Customer Reviews

Yamaha CRW2100EZ Lightspeed 16x10x40 Internal EIDE CD-RW Drive

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

you dont want one that is built before nov 200 with the old firmware. I got 3 of them for systems I built and had to return 2 that where the older ones. You cant flash the drives they lock up..

Well, after reading all the reviews that were here, and there were a lot of negative and a lot of positive reviews, i decided to give it a shot, plus 30 dollars rebate hook my attention finally.

So, thanks to amazon.com, i received the product pretty fast. And i was ready to install it. Installation process was piece of cake: just connecting everything and that's it. My system: Pentium 3 450, 128 MB, 2 HDs - one IBM 10GB , second WD - 500 MB, and DVD Player, so i had just a one spot left for IDE. My Motherboard is ABIT BX. Windows 2000 Pro found it without any problems, there wasn't even a need to install any drivers. Since i had NERO Burning Rom, i decided not to install all the soft provided with this product(maybe some day i'll give it a shot, but i'm satisfied completely with NERO). So, i was able to make my first AUDIO CD in less then 5 minutes on 12 speed. On 16 - it's a little bit noisy, but still ok. Well, i already wrote several Audio cds and DATA cds, as well i tried copying from one cd to another. Everything is working smoothly as it supposed to be.

Product is great.

Thanks AMAZON.COM _ Thanks YAMAHA _ Thanks NERO

IF YOUR GONNA BY A BURNER AND YOU HAVE THE MONEY. BUY THIS. YOU CAN RECORD A CD IN LESS THEN 5 MINUTES. ALSO WITH THERE NEW WRITE PROOF TECHNOLOGY U WILL NEVER WASTE TIME WITH COMMON UNDERUN ERRORS. THAT MEANS EVERY CD YOU MAKE COMES OUT PERFECT.

This product is exactly as it is advertised. I've purchased this cd writer during December 2000. I did not want to write any type of review on it till I made the necessary tests. Honestly, you can burn data in about 5 minutes or less. I use the Fuji 16X compatible cd's and they all worked fine. Audio CD's are ripped extremely fast, but you need to download their software online. So far when backing up any data files including mp3 files, you can do it within the 5 minutes. The drive isn't perfect. The 8 megabyte buffer was great in minimizing or eliminating most cases of buffer underruns. I have made over 200 cd's with 2 cd becoming coasters. The coaster was done by burning MP3 into audio format at 16X. It works fine at 8X. I tested it at 12X and it wasn't successful so I did not attempt to burn the cd. Wave files into audio files was succesful even at 12-16X. The other coaster was created when I tried to do a cd to cd copy. It failed at 16X. 4-8X works fine. This probably happen because my cdrom drive reading speed is 20x or 24x. I don't know exactly why, but it does work but at lower speed for this type of burning. You'll probably be better off with a SCSI drive if you intend to do cd to cd copying as it isn't as CPU intensive like IDE, otherwise you can save some money and get this one for almost $100 cheaper. Installation was simple. I would suggest you also download the latest firmware if your drive doesn't have it already. I have a Pentium 2/350 with 512meg ram. I have owned and tried a few other cd writers and by far this is the most reliable and fastest one I've seen to date. (HP, Ricoh, Plextor (without the burn proof ones), etc.) I have to give it 5 stars because of the time it saves me in burning CD's and with very few coasters created.

Read all the reviews and decided we could make it work on our system without major upgrades-- PII, 350mghz, 64 RAM, Win98. From the completion of the install, we could only record data. Every time a disk went in, the system froze. This was copying from a cd, from the harddrive, etc. Spent a minimum of 16 hours on the phone with tech support to no avail. One tech rep had me blow out my video card (sixth call). We upped our RAM to 256. We had the same issues. From what we we reading, we figured upgrading to WinME would solve the problem, but quite frankly, we don't want to go with WinME right now, nor should we have to for this to work! I don't think the problem is the drive, it is the software. Our problem with that is no other software is offered to support the drive, tech support is not aware of this compatibility problem, and the minimum requirements are not correct. We returned the Yamaha 2100ez a week after purchase and snagged a Plextor 16x10x40x! Exquisitely perfect from the moment of install!! We use the Plextor software because CDCreator 4 did not work with this drive either but at least they offered more options. AND IT WAS CHEAPER!! GET THE PLEXTOR, it's much quieter also!

Before this drive arrived i had my doubts about this drive based on reviews i had read. The reviews said it was noisy, bad software. This is not true. The drive is whisper quiet, the Software is great, and the drive lives up to its 16X write speed. There are no buffer underuns! An 8mb Buffer eliminates them. This drive is beautiful, i do not believe there is a word in the english language to describe it!

I read the reviews here but hoped that by december Yamaha would have resolved the firmware bugs that are causing the drive to not work well on many systems. Well, not yet, I got a build from November 2000, downloaded the December firmware update and the Adaptec software update, but at least on my Win2000 system, the drive had problems reading some CD's (including 2 of the 3 software CD's that came with the drive), would spontaneously "unplug" itself, and could not write a CD. This was not a problem with the IDE settings or DMA. So best to wait for another firmware update unless you're prepared to take a chance. I returned it and am very happy with the replacement, a Plextor 12/10/32.

I bought the Yamaha 16-10-40 even after reading the bad reviews that some people gave it. Some people said that you need a supper computer to run this thing, and that it is terribly noisy. It does get louder than your average drive, but only when it is doing certain tasks. Other than that it has been perfect. I have a 2 year old pc with an intel celleron 400 processor and I have burned discs at x16 speed, plus I did not even have to upgrade any drivers, or firmware. I was burning my first cd within 30 minutes of opening the box.

Have been searching for a CDRW faster than the current HP 8200 box that I have. Bought this Yamaha CRW2100EZ, but disappointed to discover that it didn't work with my Pentium III 600MHz/Windows Me system. Even if it did, didn't burn any faster than the old one I have. E-mailed Yamaha's technical support team that evening, but by the following afternoon before receiving a reply from them, I had asked my colleagues at work and they all recommended a Plextor PX-W1610TA (16x10x40a). Returned the Yamaha and ordered a Plextor that same day. When I received and installed the Plextor, it immediately worked and suffice it to say, I was so impressed by its quiet and fast performance! The Plextor is heavier than the Yamaha and HP CDRWs, but was advised the weight was due to its virtually non-plastic components; thus making it a much durable workhorse! It also has a special feature that prevents burner underrun errors so, no more wasting anymore of those precious blank CDs. I should mention that I'm a professional in the computer systems engineering industry, and had always preferred building my own PC systems. I do not seek out complex components to show off to my mother and friends; rather, I prefer the simple, dependable and efficient systems and components. The last thing I'd want to do is spend more time configuring/fixing my home PC systems. Nope! I want something that'll do what I've paid for so I'd have more time to spend with my family and friends, as well as on other fun activities.

I bought this cd based on PC Magazine's good review, but I was concerned to see that others were having problems with their drives. When i got it tonight, i had the same problem that i read on AMAZON.com--that the drive wouldn't read blank media as blank. Long story short, the problem was EASY CD CREATOR 4. You need to have version 4.02e at a mininum and the drive ships with version 4.02d. So...once i got the patch from ADAPTEC and installed it (5 minutes total time) i burned my first 74 minute audio cd in about 5 minutes, no problem. Quite the improvement over my 2x burner. I LOVE IT!