HP DVD840i DVDRW Drive

tduncan wrote on 8/22/2006, 11:09 AM

My HP a1320n computer came with a LITE-ON SHW-16H5S DVDRW drive that should have the ability to change booktypes. It appears that this feature has been disabled by HP. The firmware updates from LITE-ON will not instalI at all and installing the firmware updates from HP still doesn't allow the drive to change booktypes. I would like to find out who the manufacturer of the DVD840i drive is and if HP disables the ability to change booktypes on their add-on drives as well. There is very little tecnical data on the HP site for this unit.

Comments

ScottW wrote on 8/22/2006, 1:58 PM

Go to www.cdrinfo.com and check out their drive reviews under the Optical Storage section. Each review rates the drive/burner and tells you whether you can change the booktype. Find the drive that looks good to you, then go to www.newegg.com and order it. I've personally had good luck with LG burners, but there are others out there that work as well, if not better. If you aren't comfortable installing the drive, I'm sure there are computer stores near you that can handle the task.

In my opinion, you should not purchase a burner from a major computer maufacturer like HP or Dell - no matter what you'll run the risk of them doing something stupid to the firmware so that they "retain control" for whatever reason.

I will say that it may be possible to flash your existing drive with other firmware, but this is dangerous in that it could leave you with a non-functional drive if you don't do things correctly. Much less hassle to purchase a drive that does what you want.

--Scott