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Topic: Plextor drives durability? (Read 4354 times) previous topic - next topic
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Plextor drives durability?

I bought a PX-W4012A some time ago, and after moderately using it for a year, the drive broke. Then, after RMAing it, they kindly replaced it for a new drive. Good support, but after ripping ~60 cds, and burning ~50 cds, it's broken again (1 year more aproximately). Now, it's producing cd's with a lot of C2 errors, and is unable to extract tracks correctly (I compare with older rips, and they are different; the worse is that it's ripping slowly, but it's not reporting errors at all).

What's your experience with plextor drives?

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #1 –
I had a PX-54TA failing after one year. (frequently used for ripping). Kindly replaced by Plextor with the same drive for €0. (warranty 2 years) About one year again now, still working. I believe the old drive was killed by loud ripping rattle at high speed and with poorly balanced CDs.
I know that I know nothing. But how can I then know that ?

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #2 –
I noticed that my RMA unit has problems reading discs when the temperature inside my chassis reaches 45 °C. The old unit (PX-712A) failed after one year and wasn't able to read CDs anymore. Burning (both CD and DVD) and reading of DVDs worked fine however. I am wondering if Plextor uses biological cells. Most other devices have no problems with temperatures over 40 °C.

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #3 –
Personally, I've had nothing but great experiences with Plextor drives. I've been using Plextor exclusively for the last 7 years now, without any failures.

So far, I used:
- 1 PX-W412 (SCSI 4x CD-R) - 4 years
- 1 UltraPlex 32x (SCSI CD-ROM) - 3 years
- 1 PX-W2410A (IDE CD-R) - 1 year
- 1 PX-708A (IDE DVD+R) - I use this one right now, I bought it immediately after it came out, which is almost 2 years ago now.

And, as I mentioned before, I never had a single problem with any of these drives.

OTOH, a friend of mine has already had three broken Plextors, and never wants to touch anything from Plextor again. Although I think the models he used were not manufactured by Plextor but by a third-party manufacturer. I believe this can be an important factor with regard to build quality, but I'm not sure.
Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #4 –
Hi there.

I also never experienced any problems with my 4 Plextor drives that I've used so far.

Models (in chronologic order):
1. PlexWriter 24/10/40A
2. PlexWriter Premium
3. PX-708A
4. PX-716A

Drive 2 & 4 are still in use.

I've been using Plextor for a long time now and never had any complaints (except that the PX-716A is a bit too noisy for my taste.)

----

A little bit of sideinformation:
I know, these are just facts and won't help anyone with a broken drive, but Plextor promises a MTBF (mean time between failure) of 60'000 hours which equals 6 years and 310 days (that is if I'm not mistaken!) and a trayload durability of 35'000 to 100'000 CD changes.
(The PX-740A even has a MTBF of 125'000 hours)

- Realityfreak

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #5 –
My Plextor Premium died on the first CD rip right after I had received it. The replacement unit has lasted for over a year now on moderate use. Their warranty support is great, though, they send a DHL courier to your house to pick up the defective unit and deliver a replacement unit right back to your doorstep.

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #6 –
Oh, yes, the support really is great. I received my second unit three days after reporting the issues and Plextor didn't even request the old one.

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #7 –
This sound interesting. I think I will give Plextor one more try, and buy a PX-716A. The ripping speed that Plextor units offer is so good that I cannot stand the velocity of drives of other brands.

I expect to not have to post here in the future to report a broken PX-716

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #8 –
I've replaced my first Plextor unit (PX-W4012A) on the spot, since it couldn't burn audio CD-s correctly. The CD-s couldn't be read in any CD reader (standalone player or CD-ROM drive, including the Plextor one). Tried with and without burn-proof, VariRec, different speeds and what not... The data CD-s were fine though.

The replacement unit of the same type has lasted for more than 3 years now, and I'm still using it (almost exclusively for ripping...)
Tongue-tied and twisted - just an earthbound misfit, I

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #9 –
Quote
Personally, I've had nothing but great experiences with Plextor drives.

Same here. Four Plextors in the past five years, nnone broke down. Two (a Premium and a PX-712A are still in use, each more than a year old.
Quote
OTOH, a friend of mine has already had three broken Plextors, and never wants to touch anything from Plextor again. Although I think the models he used were not manufactured by Plextor but by a third-party manufacturer. .
The DVD drives before the PX-708 were rebranded Pioneers.

Quote
My Plextor Premium died on the first CD rip right after I had received it. The replacement unit has lasted for over a year now on moderate use. Their warranty support is great, though, they send a DHL courier to your house to pick up the defective unit and deliver a replacement unit right back to your doorstep.
Only in Europe and the UK. In the US, the waranty is one year, and you have to ship defective drives back yourself.
That Country field in your profile is there for a reason, use it. That way your posts won't have readers from other parts of the world wondering what you are talking about.

Quote
This sound interesting. I think I will give Plextor one more try, and buy a PX-716A. The ripping speed that Plextor units offer is so good that I cannot stand the velocity of drives of other brands.

I expect to not have to post here in the future to report a broken PX-716

Chances are, that's what will happen. If you did your even a quick research you'd quickly find dozens reports about the PX-716's CD problems.

Plextor drives durability?

Reply #10 –
Too late... I have one PX-716 already

Maybe this was the problem.

The first thing I have tested is the ripping speed... 2 minutes (lite-on+eac) vs. 9 seconds (using plextools). And the rip is bit perfect, not like the lite-on that was unable to over-read into the lead-in.