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Hewlett Packard CD-Writer C4504A 8220e 4x4x6 External USB Kit

Hewlett Packard CD-Writer C4504A 8220e 4x4x6 External USB Kit

List Price: $187.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This item is ok, but could be better
Review: I bought this burner back at Christmas time, and over the first few months I really enjoyed it and had no problems with it. I was up and running in less than 30 minutes!! But over time, for some reason it stop writing cds..I have tried all kinds of cds to use...and the strangest part of it is that I will burn 2 cds and then when I go to burn the 3rd one for some reason it comes up with a troubleshoot message saying "cannot write to high speed disc" but yet it did minutes earlier!! It plays music just fine through my cd player on my computer, for I have an HP Pavilion 6623 with Windows 98. I don't know what happened to it, but I've even cleaned the player and tried burning another cd and it still doesn't work. The other thing I hate about it is that it won't burn from wav format like most cd burners do..so I have decided to buy another burner. I would give this a 2 star but its not something I would reccommend to my friends.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Super easy to use
Review:

This writer is so easy to use! Plug and burn on. I use MusicMatch Jukebox (instead of the supplied software) and have had a 99.5% success rate in the over three years I have had it. I have never had to call tech support and only wish I would have waited until the price came down.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: almost perfect
Review: yes, as long as you have the rite software. used it for around 2 years, and still burns happily 99% of the time!! Forget the softwares supplied by HP.... the just havent worked for me.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Hardware is great, but HP needs help writing software!
Review: As usual, I was impressed with HP's hardware out of the box. But again as usual, the drivers/support software didn't work as advertised. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop running Windows 2000. Nothing unusual about the configuration.

Everything installed fine, but when I tried to read a cdrom from my internal dvd drive to copy to the cd-writer, the dvd drive locked and could only be reset by rebooting the computer.

Then I tried another shareware cd copy program and everything worked flawlessly.

I also have two other HP products that have similar problems: First, a DeskJet 952C. The printer is great, but the driver software installed with half the configuration tabs in French, and half in English. Downloading a later version from the HP web site corrected the problem.

And an HP Colorado 20gb Travan parallel port tape backup. It seems to backup and restore with no problem, but it doesn't! I found out the hard way. And HP's technical support is clueless. They insist that their original first release, version 9.0, doesn't have any problems, but they'll soon release a new version.

So if you buy this product and have a problem, you should try another copy program. Good luck!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: HP Software 4 Dummies would of been Helpful!
Review: Had a few to many setbacks to get this to work properly on my IBM Think Pad, 300 MHz Pentium processor, with Windows 98. After many thoughts of throwing this burner out the window - I found out it's the HP Software that was causing me a lot of grief!

The burner works GREAT!! The HP Software disc 1 cd, kept freezing up (3 little words Ctrl. Alt. Del.) I also needed to download the updated version of Record Now & Dla for the 8200 series on HP's website. Had to go to the Control Panel, Change the Power Schemes in Power management Properties set all to Never & Shutdown all running programs except Explorer & I must shutdown and reboot after a complete burn or the next burn will freeze up & walla a successful burn!

I have now started using NeroMix software at Nero.com and bingo, no problemo. So guess what caused the missing star, out of a rating of 5 stars!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: windows 2000pro
Review: It is a really good portable plug and play USB CD-Writer. I used it at home with windows 98 and also with my IBM thinkpad(win2000pro). Both of the systems works very simple and very well. But the software cd1 is not very good. I recommand people who buy the is cd writer not install automatic from autorun. Since adaptec direct cd driver may conflict with standard cd-rom driver in win2000pro. Just run e:\english\hpmycd\hpmycd\setup.exe, HP MyCD program is simple to use and writing my cd without problem. Version 2.5 is recommanded from [hp] since it support rename CD label. If you already install from autorun and have problem with standard CD-ROM, you can remove the adaptec driver from windows media player 7. Add/Remove program->choose windows media player 7->check allow removal of shared component->check adaptec direct cd driver. Then you are ready to burn your CD!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Steer Clear
Review: This burner has been one of the most frustrating semblances of technology that I have ever possessed. I got it a year and a half ago, and it worked fine for a few months, but now successfully burns a CD about once in every four or five attempts, wasting all the other CDs. It has vague error messages with unhelpful "troubleshooting." I don't burn all that often, but I've finally had enough with such a tempernmental machine and am on the market for a replacement. Save yourself the money and the irritation and buy something else.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: GARBAGE!!!
Review: This CD-RW drive is absolute garbage, and HP does very little to support any complaints. I've had the drive for just over a year and it just stops working. Well, first it was just inconsistent - it burned a cd or two, then wouldnt. I uninstalled and reinstalled HP RecordNow (in safe mode) about 6 times so it's been working sporadically. Now I've corresponded with tech support via email and after many long messages, they were not able to help me. So I called tech support for $25 and they again couldnt help me. They gave me a case number which now they say they can't find and they want me to try to resolve this issue via email - again.
What kind of piece of machinery just stops working for no reason??? Don't waste your money because that's all you'd be doing by purchasing this... thing....

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Junk
Review: Another poor performer from our friends (?) at HP. This annoying little beauty worked ok for about two months, but now freezes up every time I try to burn a CD. Re-installing software doesn't help, nor does talking to HP (and they charge for customer support calls!). Avoid this junk.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Avoid this one!
Review: I bought one of these, and now regret my purchase. It worked fine for about six months, but now, despite my having followed all of HP's guidelines re. performance and maintenance, I'm lucky to be able to create a CD 20% of the time. The little green light on the unit flashes and flashes, then suddenly stops... the status bar reaches 98%... and just sits there. Time to reboot, throw out the CD and try again!


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