Sony DVD+/- RW on Inpiron 6400?

Hello everyone, I was just looking at the device manager for my I6400 and under the DVD/CD Rom Drives it states that I have a Sony DVD +/- RW on my laptop which is weird coz I checked my computer components on the Dell website and it says I have an NEC DVD RW. There is also no support whatsoever on the dell website for I6400 for the Sony DVD RW (no drivers etc. ) .

Does anyone else with an I6400 have the same weird issue? Could it be that the driver installed on my system for the DVD RW is wrong?

 

It should be just a standard windows driver for your drive. It works, right?

 

wella, I have exact spec as you, but my DVD is listed as TSSTcorp (which is Toshiba Samsung) with a generic Microsoft driver

 

I didn't use the DVD Drive that much yet, but I watched a DVD movie with it last night and it worked ok. Haven't tried to burn DVDs or cdrw yet. But I'll try soon. I think the standard windows driver that was installed for the DVD drive lists the brand incorrectly. I doubt that my drive is a sony.

roffensian, I think I have an NEC DVDRW drive coz thats what it says on the dell website for my laptop. Anyway I'll try to install the NEC driver and see if it identifies the drive as NEC brand.

 

If it isn't broken, don't fix it!

I have installed Windows in lots of PCs and notebooks, but so far never installed any drivers for a CD or a DVD ROM/Writer, Default Windows drivers work perfectly. If it says Sony then most probably it is; even if it is not why bother if it works ? Sony DW-Q58A drives are also known to be installed in Inspiron 6400.

Where exactly in DELL website does it say that you have a NEC drive ?

 

haha yeah thats true. Even if its not sony and it says its sony am cool with that as long as its working (matter of fact sony sounds sexier than NEC ) Yeah mine says its a sony Q58A which probably shipped with a few dell laptops.

It says that my drive is an NEC in the "original configuration" page for my laptop (I can access it with my service tag).

Still weird tho I don't know which one to beleive

 

I think safe to trust Windows, especially if it says the drive is DW-Q58A; because the chance of Windows incorrectly reporting a model that also happens to be shipped with Inspiron 6400 is very unlikely.

 

I wouldn't trust the build sheet - that just refers to the modules that go into your machine based on the 'standard' build. For some items that will always be correct because they can't be substituted - processor for example. For others they will always look for what's available / what the best pricing is, etc. The spec for the 6400 offers a DVD RW with certain specs, but not a specific brand so substitution is easy - you got Sony, I got Samsung, but both build sheets say NEC because that is the description associated with the 'parts bucket' that the DVD comes from.

As far as drivers are concerned, I'm with the others - if it works, who cares!

 

Now is Sony DVD RW supposed to be a good one?

I guess I don't mind having a sony dvdrw for my laptop, the only issue is to be able to download the updated drivers for this dvdrw (which could fix errors etc that may happen). Now that it isn't supported on the dell website, I have to look elsewhere on the internet to find the latest and the greatest drivers.....

 

I think what you are talking about is firmware, not drivers; because in general no one install special drivers for standard CD/DVD ROMs/Writers. Firmware updates usually add compatibility for new media types and also fixes problems if there are any, in the simplest terms it is like a BIOS update for computers. If you do it wrong you can even end up with a dead writer, therefor be very careful. AGAIN, DON'T meddle with the firmware if there is no problem.

 

Yup. I like this advise...but...

This is fairly true. You could cause trouble. But in the past, firmware upgrades on optical drives have had all kinds of visible improvements - performance and otherwise.

 

Yeah I don't think I'll install any firmware for my dvdrw not for the time being. I'd be interested to know where I can download the firmware for this drive from tho (now that its not on the dell website)

 

http://forum.rpc1.org/ is a very good place to download optical drive firmware.
You are in luck, they have a firmware update for Sony DW-Q58A notebook DVD writer.

If you decide to upgrade make sure that your writer is compatible and that you have an older version than what is listed in the site. Also read all the instructions and comments you can find in their forum about that particular update before doing anything (like what it fixes, if it has any issues, has some one reported problems in updating etc.. ). Good luck .

 

It says Q58A UDS2 on mine as well, but it also says there is a Pioneer CD changer, NEC something or another if you go look in the registry. Dont know why it's like that, Don't really care as long as everything works.

 

thanks for the info, it seems to be very risky business to install firmware for the dvdrw drive. I doubt that I'll update my firmware right now. But this seems to be a great website thanks for the info

 

No problem.

BTW if you are careful and do it right, then nothing to worry about. I’ve done it couple of times, nothing went wrong. but as i said don't do it if there aren't any problems with your writer.