Burning Blues
Written: Apr 28 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
|
Pros: works well for a CD-RW, came with good software
Cons: hard to find compatible CD-R, no HP support at all
The Bottom Line: Waste of money unless you just need it for CD-RW capabilities, but there are many more competent products on the market for this.
|
|
|
| bkaysimon's Full Review: Hewlett Packard HP CD-Writer 8230e (C4505A#ABA) CD... |
My birthday is in January, and this past one I decided I wanted a CD burner, but I wanted one for my PC. After I convinced my husband that this was something we truly needed, off to Best Buy we went. I made the mistake of shopping first, researching later, so I am here to write my opinion of the product to keep prospective shoppers from making the same mistake I made.
To begin, the CD-writer set us back about $250, with a $50 mail-in rebate that I have yet to receive. This was pretty comparable to the other CD media we looked at. In fact, with the rebate it was the cheapest. I had to buy an external burner because I have an all-in-one PC, so internal was not an option for me. To be honest, I did not try to make any music CD's with it for the first few weeks, and I wish I had because you only have 30 days to return merchandise to Best Buy.
I'll begin with what works. Making CD-RW is very simple. The software that comes along with this burner is nice and easy to use. MyCD is so simple anyone could figure it out within a few seconds, and the Adaptec DiretCD Wizard is always ready when I do something with my burner. I also received a CD labeling program with my burner, but I have not used it yet. I was able to free up lots of hard drive space fairly quickly using the CD-RW capabilities. This was very nice. I have had a couple of problems with CD-RW that I have made. The problem was resolved by transferring everything back to my hard drive, reformatting the CD-RW, and placing it back on. I am not sure why this has happened, but at any rate, it has twice.
As far as CD-R capabilities, I have been successful at making one out of 7 tries. None of the CD-R media I have purchased for this CD-writer will work. The burner will only work with low-speed (4X or lower) CD-R, but I have had problems getting it to work with any at all. In fact, the only successful burn I had was with a CD-R that I got free off the internet, and wouldn't you know it is a brand that can't be found in stores? I couldn't even get the free CD-R that came with the burner to burn! I get an error every time I try to burn a CD-R, and the people at HP are not concerned at all with helping me. This brings me to my next point.
With this Hewlett Packard product, you will receive little to no customer support. I have e-mailed them several times only to get vague or 12 page responses that I could not possibly understand. "Why not call and get someone to guide you through the process over the phone?" you may ask. When I requested a support number to call, I received a regular phone number - not a toll-free call, but a long distance one. I would have to say that HP is crazy if they think I am going to call and run my phone bill up while they put me on hold. So they have not received a call from me.
Overall, I'd say skip this one if you are in the market for a CD-writer. I will keep mine only because I have no option, but one of these days I'm going to talk my husband into buying another one, but not the same brand. After my 30 day return period was up at Best Buy I was told by several people that HP was not a good brand for CD burners. Thanks, guys.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 250
Operating System: Windows
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bkaysimon
|
|
Location: Killeen, Texas, USA
Reviews written: 99
Trusted by: 40 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.