Hewlett Packard CD-Writer C4502A 9500i 12x8x32 Internal EIDE Kit

Rating:
Summary: Bad Advertisement Details
Review: I bought this burner about a month ago, mainly to use as a way to store photos, rather than storing them on my hard drive. The installation was problem free, the moving of files from my hard drive to the cd was flawless and fast. (so fast I thought it had screwed up, but it hadn't) Now I'm burning music cds, and I find that the claim of a six minute burn time to be wrong. It may take six minutes as a fluke or an abberation, but my experience with about twenty music cds is a burn time range of 16 - 28 minutes. (but never, ever six minutes) The shortest burn time I've experienced is 12:30 minutes. I've contacted HP product support, and they have given me some guidance, and it has helped a little. The last email help I received from HP was basically a message saying that I should just live with it. And I will, the thing works afterall. It accomplishes what I want it to do. I think the six minute claim should be removed from the Amazon write-up. A six minute claim should be representative of the normal/average burn time, not a statistical one-time occurrence. First time buyers could save a few bucks and buy a cheaper model. The $ vs performance ratio isn't justified here.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult Installation Experience
Review: I had a very different experience than many of the other reviewers. Installation was very difficult on a standard Windows 98 Gateway computer. The technical support line (free support) kept disconnecting me. I finally reached HP through their out-of-warranty #. Bottom line, even though I was replacing an existing CD-ROM (which should have been a 10 minute exercise as others have commented), I had to make numerous jumper changes, changes to the systems bios and had to reinstall other devices after the initial installation caused my machine to refuse to boot. I spent a total of 2 hours on the phone working directly with HP tech support (who were really trying to help) and at least another hour on hold when I was disconnected, trying to get back through. At one point, the Tech Support person acknowledged that this was "a new product and may still have some bugs in it." My recommendation -- proceed with caution and choose a product with a little longer history.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult Installation Experience
Review: I had a very different experience than many of the other reviewers. Installation was very difficult on a standard Windows 98 Gateway computer. The technical support line (free support) kept disconnecting me. I finally reached HP through their out-of-warranty #. Bottom line, even though I was replacing an existing CD-ROM (which should have been a 10 minute exercise as others have commented), I had to make numerous jumper changes, changes to the systems bios and had to reinstall other devices after the initial installation caused my machine to refuse to boot. I spent a total of 2 hours on the phone working directly with HP tech support (who were really trying to help) and at least another hour on hold when I was disconnected, trying to get back through. At one point, the Tech Support person acknowledged that this was "a new product and may still have some bugs in it." My recommendation -- proceed with caution and choose a product with a little longer history.

Rating:
Summary: impressive
Review: i saw the 12x8x and HP and i new i had to have it. i am thoroughly impressed. in an hour and a half, i had turned 9 cd's wortth of mp3's to waves and burnt 9 cds. my average buring time was 6-8 mins, that includes testing. i'm glad i bought this one. doesn't have a great cd creator program though, so for advanced users, i recoomend finding a better writing program. the one that comes with it is easy, just doesn't have a large number of customizable options.

Rating:
Summary: Very Impressive CD-Writer
Review: I took this out of the box and with my husband's help we had it installed in 15-20 minutes. I expected it to take 1/2 hour or more to burn a CD but it took less than 10 minutes to burn 80 minutes worth of music. I rate myself amateur with my technological abilities but this was very easy to use and install-or my husband made it appear that way! This was also my first order from Amazon and I was extremely pleased with the ship time and service. Thanks Amazon.

Rating:
Summary: Not Easy to Install on My Micron Millenium XKU
Review: It took 45 minutes on the phone with a very helpful and very cooperative H-P technician to figure out why my by-the-book installation wasn't working. Finally got it working by connecting it in place of the Zip drive, which is now, obviously, not working. It works decently, software is OK but not great, but it uses a lot of disk space during transfers. Also, it is very choosy about whether it likes a blank CD or not. All in all, not as easy to install or use as I had hoped.

Rating:
Summary: Good Writer - Poor Bundle
Review: Out of the box, the install was flawless (However, I have done this before). The HP software (light version, with typical come-on) worked very well. The drive is fast! The Adaptec driver leaves much to be desired as it bombs with a Fatal Exception Error ("Blue Screen") when trying to write using DirectCD instead of the MyHP CD Creator. Using the Windows Media Player, File - Create CD" option, the Adaptec Direct CD program is started, and all goes well as it converts the files for recording. When it goes to write, Bill's favorite "Blue Screen" appears, the program is terminated, and the disk cannot be ejected or the drive used unitl the system is re-booted. (emphasis on the boo!) HP's response for tech. assistance was no help. Adaptech will not take any responsibility. Pretty typical OEM buck passing. Updating to latest drivers and software does not clear the problem either.

Rating:
Summary: Good Writer - Poor Bundle
Review: Out of the box, the install was flawless (However, I have done this before). The HP software (light version, with typical come-on) worked very well. The drive is fast! The Adaptec driver leaves much to be desired as it bombs with a Fatal Exception Error ("Blue Screen") when trying to write using DirectCD instead of the MyHP CD Creator. Using the Windows Media Player, File - Create CD" option, the Adaptec Direct CD program is started, and all goes well as it converts the files for recording. When it goes to write, Bill's favorite "Blue Screen" appears, the program is terminated, and the disk cannot be ejected or the drive used unitl the system is re-booted. (emphasis on the boo!) HP's response for tech. assistance was no help. Adaptech will not take any responsibility. Pretty typical OEM buck passing. Updating to latest drivers and software does not clear the problem either.

Rating:
Summary: Great Burner and Software Package
Review: This is a great cd burner. It has fast burns (8-12 minutes) and the software is great, it allows you to download new songs and put songs from cds into your music library. It also has a radio feature which is really nice. This is a great burner with great software at a great price.

Rating:
Summary: Great Burner and Software Package
Review: This is a great cd burner. It has fast burns (8-12 minutes) and the software is great, it allows you to download new songs and put songs from cds into your music library. It also has a radio feature which is really nice. This is a great burner with great software at a great price.