DW1640 drive - should I chuck it?

vbimport
#1

Hello All,

I have a BenQ DW1640 drive that has BSOB firmware.

I accidently did something that I’m sure others must have also done once before, but it seems to have had dire consequences. I accidently put two discs into the drive at once (i.e. one on top of the other). I realised fairly quickly that something wasn’t right as it made a very strange sound during spin-up. Within a few seconds I quickly ejected the drive.

But that’s when the problems started. At first the only problem was that it stopped recognising the presence of DVD+RW discs. But now it won’t write to anything. The burn process stops very early. It doesn’t seem to read anything either. It seems to just hang Windows Explorer when I put a disc with data into the drive (doesn’t hang when inserting blank discs)

I tried upgrading the firmware. I tried with the official flasher and with BQFlasher. Both produce error messages - “Updating incomplete or interrupted”, and “Flash command failed”.

BenQ Qsuite 2.1 seems to detect the drive and show it’s properties, etc. fine. It even returns the manufacturer info on blank discs.

I’m expecting that this drive won’t be able to be revived, but if anyone has any ideas it’d be much appreciated :slight_smile:

#2

I’m not sure if it would work but you can try flashing with WinDWFlash but you’ll need to use the firmware that is a CVT file. You can find the CVT files at the link below. I think in order to download the CVT files you’ll have to join the forum that’s there. Look for either zevia’s or zebadee’s signature to download the WinDWFlash program.

http://dvd-rw.hoppy.tk/dvd-rw/benq/1640/

#3

I really dont see how flashing the drive will help. But lets see, is there any noise or clicking the drive makes when you insert a disk? Does the disk spin up (or at all?) normally or stop dead?

I dont think your drive should have been messed up from inserting 2 disks, i mean i done it before by mistake once too and no damage was done. Or maybe i was lucky but from the sounds of it, you drive may be gone. Hope it helps somewhat

#4

Reflashing the drive with WinDWFlash may work. In the good old days of the Benq 1620 drive flashing the drive with WinDWFlash and using the cvt files would help. Flashing the drive back to a older firmware starting with B7L9 would produce better burns. As I suggested before try using Verbatim dvd+r 16x spd media and use ImgBurn instead of Nero Burn. :wink:

#5

Try uninstalling your drive from System—>Hardware—>Device Manager—> DVD/CD-ROM drives. Reboot, and let Windows auto re-install the drive. Then reboot again.