Yet another 716SA Headache

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers Plextor Writer
#1

Hello all,

Buying the Plextor 716SA was one of the most spontaneous decisions I’ve made in buying hardware. I thought the idea of an SATA drive was awesome given my system only has one IDE port on it, and Plextor has always been an measure of quality in the industry - so I thought.

I wish I had done my research. After reading through countless threads, I have to say I’m deeply discouraged. Here is my story.

I bought this drive used, online. (First mistake). I paid $140CND for it which was only slightly below retail back in the summer when I bought it. It had basically sat in a box until I assembled my new rig. I’ve assembled a system around the Shuttle SN25P barebones system, yes, using NForce 4 chipset.

The drive fails to recognize ANY media. I tried to run the self test on it, and it does the three orange blinks indicating the disc isn’t blank. Well, I’ve tried different media right off the spindle, so that’s not the case.

I have tried the drive on 4 different chipsets including the Sil3112 which has been reported to work by some. Same deal. I’m afraid I purchased a dead drive. After regaining contact with the guy who sold it to me - turns out he sold it because he couldn’t get it to work with his NF4. I wish he had said that from the start. Now I’m stuck with this thing, and not really sure what to do.

From the posts here it seems that RMAing the drive simply incurrs shipping costs with no results. More cost on this thing is the last thing I want. The reason I decided to post in in part for suggestions and in part because I had seen some people post with working NF4 systems, yet I haven’t seen anyone with a shuttle (FN25 board, I believe).

System Specs:
Shuttle SN25P (FN25? mobo)
716SA 0304 (Jan 2005), 1.09

#2

Greetings,

If the drive is failing self test with 3x amber sequence with a blank DVD your positive is not blank, the drive itself is defective. Your not even getting to a point where the nforce 4 compatibility issue comes into question. When you try to read a DVD what does the LED on the front of the drive do? It should be solid green, otherwise if its blinking, this reinforces the 3x amber result.

Good Luck,

-cyanidebm

#3

The collected sum of experiences here can only be taken as anecdotal at best, and skewed to those that have a complaint. When I RMA’d my 712 and got a great one in return, I did not make a post about it. Had I gotten a sh*tty one, I might have…

Shipping via Canada Post Express Post is about C$8 - C$10, so you can spend $50 on a new BenQ 1640 or spend $8-$10 and maybe get a great 716. CDFreak Frittenbude just posted results in the Scans thread from an RMA’d 716 he just got back, and the results are as good as any burner out there.

Go to www.memofix.com and click on the RMA area. You will be requested to fill out some details and get an RMA number and further instructions. They’ll ship another unit out the same day they receive your RMA’d one and you should get it the next business day.

YMMV, but I’d risk the $10 at least once … good luck!

#4

i agree, i had troubles getting a 716 to work for me. went through 3 of them in fact till i decided after the third one to RMA instead of returning where i bought it. good choice on my part, i recieved a brand new one that works like the reputation is supposed to be. plextor had some quality problems for some reason with the 716

#5

Wow, thanks for the responses everyone - my hope is renewed! To answer some of the questions - I tried the self test with 2 CD-Rs only, blank - right off the spindle. I have not tried a DVD. I guess I’ll do that next.

When I try and put any media in the drive when it’s in windows or otherwise, the drive makes a quick noise (it varies from time to time) as the LED blinks once or twice, then goes silent. Nothing is read, nothing is recognized by my computer.

And yes, I understand that the results here would definitely be skewed, but it was still shocking to see those results. I am also surprised to hear about memofix. Call be sheltered, but this is the first I’ve heard of another company/or at least site, handling RMAs. Almost looks too good to be true :slight_smile: (I was thinking I may have to ship my drive to the states, as I’ve had to do for other various hardware)

Anyway thanks again for the advice and the link. I’ll post back with whatever my results may be!