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 12 of 16)
Jan 30, 2007 8:20 am
I bought the Aspire 9810.
It comes with a Matshita UJ-85JS. It did work good for 2 days. Then the next day I wanted to use it the slot was flipped out it's case for about 1 cm. It clicked it back in and from then on the speed of this thing is very poor. Ik reads CD at 5x and DVD at 1,5x and it doesn't go higher. Is it broke? Is it some safety thing that I can change or should i buy another brand.
Jan 29, 2007 1:47 pm
well folks ... I just bought a toshiba satellite A100 less than 4months old ... And same pbs with UJ-841S. THat means my computer does not even see the CD-rom drive, and therefore I can not read nor write any cd or dvd...
ANd the device manager tells me there s a problem with that driver but it is unable to update it and I have found little information ...
I have posted on the toshiba forum, I advise you all to do the same, may be toshiba ll do something if only to avoid having all computers brought back for repair.
Jan 23, 2007 10:07 pm
Hi,
I've got a Toshiba A105 with the damn Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-841s drive. My computer is one month old and when attempting to install a program got the message "I/O Device Error.." (error code 11). Does anyone have suggestions for me? Still have not called Toshiba, bu will do so tomorrow.
Thanks
Jan 23, 2007 3:00 pm
As Jon posted in http://www.urbangiraffe.com/2005/03/08/panasonic-845/4/#comment-778 I also cannot burn DVD-R with with my UJ-845 in an Acer Aspire WLMI 1694. Originally it did work even some weeks ago but I do not know what could have changed. Also trying to install the DVD-RAM driver only results in an error "Cannot get drive (071)". Reinstalling the pre-installed NTI CD&DVD Maker 7 (as mentioned in another posting here) did not help, too. I also tried removing Upper/LowerFilters (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060) but it did not help. As I did neither find the UJ-845 default drivers nor a firmware update, reinstalling those was not an option for me. Has anybody another idea for me?
Thanks
Jan 20, 2007 4:35 pm
I have a Ferrari 4000 with a 845c that suddenly quit responding. When I insert a disc it will spin and the read light on the ROM itself lights as though it is reading it. Also, the processor light on the pc lights as well... After about 10 seconds everything stops and nothing comes up on the screen. The other recent change that happened is there are now three drive letters (D,E and H) that all refer to the drive where it use to just be the D drive. With a disc still in the drive I checked all three directories and they are all empty (not seeing the disc). I have removed the drive from "device manager" in safe mode and rebooted. The OS sees the drive and loads it back but still the same prob. Does anyone have any solution for this?
Thanks
Jan 13, 2007 5:14 pm
Anyone know how to make the UJ-845S region-free? A lot of talk but not one answer to that question.
Thanks.
Jan 9, 2007 3:42 am
Thanks ebracr for the tip! Now my drive works correctly! Now I have to fix my bluetooth and my pc will be perfect!
Jan 5, 2007 6:01 pm
I have a Sony PCG-FRV37 laptop with a Matshita UJ-810 thats took a dumped and needs to be replaced.
Anybody have any suggestions on what drive would be a good replacement?
Thanks for your help
Jan 3, 2007 3:33 pm
Check out this microsoft link for that error code.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314060&Product=winxp
Jan 3, 2007 3:51 am
HI,
My UJ 845S on Ferrari 4000 has stopped reading/burning anything just after 12 months too (corrupted or missing driver eror code 39). I tried to put up with it for a while and eventually decided to take it to laptop repair centres here in Israel, but Laptop repair people are asking over 200$ just for a new drive, same slop-in model!!!! Another alternative I have is to try Acer e-recovery: Acer has e-recovery settings, which deletes everything and restores factory settings, but I want to know if anyone tried it? I am really relactunt to delete everything from my laptop.
HELP! any suggestions? or if I have to buy a new drive may be I should just buy a different/better drive to avoid this problem reocurring? Any suggestions will be very much appreciated. Rusikoko
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