2021 Plextor Laser Replacement Guide

[matura713]

hi All, I was planning to write this guide, because as a newbie here, i.e. "late to the party", I have faced significant challenges to find working (or at least usable) Plextor in this 2nd half of 2021 - everything on reasonable price is basically with broken laser and it needs repair.

So, while, my guide is not ready yet (I am still testing, experimenting some aspects of the information I am planning to post here), I decided to announce it in advance due to some very recent changes in the Wiki that were made in the last days:

https://wiki.redump.info/index.php?title= … patibility

marking most Plextor drives as "Not recommended, drive is known for having its laser die quickly". That statement is something I disagree with it as it's telling even less than half of the story.

First of all, I made similar comment for the Plextors using Sanyo OPUs here:

/viewtopic.php?p=74028#p74028

That I will not attribute to Plextor alone, but to Sanyo OPUs they used, e.g. DB10 in PX708/712 and DS10 in PX755/766. Those were used in NEC drives as well and I have literally pile of NEC drives next to me with dead DB10/DS10 OPUs, exactly like the Plextor.

but what is most important is that those Sanyo OPUs are cheap and abundant - including instead risking and buying Chinese fake, you can take them out of a "donor drive" made by other brands like the NECs, I mentioned above. So, why don't recommend a drive that is having really life-time supply of spare lasers?!

Second, as far as PX-716 is concerned - my dead ones, are really, really low-hour, according to the usage counters that QpxTool shows in Linux. My PX-716 that is working fine is the most heavily used Plextor drive in the past that I own - again, based on QpxTool usage counters and yet it's still working contrary to recommended PX-760, according to the Wiki, which Sanyo laser died in my case for less than 10 time the usage of my working PX-716. Not to mention that PX-716 are cheap, i.e. at least I bought working one cheaper than the cost of replacing the laser in PX-760. So, it seems to me there are batches of PX-716 that die fast, but when they die it's at the very beginning of their life. Also, best about PX-716 is that they don't use Sanyo DB10/DS10 OPUs. Based on my personal experience if PX-716 has many hours of use and its laser is still fine - it will not die and last much longer than any of the other Plextor DVD drive using Sanyo DB10/DS10 OPUs.

So, the above is just few of my point, why I really disagree with the statements made in the Wiki in the last days, as just too general and not even touching the surface of the issue. So, to be continued... I will edit this post with my laser replacement guide, when I am fully ready... BTW, I already posted some small information about laser replacements here:

/viewtopic.php?p=74024#p74024

where I installed laser from PX-708A to PX-712 and repair it that way, which has its benefits, but it's the least interesting replacement option, because someone would argue, PX-708 could cost more than working PX-712. Anyway, stay tuned...

[scsi_wuzzy]

For the DVD-capable Plextors, my only experiences are with the PX-716 and PX-760 drives. I've had pretty bad luck with both, though admittedly we're talking small sample sizes. In total, I've purchased three PX-716 drives, two of which don't work. Those two might technically work, but they clearly have major issues with the OPU and only work when the stars align (and even then usually not for long enough to read an entire disc). I have another PX-716 that works perfectly fine. I've purchased two PX-760 drives. One of those was supposedly brand new when I purchased it, though it had been sitting on a shelf for ~15 years. That drive is unable to read DVDs, but its CD reading works fine. That particular failure worked out well for me, as I was really only interested in dumping CDs with the Plextor anyway. The other PX-760 works fine for both CDs and DVDs.

It's too bad nobody has been able to locate a replacement for the OPU in the PX-716. I recall there being a discussion ages ago over on MyCE (probably from back when it was CDFreaks) about the PX-716. In that discussion, someone who was doing refurbing had a stack of PX-716 with dead OPUs, but it was reportedly impossible to find any part that can be cross-referenced to the original OPU or a source for the original OPU.

I wonder if it'd be possible to figure out which PX-716 are likely to fail quickly? Maybe they were made in a particular time period or have a particular range of serial numbers? Or maybe they were made in a particular location? I can't recall if PX-716 is one of the models that are sometimes made in Japan or if they're all made elsewhere. In any case, it really sucks that those drives become bricks when the OPUs do fail. I've been favoring my PX-760 drives in no small part because I know I can find replacement OPUs in other drives / (possibly fake) ones on AliExpress if the need arises. If I wear out the OPU in the PX-716, it goes in the trash.

I'm looking forward to any information you have to post. I've noticed from your previous posts that you're obviously digging deep into various issues about disc dumping, and it's been very informative.

[Larsenv]

Thanks for your information. I was the one who put that note on the wiki page, however I did not know about any of this.

I had a PX-708UF, PX-708UF2 and PX-716 all be DoA with loading CDs. The former 2 would load DVDs though, all of these were from eBay. So I told myself these Plextors just have a really poor laser (olof corroborated that).

I bought a PX-760 on Facebook Marketplace and it came a few days ago, and it reads both CDs and DVDs fine. However it doesn't like scratched DVDs very much.

My PX-W5224TA and Premium-U are very good about reading CDs and I've had no problems with them. The 5224 was previously used to load thousands of discs.

I'll look forward to your update to this thread and we can put info on the wiki.

[Larsenv]

Hi, are you still working on this tutorial?

[bikerspade]

What about a Plextor Premium?