HP DVD writer 840b

[Jeff C Taylor]

Could this be what Josh was talking about. I haven't tried it yet, but I found it through a google search on HP DVD Writer 840B Firmware. The following HP site came up as the first result. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?lc=en&cc=us&softwareitem=ob-40561-1

[Simon Killeen]

My HP DVD Writer 840b does not read any sort of DVD disks. But still reads and writes CD.

The HP customer center does not help in the slightest and since i only had a 12 month warranty it would cost me $45 just for them to 'suggest' ways of fixing the problem.

I tried what Josh said by updating the driver firmware, nothing changed.

[Jeff C Taylor]

I tried the firmware and nothing changed. Now my drive isn't responding at all. I'm out of warranty as well. Guess I'll have to buy a new drive.

[seeunt]

I will never buy a hp computer ever again, tech support is near non existent, computer has given me noting but problems, new hard drive installed, dvd/cd rom useless, cant replace hard drive into cradle as i cant undo screws on the side you cant remove, i my oppinion hp is crap and if you are reading all of this then you must be feeling the same, if you wish to disagree with me you may email me at seeunt@live.com.au but i really dont think you will be disagree'n with me because you would just about be ready to rip the computer from the desk and throwing it at the dog next door

[L_S]

I have an HP Media Center PC m7260n, purchased in December 2005. I don't use the HP DVD Writer 840b that often, so I don't even know how long this has been going on. As of tonight, it cannot write to CD's or CD-RW's. I haven't tried it with DVD RW's because I don't have any blank ones on hand. It can read commercially prepared CD's and run programs from them. It can play commercially made music CD's. It plays DVD's. It cannot read any home burned media at all, not even media that it has written. The DVD-ROM drive reads everything, including the home burned media which was created on this PC.

All I was doing when I realized I had a problem was trying to copy some photo's onto a CD to take to my folks. I have tried all the software I have on this system and I just get errors each time, and I have a new stack of shiny coasters to show for my efforts. At one point, when I opened the drawer, there was this awful grinding noise and then the drive was dead as a doornail to any media I tried in it until I rebooted the system. After that, it was only reading the commercially made stuff again.

Has anyone come up with anything yet, or am I looking at replacing the drive?

[Michael R. Monteith]

Seems need to add myself to the pot. I was doing fine with CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R. But DVD-R DL, and DVD-RW. Seems even Lightscribes utility says it doesn't recognize the disk. I've gotten only a couple of DVD-DL to work and thought I had found the fix but trying to do another fails. I've tried the latest firmware and different types of burning software and determined that I'll just buy a decent drive somewhere else. Normally I buy HP and had good luck. But seeing multiple customers having the same problem and lack of HP really responding to the problem is not a good indication.

Michael

[Preston Jimno]

I am having the same issue with TWO HP M7248n PC's the DVD R/W drive on BOTH are having the SAME ISSUE!!

[Dani22]

Has anybody thought about a class-action against HP? It really seems rather ridiculous that a company as large and "reputable" as HP should be okay with the fact that they are selling products, which they are very aware of, amount to nothing more than junk. I'm very disappointed in HP's Media Center m7250n because 90 percent of what I'd like to do revolves around utilizing the cd/dvd burner which worked for only about a month. Then the laser writer stopped burning on the image side of the disc. I managed to correct that problem, now the cd's aren't recognized on the data side of the disc. Dvd's were never recognized so I've never been able to burn a video or slideshow project. I've been all over the web trying to fix these problems, but to no avail. It seems that everyone else that has some kind of version of this machine (numerous they are) have the same, little to no success, problem I've encountered. It's outrageous that a good majority of my time on my computer is spent trying to fix problems with my drive when I should be enjoying the creative aspects that are offered with all the programs on my computer. The only thing I can successfully do on this darn thing is check my email and use the internet! It's nauseating thinking about how much money HP has made on this system. They show little to no concern for the people who spent their hard-earned money on a product that amounts to a piece of rubbish! Anyone own a Dell, or other system, that has provided them with a consistently good experience? I'm not even going to waste any more of my time with HP on their help line when I know it'll amount to nothing more than a waste of 4+ hours and a major headache with no positive results. I'm absolutely fed up!

[Well Duh]

Ok this may seem dumb. But I noticed that at least recent OEM Nero Express does not automatically switch between DVD and CD mode based on what disc you put in the drive.

Up under device you will see your DVD/CD writer listed twice. Once with (DVD) and once with (CD).

So if you remember to manually flip flop from CD to DVD or vice versa -- things might work.

Not sure if buying the full version of Nero "fixes" the behavior to where the user is not responsible for setting the device to the right media type. Really funny when the Nero utility for media information is integrated. Several times with generic unlabeled media I could not tell which media I had left on the desktop until I used the utility.

But I can tell you that if you have a DVD-R in the drive it will not work if the drive mode is set to CD.

I have not figured out why I cannot write DVD-RW though. Could be I just got offbeat media though.

[Jilson]

Não sei mais o que fazer, e a primeira vez que estou usando me HP dvd 740, mas estou com todos esses problemas.