Hello Richard, and thank You very much for sharing with me your personal
experience!
I have tried to explain and show the situation around here in details.
Please read it and tell me Your opinion!
First, You may have a look at my PC if you like:
http://gfc.my.contact.bg/tests/pc-inside/01.jpg
http://gfc.my.contact.bg/tests/pc-inside/02.jpg
http://gfc.my.contact.bg/tests/pc-inside/03.jpg
http://gfc.my.contact.bg/tests/pc-inside/04.jpg
----- Original Message -----
From: "RJK" <
[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: Plextor recorder fails
| FWIW
|
| Fit a surge protector, ....
| ...and don't forget to surge protect your telephone line.
I'll try to find and get one!
By the way I've been thinking about an UPS many times.
I've been spending a long time for new monitor, would it
be worth to buy an UPS instead? If that means no more
broken recorders and headache, then yes!
So far the recorded Plextor media disks are all excellent quality -
an average test example for DVD+R burned at 16x:
Avg Max Total
PIE 0.83 9 14822
POE 0.08 170 10715
POF - - 0
But when the recorder goes a few months old, first it stops burning DVD+/-RW
disks (while continuing to record on DVD+/-R with the same excellent
quality)... And soon it will stop writing on anything (that's my experience
with the previous ones).
|
| ...and
| I would suspect power supply problems, particularly inadequate quality or
| unsatisfactory, or if you prefer the correct term "insufficient
interference
| in electrical connections", (particularly "negative" connections), both
| inside and outside the PC.
||| particularly "negative" connections
Does that mean the COMMON / GROUND (GND) connection?
As you can see on the pictures of my computer, I have no place inside the
case to fit the power supply, so it is mounted just behind the PC's case.
But I have added a thick and short wire to connect the chassis of the power
supply to the PC's case. The wire is soldered to terminals on both sides
that are screwed tight. Could this cause any problems?
The "ZERO" wire on the Power network of the house is grounded outside - this
prevented a lot of accidents. About 5 or 6 years ago, before we added the
local ground there once was a long-time (a few minutes) power surge from
311V instead of 220V and almost of the electronics in the house were
damaged.
We still have many power failures for less than half of a second. Usually
once every day. And it's so short in time that the computer will just reboot
instead of turn off. The CD/TAPE/FM player is very sensitive and will reset
as well so I know it is a power failure and not a PC failure. But there were
not any power failures while recording a disk.
Yes, I had thought that problems could be caused by the power supply. So
before attaching my current recorder to the computer (when it was returned
to replace the old one in February 2007), I first went to a hardware store
and purchased their most expensive and powerful power-supply: FORTRON 400W
output power, a hard and massive unit, with a big fan. It cost me about 63
Euro. The specification from the official web-site is here:
http://www.fsp-group.com.tw/english/1_product/2_detail.asp?mainid=1&fid=52&proid=214
Then I did measure the input EMF current consumed by the power supply, which
multiplied by 230V gave me about less than 200W (during 3D mark benchmark).
Today I used a digital multimeter and an
analogue oscilloscope to measure the DC (--)
and differential (~) pulse peaks on the power supply.
5.04V *(+/- 0.06V noise peaks**)
12.50V *(+/- 0.25V noise peaks**)
* measured from a power socket to chassis
** when recorder's laser is activated and the
2 hard-disks are forced to search random data
dir /s
| Especially, poor interference between between male/female "negative"
| connectors can cause excess current / loading in the device.
| Building / mains electricity supply negative connections that are
| unsatisfactory, (unsecure / not tightly secure), have the effect of
placing
| devices under heavy load and WILL cause premature failure of devices esp.
| transformers.
The power connector of the DVD recorder is tight. The connectors of the two
HDDs are not much, but that's due to the HDDs' power sockets are thinner. So
if anything should fail or goes broken, I guess that should be a hard-disk,
and not the DVD recorder.
The computer is very stable, I don't have any crashes, performance is
excellent.
RAM config is relaxed to the most stable. CPU temperature on touch is not
hot - feels colder than the hard-disks. It is over-clocked (from 11*133MHz
to
11*166MHz), which is far away from the point of minor instabilities that
begin at (11*181MHz - measured with long memory diagnostics and 3D
benchmarks).
|
| Example, personal experience -
| A cousin complained that his games console external mains power
transformer
| had failed three times and had been replaced under warranty three times.
| The fourth time, I drove into town and investigated and quickly discovered
| that :-
|
| The 13amp, (UK by the way), mains socket, into which he had been plugging
in
| the aforementioned transformer had a neutral connection at its' consumer
| unit end, (fuseboard if you prefer), that was not secure i.e. 2 securing
| screws in the common netral block had missed the 2.5mm copper core
| completely - it was just sort of "wound around" another neutral, and
hadn't
| gone in far enough - if you see what I mean.
I'm getting the picture
Me and my Father have created the electrical installation of the entire
house. We also added solid grounding to the "ZERO" wire. I have personally
created all of the connection-blocks and outlets, that are connecting from
the power network on the wall to the PC and the other devices around it. All
connection-blocks and sockets have the "GROUND" wire properly connected. All
wires are soldered before screw-tightened (just in case).
The FTP LAN cables PC-Router-DSL modem all have the metallic envelope
grounded.
Please excuse me, if I made mistakes in the technical English language... I
have technical knowledge in Electronics, but my technical English is not
good, so I'm trying to keep up with a dictionary in hand
Greetings from Bulgaria!
George Valkov
| regards, Richard
|
|
| | > Hello everyone!
| >
| > My current Plextor recorder failed just like the previous ones! This is
my
| > third PX-760A, and I had one PX-716A before that, which also failed. I
am
| > bored from using the warranty services, every time they replace my
| > recorder,
| > it works a few months and then fails.
| > First symptoms are that it stops burning DVD+RW and DVD-RW disks,
saying:
| > "Medium error, Power Calibration failed" even with new medium.
| >
| > I always buy the most expensive disks - only Verbatim and Plextor media.
I
| > clean my computer from dust, I use the recorder vary rare - I haven't
| > burned
| > more that 15 CDs and DVD and yet this recorder failed again!
| >
| >
| > Does anyone else have any problems with Plextor recorders? Can I do
| > anything
| > to make my recorder live longer?
| >
| >
| > George Valkov
| >
| >
|
|
