Rating: 
Summary: Okay product
Review: Looking for an USB CD writer because I have multiple machines at home including a notebook. For anyone who is not in a hurry, wait for a USB 2.0 CD burner (speed is 480 mbps rather than 11 mbps).Install the CD writer into my Dell Latitude notebook running Win2000 Professional. Connect everything up and the machine freeze as soon as the driver is installed. Can't even safe boot into command prompt (have to disconnect USB drive). Spend 2-3 hours trying different things including downloading latest HP drivers. Eventually, went to Dell web site and found a BIOS update that fixes the problem (readme.txt states a problem with HP CD-Writer). Update the BIOS and everything works. The whole ordeal lasts about 1/2 day. I have burned about 20 Cd so far and don't have any problem. Drive speed is okay but the software is very weak. The size of the unit is also larger than I expected (maybe 10 inches deep?). ...
Rating: 
Summary: Great, solid performing burner...
Review: I have never had a problem with this burner and I would recommend it for a first time burner. It also has very easy to use software!!!
Rating: 
Summary: BIG PROBLEMS
Review: Like many other reviewers, I've had many problems and made lots of coasters. First time was making data CDs, but new version of Record Now seems to work OK there. Now I'm stuggling to make audio CDs (0 for 3 to date). That's with nothing but Explorer and Record Now running, and making the CD from MP3 files on the hard drive. Burning never completes and drive is "hung" (can't eject the CD). TAKE HEED and buy something else if you want to be productive and save a lot of time. (And tech support is as "iffy" as everyone says!!)
Rating:
Summary: HP8230e Good drive works well, reasonable
Review: My experience of just a few days has been VERY Positive. I just bought the product in April 2 2001 and it came with the latest drivers from HP's website on the CDs in the box. USB means it's speed is limited to 4x for (re)writing. I had no trouble making a disk to disk backup from my Dell W98 laptop CD out to the burner at a full 4x. I didn't need to image out to hard disk. A data backup of a disk with over 600 megs was 17 minutes. Also no underruns on 2 audio CDs burned. The software package is slim with HP's software working ok. Easy CD is not included. I plan to try some other software in the future but for now I can archive data, make my own music CDs, and backup fine. Some of the problems may be related to older USB drivers. While mine were up to date HPs website also has the latest that worked for me. Alot of people like new Firewire drives for speed, that may be worth the cost for someone burning a couple thousand cds. For me inexpensive and 4x is fine. The fact it is portable between the three W98 usb equiped machines in my home/office is a plus - most of those machines do not have firewire. I obviously have not had to test HP's US service yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect for the job I needed it for
Review: I looked at all the reviews here at amazon and was worried. I needed an external CD burner for my laptop. There were negative reviews that worried me, but enough positive to make me hope. So I bought one.
Bottom line, I'm very happy with the unit and I've tried it with "expensive" Imation CDs (650 MB) and "cheap" PNY CDs (700 MB). I didn't have trouble with either. Yes, it takes a while to burn - about 45 minutes plus for 630 MB, but I didn't care about that.
I did have installation issues. I have Win ME on my laptop and for some reason it had trouble locating the driver for the drive. I even used the driver on the CD and the computer would "freeze" while going after it. I called HP and after an hour of trying things, the tech said I had to reformat and reload my entire hard drive because some other program was conflicting. (We had loaded the burner on my Win 98 desktop with absolutely no trouble.) I was not going to lose my entire drive, so I just tried one more time to load the driver. This time, I waited about 20 minutes for the driver to load (after the computer "froze" again). Amazingly, it found the driver and loaded. From then, it worked great!!!!!! I'm a happy camper.
I would recommend this drive -- especially if you can get it cheaper.
By the way, HP now uses a new software program which came with the drive and which you can download from their support site. I'm not sure if this is part of the problem other users had or if it was the Windows ME thing.
Rating:
Summary: Generally performs well, but lots of frustrations also!
Review: I purchased this unit in January to be used with my brand new Dell Dimension 800mhz computer. My intent was primarily to make music CDs from files taken off of... and the like. Installation was not too difficult, even for myself new to having a PC at home (don't do stuff like this at the office). My first couple of CD creating efforts worked well and I was extremely pleased with the product. But then I began having more failed burns than successful ones. The coasters were starting to stack up, and I was getting pretty frustrated. I e-mailed back and forth with HP to help solve the problem. They had me tweak some internal settings to help the unit perform better. I was also told to end task on all other programs except for Explorer, as well as shutting off my screen saver! After all was said and done, things were working wonderfully! I have made many different CD-Rs of music files, directly copied music CDs, as well as data files. The supplied HP CD Writer software works ok, but does lack some user-friendly features that one might expect (although I understand that there is an upgrade that I can download for free). Even with all the success and fun I have had with the 8230, I have started to have problems again. The last several music CDs I have burned (from files and direct copies alike) have had a problem where no CD player can recognize the first song. Skipping past it works to play the rest, but this is just silly. It looks like back to e-mails with HP. Advice would be to PLEASE have one installed internally if you are buying a new system. I am sure that integration problems would be minimal in comparison. For what it is, however, the HP unit does the job (usually) and is pretty sharp looking to boot!
Rating: 
Summary: Depends on your OS
Review: I have no complaints about this cd-writer when I used it on my laptop with Win2000. However, I installed it on my desktop with Win1998 yesterday and it's been endless frustration. First, the writing operation aborts prematurely for no reason. I went to the HP website, downloaded the RecordNow 3.5, and made all the changes suggested (don't run background apps, etc.). After all this, the writing operation worked. I was copying a few small mpegs (about 4-10 megs each) to the CD. Then disaster struck. I found out that even though the writing was successful and now I have a CD with the mpegs listed in the directory, when I tried to play them in Media Player, they won't play! (Error is file format not supported.) It won't play from either the PC's CD_ROM or from the CD-writer itself. There is a report on the HP support site that talks about this problem. The remedy suggested was install the latest RecordNow software. But I already did that. So now I'm completely stumped. Think about this: HP shipped a cd-writer which creates CDs that cannot be read by other CD-ROMs. (To give them credit, the same drive worked with my Win2000 laptop.) The irony is that the reason I need to create these CDs is that I have a Compaq laptop that died last week (second time the motherboard completely died in two years). So I say: hail the new HP!
Rating:
Summary: Can anyone please help me?
Review: I bought this cd-burner about a month ago. I havent got it to work yet. I have been getting the same high speed message. I dont know what to do. I have re-installed it over and over...this thing is driving me crazy. I dont know what to do...
Rating:
Summary: GOOD UNIT AFTER KINKS WORKED OUT
Review: I, like many others, agree that the basic instructions could have been written better. The software installed fine. I just couldn't get the thing to burn. Called HP, and they took me through several extensive computer adjustments, starting in
"MY COMPUTER" ie....device manager, "cd-rom" property settings, then BACK TO to MY COMPUTER, property, performance, file system, hard disc, cd-rom, graphics......all had some adjustments. We also went into Control Panel, clicked on Display and re-set the screen saver not to come on for at least 60 minutes.....or better yet, turn it off to burn music cd's Then we went into the Re-writter program and went to options. Reduced the speed to 1x or 2x at the most, and unchecked the "test operations before recording disc. We also went into Explorer, tools, internet options, and selected the delete files and also checked the delete all offline content. We also turned off our connection to the internet.
We then proceeded to burn a CD and it worked.
NOTE.....THE ABOVE ONLY RELATE TO BURNING MUSIC CD'S. These seem to be the fussiest. I had no problem burning all the Photo cd's at 4x even being connected to the internet.
ALSO, AND THIS IS IMPORTANT. I FOUND OUT THAT AT LEAST WITH MY COMPUTER ( A GATEWAY Desktop PENT II 400MHZ, Windows 98) THAT I CAN NOT BURN A CD IF THERE IS ANY OTHER USB DEVICE ATTACHED TO THE BACK OF MY TOWER !!!!!!
I HAVE 2 USP PORTS. One for the CD Burner and the other for my Printer. I HAVE TO UNPLUG MY HP 1215 PRINTER FROM IT'S USB PORT IN ORDER FOR THE HP CD-WRITTER TO BURN A MUSIC CD. DONT ASK ME WHY. EVEN HP CANT ANSWER THAT ONE FOR ME. AND FORGET ABOUT USING A USB EXTENSION HUB TO PLUG IN THE BURNER...YOU WILL JUST WASTE DISCS.
Like I said, once I got the kinks worked out, the unit burns like a dream...... I did find the people at HP very, very nice and helpful. Without them, I would have given up. My neighbor has one and never had the problems I had.....His installed immediately and worked without all the tweaks. His computer is newer and he was also running Windows ME....... For an inexpensive unit, it fits my needs at the moment.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely worthless and a major headache
Review: All summed up in one word is easy to do on this one: BAD!!!! It has great and easy software, but is a headache. The hardware is bottom-of-the-line misfit junk, and screws up the computer very very badly. One time, one of my computers was having a hard time starting the hardware. I ended the task and shut down, and when it was started again, it only started in safe mode, never to work again!! I ended up uninstalling every last driver and software and reinstalling it to get the computer working again. the warranty had expired, so the thing got thrown in the garbage. I hope a compactor has flattened this peice of garbage. HP has absolutely no reliability. We tried an internal one of their burners before this, and were able to return it. the internal screws the system up just as bad as this one. DO NOT buy HP products. The only thing that they are even remotely good at making is printers.
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