I had bought a Plextor PX-810SA SATA burner without noticing under the deceiving skin it’s not an original Plextor. Yes, it’s a rebadged Pioneer DVR-112D. Those thieves at Plextor charge people threefold for something that is by far worse than its original when it comes to all aspects of hardware support and firmware upgrade.

The lousy Plextor drive has only burnt around 50 CDs/DVDs in its entire short life, then started playing a nasty disappearing game since a month ago. The burner was disappearing from system, causing Windows to throw the following PlugPlayManager error inside Event Viewer:

The device 'PLEXTOR DVDR PX-810SA ATA Device' (IDE\CdRomPLEXTOR_DVDR___PX-810SA_________________1.01____\5&8b981cb&0&4.0.0) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

Believe me, it’s crazy when it happens right in the process of burning, with Nero suddenly receiving “oops! your drive’s gone” from Windows Plug & Play Manager, leaving the optical media incomplete.

Relying on over two decades of spotless records of Plextor being a premium optical disc recorder manufacturer, inexperienced users would probably guess their software (OS / DVD burner) or blank DVD-R media is to blame. But we have to realize the world is different: Plextor as we once knew (the Rolls-Royce of optical recorders) is practically dead.

Upgrading its firmware to 1.01 didn’t solve the issue. Then I checked many webpages tagged with the same problem, but it was hopeless. I didn’t bother checking with the dealer though and since I got up on the wrong side of the bed today, I suddenly decided to give it what it deserves for being the nastiest burner ever. Yes, you’re right, I put my safety glasses on and hammered the faulty Plextor to the edge of the desk’s leg, times and times, until it was shattered completely. You cannot believe how refreshing was the experience. To be honest, it was tougher than what I’d thought!

A view of the drive’s front and back panel after I took my revenge on the Plextor PX-810SA DVD rewriter and of course abandoned the lousy brand forever.