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SteveJobs · Feb 21, 2002, 12:52 PM

Hello everybody,
I have serious problems with my Formac 16x10x40 cdrw burner. it does not work properly. This means burned cds are not accepted by the computer, burning stops while being in progress and such stuff. It may be because the burner ships without power supply unit. however, it costs extra 30$. This is inacceptable. But wait, it's getting better...

Some people experienced that their firewire ports died because of those burners. They are completely destroyed.

I want everybody who experiences similar problems to post in here. I will write a letter to Formac afterwards with a collection of all cases and the request to pick our damaged units up and replace them either by new ones with power supply unit or give us our money back. Otherwise I will sue them.

I may meet them at Cebit in March, which would give me a cooler possibility to discuss, but let's see how all this works out first...

Steve

Ellyl · Feb 21, 2002, 02:47 PM

I phoned today with FORMAC (I'am from Germany) and got the following results:

The problem is, that Apple is not using restrictions that they made themselves. Formac disabled on all new drives the bus-powered feature and ships now all external drives with power supply. I think you must spend the additional $30 to get it working without risking your Mac.

ellyl

macrob1n · Jun 6, 2002, 03:09 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by SteveJobs:
Hello everybody,
I have serious problems with my Formac 16x10x40 cdrw burner. it does not work properly. This means burned cds are not accepted by the computer, burning stops while being in progress and such stuff. It may be because the burner ships without power supply unit. however, it costs extra 30$. This is inacceptable. But wait, it's getting better...

Some people experienced that their firewire ports died because of those burners. They are completely destroyed.

I want everybody who experiences similar problems to post in here. I will write a letter to Formac afterwards with a collection of all cases and the request to pick our damaged units up and replace them either by new ones with power supply unit or give us our money back. Otherwise I will sue them.

I may meet them at Cebit in March, which would give me a cooler possibility to discuss, but let's see how all this works out first...

Steve<hr /></blockquote>yup - forsure that cdrw is dangerous!!!

I connected the bus powered 16/10/40 firewire cdrw and ended up replacing the main logic board on my iMac DV+. I think that the power supply is a must as the cdrw DOES fry the firewire ports.......and when I asked formac about it they didnt want to know as I bought the unit secondhand. As for asking them what the power supply specification is, well, they said its "High voltage" and do I want to buy one..no more info was forthcoming. I will never use Formac again for anything!!!

macRob1n

[ 06-06-2002, 04:15 AM: Message edited by: macrob1n ]

SteveJobs · Jun 6, 2002, 08:01 AM

In the meantime I have bought a power supply for bloody 25 � (about 20 US $) and sold the burner via eBay. It was ok, now I have a new iMac combo and a 667 TiBook DVI, so I have two burners on two different machines which is a good thing in any case. Yet, I agree: I will never buy a Formac product again.

Steve

Epicurus · Jun 6, 2002, 08:16 AM

I have a 24x burner from them. It too fried a firewire port on my Cube. Had to get the logic board replaced. I have always used the power supply that came with it. I used it for six months without problem. Then one day, it didn't mount after I turned it on. I am still using the burner without incident (replaced the board 3 months ago), but am wary of using it very often.

macrob1n · Jun 10, 2002, 08:57 AM

I just wanted to take a little of the flame off Formac as I mailed them to complain and to buy a power supply. When I said that they now bundled them the CDRW they agreed to send me a FREE power supply.

Still feeling very stung by the whole episode though.
MacRob1n