you get a G firmware, then you have to convert your drive to a Retail drive. This is what im trying to figure out how to do just incase i recieve an OEM G firmware.

to convert to a retail drive, i think you have to flash to BSGB in cvt format with WinDWFlash but im not totally sure.

Yes you just use a corresponding Bxxx.cvt and WinDWFlash to convert the OEM drive into a retail firmware one, after that you can use the official Bxxx firmware updates from BenQ (bear in mind doing this voids your warranty).

how do they know that you converted your OEM benq to a Retail benq though? couldnt you just say it came with retail Bxxx firmware? also, is there any difference between a converted OEM to Retail drive and a normal Retail 1640? (performance, features etc)

They can't really or wouldn't go to the trouble of finding out
[At some point along the line in the paper trail BenQ probably knows what firmware was shipped on the drive but I doubt most retailers even bother to ask BenQ when RMAing stuff]

Nope.

Dalen Quaice, I didn't check where it was made, if I feel like yanking the drive out tonight I'll check for you, but it may be sometime before I do so since I've only burned one disc with it so far, I want to do some more testing.

pochoboy, my unit only came with Nero OEM, no QSuite, but doesn't matter, I just d/led them from the website.

actually (at least on the 1620's rebadges included) it lists the firmware rev right on top of the burner. it will either state "bxxx" or "gxxx". it has that on all my benq1620's, 2 came with oem firmware, 1 came with retail. all my benqs are rebadges (2 are i/o magic and 1 is a pac digital).

Eluder,
I've accessed Benq's website and could not locate the Q Suite download. Where is it located or a link would be nice.

You can get QSuite from here.

youre right, i guess the benq 1640 does list the firmware right on the burner too. But, i heard that stores/benq usually doesnt care because you ARE using Benq firmware.

The benq is on the newegg and the NCIX website and from reading this page most people are getting it from the NICX site. Which site has the OEM ver. and which one has the retail ver. And again, from reading this page I want to get the retail ver.

Also this question is probably for when I get the drive but where do I get the f/w for this drive.

If you live in the USA the retail version of the 1640 is at Circuit City but not all stores have them in stock. You would have to check with your local Circuit City. Newegg.com sells the OEM version. As for the firmware you can download it from the BENQ website or do a search in google or in this forum site.

newegg is the best place in USA

I got the black model from NCIX a week ago.
It is now $10 reduced, to 52.57... oh well, you can all thank me later

It came with Nero Express, was manufactured May 2005

edit.. mine was made in China and came with firmware BSHB and have upgraded to BSKB.