Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Reliable/Doesn't age well
Review: Bought this one new a couple of years ago.
First few CD's burned were [not very good] as it errorred out towards the end of the burn cycle.
Getting diffrent blank discs helped for a while.
Worked so-so for a few years until now.
Lately the lights started blinking all the time, making weird noises, tray doesn't open/shut all the way and totally not working. A little premature considering how much I used it...
Rating: 
Summary: Good product in its cost segment
Review: Considering the fact that we get Adaptec's award winning CD-Burner that lets one use this CD-RW for either burning a CD or using a CD-RW as a temporary directory, Philips CD-RW is an excellent product in this category. I am using this CD-RW for backup and it burns 650 MB in 15 minutes. Really good
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Product
Review: Did not work on my Windows ME PC. The drive wasn't detected by the included software. Do not buy. Waste of money and time.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid it.. Breaks after 20 Cds and the worst Service Support
Review: DON'T BUY IT. The first problem I had was with the Easy CD Cretor (what a piece of...). I could not write a CD at 4x, only at 2x. I bought Nero Burning ROM and I could write at 4x.... but... The drive worked fine for 2 month, when I only successfully burned about 25 CDs. I lost about 20 more, due to a kind of Laser Power Failure error. One day it was working and the next it stoped working. I called Philips Customer support and they asked me to send them the drive for repairs (by UPS, 8 bucks). Then, after 4 weeks they sent me back the drive. Guess what?. The unit I received wasn't the same unit I sent them, because I compared the serial numbers and didn't match. I called Philips Support again and they told me that they send REFURBISHED unit in exchange for the damaged ones!!!. They DO NOT exchange with NEW units. Now I have another's guys CDRW drive, with a scratched and dirty enclosure, not like the new-alike one I sent them.
Rating:
Summary: not so good, get a more expensive one!!
Review: First, be sure you'll get the software (worth over $60) and the driver (hard to find the correct one). it was very hard to find and to install this machine to my win98. If you get errors with your software, try CDR Tools Front End (free and good) with 31MB fifo, DAO mode, burnproof. It is hardly compatible with win98 (you'll experience problems) but it works for cheap product standards. If you have money, go get a better one. And another note, Philips does not provide assistance with this product unless you pay them $19.95!!!!!!!!! i gave a 2 because it is working (for now. I probably won't restart my win98 ever again :) )
Rating:
Summary: doesn't age well
Review: i bought mine (...)with a pcmcia interface for xmas '99 when it was a new product. the drive has had problems with windows 98 drivers and connecting to various laptops since i've had it and now (12/01) fails to show in my device manager or on "my computer" despite showing up in the system tray correctly under its pc-card icon and despite downloading the latest drivers from freecom.com, the site of their firmware provider. philips phone support has been friendly but not terribly useful, and once the product's out of its one year warranty, they won't service it at all. the adaptec software is also harder to use than it should be and has its own problems recognizing when the drive's plugged in. my advice -- i'd probably stay away from this one....
Rating:
Summary: Poor customer service by Philips makes this a bad choice!
Review: I bought the previous generation Philips external CDRW and was shocked at how bad the customer service around this product was. At the time of purchase the support was bad, and to add insult to injury they did not offer drivers to allow the drive to be used with Windows 2000. So - unless you want to stuck with an obsolete product with no manufacturer support - don't buy this product.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre product
Review: I bought this product because of its cheaper price compared to other major brands. However, the problem came in when I was trying to make a disc-to-disc copy and failed for numerous times. I then exchanged for another one and the same thing happened. I called the Tech Support twice and althought they were able to offer advices but both were pretty much the same and would not solve my problem. Tech Support was helpful but I had to wait a long time to get to them. So I guess they still need improvement. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend to buy it unless you can find another USB cdrw for a better price and performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Weird design, but useful
Review: I got a prior version of this device with somewhat useful Windows writing software. I don't use it so much anymore because I have an internal burner now in my machine. There are some undocumented uses for this drive. Freecom, the Dutch company that makes the USB cable for this drive also made drivers for Mac OS 8.6-9.x, though for a magneto-optical drive. Still works, though, but not, alas, under OS X.
The drive itself is actually a Philips PCA460RW internal IDE drive, inside a custom enclosure, and an IDE-to-15 pin converter PCB. If you decide later on to get a performance boost (4x burning never worked right on USB 1.0), you might try taking the drive out and installing in the computer chassis, or in another enclosure. (This actually works on OS X, though Adaptec Toast 4 doesn't.)
One irritant: after a while, the fan in the back of the IDE drive (or better said, its bearings) will dry out, causing a rather annoying hum. The only fix for this is replacing the fan. (Not difficult with electronics experience, but not trivial, either.
On the whole, all right if you're stuck on USB 1.0.
Rating:
Summary: Worked great for a while....
Review: I got this burner because I was looking for something inexpensive. I used it with my IBM iSeries ThinkPad. It took me forever to install and setup, but once I got it going it worked awesome for oh about a month and a half... All of a sudden it stopped working, crashes my computer all the time. Piece of garbage... Tech support is useless. I guess you get what you pay for.
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