he who hesitates has lost about a hundred bucks

[Janicki at ia-inc.com (Chris Janicki)]

FYI: A little CD-RW behind-the-scenes info...

The last time I researched CDRW drives (about 2 years ago), I discovered 
that *all* CDRW brands were actually re-brandings of Ricoh hardware.  The 
only exception was Phillips which did their own thing from scratch.  

At the same time, I found a lot of complaints about the Phillips hardware 
and support, although to be fair, I did find many reviews from people 
that had no problems at all.  It seemed that those fortunate to have no 
initial problems were 100% happy, and those who had some initial problems 
never got resolutions.

Moral: stick with the herd, unless there's something extra-special about 
the loner

Chris


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

On 8/30/01, 4:21:43 PM, Seth Gordon <sethg at ropine.com> wrote regarding he 
who hesitates has lost about a hundred bucks:


> A while back, I posted a question to this list on the problems I'd
> been having with my new Philips PCRW-804 CD writer.  (Summary: It
> doesn't write.  It doesn't read.  But it opens and closes that little
> door real purty-like.)

> I assembled some Web pages with diagnostic information, subscribed to
> the cdwrite email list, and described my problem there.  The
> diagnosis, from the fellow who maintains the software: Your hardware's
> defective.

> So, I think, the PCRW 800 series has been tested to work with
> cdrecord, so it's probably just this individual drive that's not
> working -- I'll just exchange it.  The only problem is, I had
> procrastinated for so long before testing the damn thing out, I was
> past Best Buy's deadline for exchanging the product.  But no problem,
> I thought: it's still under warranty, so I'll just turn it in to the
> manufacturer for an exchange.

> Unfortunately, Philips wants to troubleshoot the system over the
> phone, and since they don't officially support Linux, the only way I
> can follow their troubleshooting procedures is to run it on a
> Windows machine.  Which would probably also require finding the CD-ROM
> containing Windows drivers that came with the drive.  Oh, yeah, and a
> machine running Windows 95, 98, or NT -- our only Windows machine at
> home runs Windows ME.

> So my questions for the assembled multitude are:

> (1) Wanna buy a cheap, slightly used, CD-RW?

> (2) Wanna sell me a cheap mass-storage device that is guaranteed to
>     work on Linux, *without* requiring SCSI or USB?

> aaargh,
> --
> "Rav would never cross a bridge when an idolator was on it; he said, 
'Maybe he
> will be judged and I will be taken with him.'  Shmuel would only cross a
> bridge when an idolator was on it; he said, 'Satan cannot rule two 
nations [at
> once].'  Rabbi Yannai would examine [the bridge] and cross."  --Shabbat 
32a
> == Seth Gordon == sethg at ropine.com == http://ropine.com/ == std. 
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