Technique - Samsung SE-208GB/RSBDE external DVD-drive: first class junk
This is more a review than anything else. It's something I hardly do (as I think that reviews of these kind of things hardly add anything) but this is an exception.
External DVD-drive for a minimalistic PC
After I got my Dell Optiplex 990 computer up and running, I could not wish for anything more. Or at least, not until I wanted to install software I only had on CD-ROM. Those moments you find out having a CD/DVD-drive isn't such a bad thing after all...
My Slim Form Factor 990 did not provide one, as I rendered it useless in the beginning.
So, off to the shops I went to buy an external one.
I laid my hands on a Samsung SE-208 DVD-drive, which was able to burn discs as well.
But whatever I tried, there was no such thing as flawless operation. My computer had great trouble recognizing the thing. After booting, I regularly had to connect and remove the drive 4 to 5 times to be able to use it at all.
Watching movies was only possible with constant hickups in image and sound, besides serious clicky and buzzing noises from the drive itself, set aside the drive recognized the disc in the first place.
Once I got a disk in, I could call myself lucky if the button to eject the disc also really did what it was designed for. More than once I had to undergo multiple button-presses to get the drive to open.
I have even had to use the emergency-unlock multiple times because the disc would not be ejected, no matter how many times or long I pressed the eject-button on the drive.
Ripping CD's? Not a chance...
Trying to put tracks from a CD into the computer also resulted in the most strange of noises from the drive and regular strange, obviously digital noise was present in the audio. The image shows a result in Goldwave.
Finding drivers via the website stated on a small piece of paper delivered with the drive, was to no avail. The driver I could find was a very basic general-purpose one for USB-devices. It did not solve anything and my system's logs still showed regular occurences of the driver failed-to-execute.
I turned to the internet. Research showed I was not the only one (by far!) experiencing problems with this drive.
A much suggested solution was to use a Y USB-cable to be able to supply more current to the drive. It didn't work. I would have found it strange if it would have, as such cable was not supplied with the drive and also was not mentioned in the 'manual'.
After nearly 2 weeks of trouble and trying to locate the cause of this malfunction, I went back to the store. Fed by the results I found on the internet, I was not going to accept another Samsung. Unfortunately, that was impossible. The Samsung was the only they stocked.
At another store: the same story. They only carried the Samsung and did not understand my problem: 'All others we sell, work fine, so the problem must be at your side' (as they replied there, I won't be visiting them again...)
The last twitch of the Samsung SE208 DVD drive
I muddled along with this piece of shit for 1,5 years, until 23rd of Octobre 2017. After booting a notification came up that an unknown device was detected and attempts were made to install drivers for it. Those attempts failed immediately and thus the thing had become totally useless after nearly 2 years.
I went back to the internet once more. What surprised me again was the high number of cases with people experiencing the exact same problem.
In the end, I found this Youtube video, where someone had ordered the same model, that proved to be defective.
When reclaiming at the store, he got a second one. The same model but with the exact same problems. Even more important: these models were from 2012 and 2013, where mine dated back to 2015. The outer appearance differed, but the inner electronics were completely identical. That put my problems in a completely different perspective: the product is just flawed.
A new drive: an Asus
I then bought - with a sense of guilt - a new drive on the internet.
Ofcourse, not a Samsung this time but an Asus SDRW-08D2S-U.
With great anticipation I plugged it into a free USB-port.
Without a single notification from Windows that the device was found, the thing just worked straight away. Ejecting the disc now just works and goes so fast that you hardly get the time to remove your finger from the button. Loading CD's and DVD's goes fast.
I can now watch movies, rip CD's and perform all other tasks such a thing is made for.
So, my computer is not to blame. Samsung better be checking their production-processes.