Panasonic (Matshita) UJ-845
Notebooks are not usually big on upgrade potential. The parts are difficult to obtain, are generally more expensive, and people are nervous about opening up an expensive piece of equipment.
One of the few upgrades paths is the optical drive. Typically a notebook will have a CD burner, possibly with DVD reading capabilities. The latest notebooks will undoubtedly contain a DVD burner, but the great majority will be lacking this feature. Enter the Panasonic UJ-845!
Marketed as an OEM drive, the UJ-845 is unlikely to be found in retail stores. However it is easily purchased from any number of websites, and for a surprisingly reasonable cost, especially considering that is dual-layer, slot-loading, and supports DVD-RAM. That’s good going even by desktop standards.
For the purposes of this review, an Acer Travelmate 800 was used as the test notebook, replacing its standard QSI CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive.
Description & capabilities
The drive is a standard 12.7mm notebook unit that should fit most notebooks. It is also suitable for appropriate SFF PCs, and could be used in conjunction with the right housing to provide a slim line external DVD burner.
The official capabilities of the drive are:
- 5X Speed DVD-RAM Writing
- 8X Speed DVD-R Writing
- 4X Speed DVD-RW Writing
- 24X Speed CD-R Writing
- 16X Speed CD-RW Writing
- 8X Speed DVD+R Writing
- 4X Speed DVD+RW Writing
- 24X Speed CD-ROM Reading
- 8X Speed DVD-ROM Reading
- Buffer Under Run Protection
- +R Dual Layer Writing
Nero InfoTool gives the following report on the capabilities of the drive:
| Drive: | MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-845S |
|---|---|
| Type: | DVD-RAM Recorder |
| Firmware Version: | D100 |
| Buffer Size: | 2 MB |
| Date: | 01-11-05 |
| Location: | 1:0 |
| Read Speed: | 6.0 X |
| Write Speed: | 4.0 , 2.4 X |
| Read CD Text: | Yes |
| Return C2 Pointers: | Yes |
| Read CD-R: | Yes |
| Read CD-RW: | Yes |
| Read DVD-ROM: | Yes |
| Read DVD-RAM: | Yes |
| Read DVD-R: | Yes |
| Read DVD-RW: | Yes |
| Read DVD+R: | Yes |
| Read DVD+RW: | Yes |
| Read DVD+R DL: | Yes |
| Read Digital Audio: | Yes |
| Read CD+G: | No |
| Read VideoCD: | Yes |
| Write CD-R: | Yes |
| Write CD-RW: | Yes |
| Write DVD-R: | Yes |
| Write DVD-RW: | Yes |
| Write DVD+R: | Yes |
| Write DVD+RW: | Yes |
| Write DVD+R DL: | Yes |
| Write DVD-RAM: | Yes |
| Buffer Underrun Protection: | Yes |
| Mount Rainier: | No |
| Modes: | Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO |
| Region Protection Control: | RPC II |
Basically, the drive supports almost every format you could possible want! Note the difference in what Panasonic believe is the drive speed, and what Nero reports.
Comments (page 11 of 16)
Jan 3, 2007 1:31 am
Finally (honest!) the XP driver software
http://panasonic.co.jp/psec/support/dvdram/lim/eoem/sw9573drvxp.html
referred to above does not work, it dates from 2003 and renders the drive useless
and the firmware at http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=2094
is Toshiba OEM, but works on my Ferrari 4005
Jan 3, 2007 1:25 am
Actually I've noticed one small change - the activity indicator LED by the eject button no longer works.
Perhaps this is a 'feature' of the new D102 or symptomatic of faulty hardware
Jan 2, 2007 1:26 am
So, another anecdotal tale:
I have an Ferrari 4005, UJ 845S which after about 13 months became dead. To be precise it seemed to work mechanically receiving and ejecting discs (of any type), but always reported the disc as blank, and was inaccessible from any software (NERO, NTI, Explorer, etc.)
So I flashed it to D102 and it seems to work - only did this last night so time will tell.
Does this suggest that the UJ 845S problems we see are related to loss/corruption of firmware ?- perhaps. Anyway its working at the moment...
Dec 19, 2006 9:24 am
P.S. Lucudity in July, wrote a similar thing...
The code of the error is "39": Driver inexistent or corrupt.
PLEASE HELP ME!
Someone could tell me to call ACER assistance, but it's not possible...
Dec 19, 2006 5:10 am
So do I, like Desperate, just bought an Acer Aspire 5680 with Mathsita UJ-85JS, but my problem is different. One day I open up my laptop and I discovered that was losen drive's drivers.
I can't reiinstall them, because I haven't any cd and they don't exist on Internet.
Unic solution is download drivers from the Japanese website, but unfortunately, i can't read Japanese!!!
Why this brand haven't a website all it own?
P.S. Maybe Desperate can help me, if he has a driver's disk... Can you?
Dec 16, 2006 11:56 am
I just bought an Acer Aspire 5680, which comes with a MATSHITA UJ-85JS
From the first time I used it , it hasn't been able to eject the drive. I've tried to eject it already in a dozen different ways but however I try, it just makes some silly buzzing noises at most. As I'm browsing the net I found a lot of other people who got the same issues with similar cd/dvd drives, do we just got a stroke of badluck or is this just a terrible brand for cd drives :-/
Dec 6, 2006 5:20 am
USE DATAWRITE TITANIUMS 8X
You muppets
FFS!
Dec 4, 2006 5:21 am
hi... i own a acer aspire 1692 with matshita uj-845D ..with factory firmware...
first it worked fine ..8x writing of DVD R and 24x CD R... Then it only wrote at 2x ...
IF YOU HAVE STARFORCE DRIVERS INSTALLED THEN UNINSTALL IT..u may not be aware of it being on you system... u can get the utility by googling..now it writes dvd's at 8x... but...cd writing gives me a power calibration error....some times dvd tooo...
wat do i do??
Dec 3, 2006 12:42 pm
daniel says:
Added on September 18th, 2006 at 5:31 am
My Matshita UJ-845S came with Acer Aspire 5590. I have to say that it sucked a lot. The drive worked fine until it’s 4th day that I had been using it. I inserted a CD as usual, but this time I heard a weird “crack” noise came from the drive. When I want to eject the CD, the drive was trying to push the CD out, but it was blocked by some kind of metal part. As a result, the drive sucked in the CD again as the metal part blocked the way, so the CD stuck inside.
I pulled the drive’s front panel off. I found out that the metal part performs as a machanical gate that will shut (block the way) soon after you’ve inserted a CD, and will move away when you want the CD to be ejected.
The drive now performs incorrectly after only four days of use, good job!
dan
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i have a same promblem... sumbody help me...
Nov 29, 2006 2:51 pm
Tried different media today......Datawrite 8X....Burned disc at 8X....so its got to be down to the media. I suggest everyone tries different brands of media because I'm sure that will solve most peoples problems with this drive.
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