I placed a call with Dell tech support and they sent me a new drive, which ended up being a NEC.  It works pretty good but you can only use + media, no - media.

What's the part number of that NEC drive? When you say it only uses + media, do you mean it can't read DVD-R?

I have replaced my HL-DT-ST DVD+RW GCA 4040n drive with thr NEC ND-5100A. I will let y'all know if there are any problems with the new drive.

Well I just got my Inspiron a week ago and have ran into all the same problems. I called dell and requested a new DVD+RW as long as its not a GCA-4040N. They said they could get me a refurbished NEC1500A, which I don't care cause I'm not able to burn anything with this drive anyway. Customer service was really helpful and after reading all the similar problems, I had no choice. The manufacture gives no firmware to download or anything. I'm really dissapointed with Dell's choice to pick this brand of DVD+RW. I've used NEC for a year now and have had no problems at all. All the problems I've been reading about this drive, I've experienced just in this week with this GCA-4040N. I'll come back to let you all know if it worked out.

RE: message posted above

This DVD+RW drive is on a Inspiron 5150 (3 months old).

Message Edited by raab_d on 02-20-2004 10:39 AM

Hi started this thread a little while ago.  I wanted to update everyone on my resolution.  The drive is bad!!!  Contact Dell and demand the replace it with the NEC.  I spent about an hour on the phone with them an finally asked them to just Amuse me and send me a replacement.  You can ask for a NEC and they will tell you that they don't know what part is shipping but it will be the NEC since that is what they are using currently.  Everyone did there part and purchased the product for Dell and now they need to to their part and support and replace the drives.  Good Luck and hopefully everybody will take the time to contact them so they understand who the customer is.

I've burned backups of a couple of movies with no problems.....until now.  Using DVD Decryter and DVD2one113, then burned them using Sonic 6.5.0.

I'm from Northern Ireland and I'm trying to make my DVD region free.  Dell will only jump regions 5 times before it locks down to R2!!??!!  Doesn't help when you've got movies like 'Leon' in R1 with 24 extra mins.  this is a right pain playing/backing up R1's, need to keep the originals away from the kids!!

Need region free firmware!

Any help???

All I use is -R they work fine?

Hi, I'm still curious about the NEC drive being able to read DVD-R's? I have some DVD-R's which I can read in the GCA, and as much as I dislike this drive I can't be stuck with a replacement that can't read my data.

Carl

Don't waste your time.

This HL-DT-ST DVD+RW GCA 4040n drive simply doesn't work.

All my DVD+R were wasted. SonicBlue RecordNow (came with Inspiron 8600) didn't give any msg while burning the DVD+Rs. However, none of them cound be read even by the HL-DT-ST DVD+RW GCA 4040n drive itself !!! I tried TDK DVD+R 4x and Ricoh, both are reliable brands.

Just don't waste your time. Don't buy it, or if you were lucky enough like me and did get it, exchange it or return it. I called dell support several times already, trying to get rid off this HL-DT-ST DVD+RW GCA 4040n drive.

 

Well I have to say that I just got my NEC 5100A and it works great, no problems. I didn't like the fact that Dell gave me a refurbished NEC 5100A, but it works a whole lot better than the GCA 4040N. I burned two movies with DVD X Copy and had no problems with finalizing as I did with the GCA-4040N. I would like to thank the person who started this thread cause I thought that I was the only one with this problem. I had to accept the refurbished, but hey it works, what can I say. Good luck to anybody eles with the same problem.

I am having the same problem with my writer and dvd x-copy software.I have no clue where to update the firmware.iIf you find out please let me know

I am the one who orginally started the thread the burner is bad.  You must have Dell replace it with a different model.  The NEC is what is shipping now.  They may give you the run around but the drive is no good and there is no firmware for it.  If you look at the thread you will see where I contacted them and demanded it was replaced.  They will do it but they probably will try to give you some grief before replacing it.  Good Luck!

Gifted is right, I luckly had a understanding technical service rep and they replaced the GCA 4040N. I basically told them what problem I was having and told them what drive model I wanted it replaced with. By the way another problem you might face is Dell not having the parts avalible. I had to wait a day for the NEC to be avalible.