LG HL-DT-ST DVD RAM GMA-4082N - Update on the Lenovo 3000

[Humidicutis]

Earlier I wrote about the behaviour of a new Lenovo 3000 N200 laptop and its optical drive problem. The drive is detected at boot by the Phoenix BIOS and it displays: IDE LG HL-DT-ST DVD RAM GMA-4082N

PLEASE GO TO MY LAST POSTING ON THIS SUBJECT.......I HAVE NOW TESTED AN ALTERNATIVE DRIVE IN THE LAPTOP AND I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE ENTIRE PROBLEM IS DUE TO A FAULTY LG DRIVE.....A FAULT WHICH APPEARS TO BE VERY WIDESPREAD.

As noted earlier, at bootup and during installation of a number of different OS types (including Linux Mint, SUSE10.3, Mandriva, Fedora8 and PCLinuxOS), the drive installs the OS perfectly, BUT the moment the OS boots, the drive vanishes and cannot be detected by the OS. The one exception was that if PCLinuxOS was installed from a usb2 external drive, it could then detect and use the laptop's internal GMA-4082N drive. It was displayed as /dev/hdb. Linux Mint detected an unusable something at /dev/scd0. I continue to scratch my head. Is the drive defective ? But if so, why can it be seen at bootup and installation......? And why could the live PCLinuxOS "see" the drive perfectly ?

I have been looking at the various web sites and it seems as if the GMA-4082N is the focus of a lot of problems........I still have no answer as to its bizarre behaviour which is outside anything I have ever met.......The Lenovo itself uses a 120Gig SATA hdd, but all the various Linux OS I have tried can detect and use it perfectly.......At the moment, unless you have a dedicated external cd/dvd r/rw usb drive, I could NOT unreservedly recommend this laptop for Linux.......despite the fact that it is a brilliant 64bit computer with a Pentium dual core CPU........Thanks anyone who tried to help. Because it is now narrowing down to the optical drive problem, I thought a new heading was best. I am not sure, but I think the next step is to try an optical drive replacement from a different firm and see if it behaves in this same bizarre way. Kind wishes all.

PS......anyone who doubts the veracity of my comment on the fact that this particular drive has problems, try pasting HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GMA-4082N
into a Google search ......just as is........you will not believe what you see. They all seem to gravitate around this particular optical drive.

[BAD]

Personally I do not buy computers with Intel I prefer AMD also Lenovo laptops have standard specs for the price. I don't know how much you paid but I would guess you could have bought a comparable HP for close to the same price. Oh well maybe you can put a different DVD rom into your computer.

[Humidicutis]

Point taken.....and my desktop is AMD/Athlon...........however, I needed a laptop.....this was going brand new in the original package/box from a large department store for $A600 and addiitonally discounted down from their usual price of $A800, and is normally around $A1400 in other stores, so it was an excellent buy............... and apart from the drive, it is excellent...........I mean that sincerely. However, I do not regret the purchase even though it is giving me one heck of a fight to make it do what I want.......learning you might say......? Even at 65 ???????? Just one of the many things that make Linux such a wonderful challenge. Someone will find out how this wretched thing works one day........but until then.......it is worth every bit of hassle to bring it up in the forums so everybody knows the problem is there..........I'm somewhat pragmatic.......I use what works.......in this case, just a little more work to get it where I want it.

[MagnusB]

Personally I do not buy computers with Intel I prefer AMD also Lenovo laptops have standard specs for the price. I don't know how much you paid but I would guess you could have bought a comparable HP for close to the same price. Oh well maybe you can put a different DVD rom into your computer.

1. Intel chipsets are usually better supported in Linux than anything else with open source drivers, and I prefer Intel processors over AMD due to temperature issues..
2. The only thing I recommend about HP is their multimedia laptops speakers, nothing else is especially good about them: The BIOS is locked by default, you can't overclock or downclock the processor (ironically I wanted to downclock my overclocked AMD processor since it was reaching average temperatures of almost 60 degrees celsius, recommended is 40). In facy, BIOS is completely useless in HP, about the only thing you can do with it is change the boot order or run a HDD self test (which hdparm is quite capable of doing).
Also, Lenovo/IBM computers are generally pretty well supported in Linux, but you have to go for the Thinkpads, I think those are best supported..
As for the issue at hand, I feel your pain, I have a similar issue with my WLAN card, the driver can't handle /b networks properly, so I usually get louse speeds in Linux

[Humidicutis]

The final solution is to remove that particular LG drive altogether. I currently have a temporary unit in place that came out of a small dvd player. It took a little bit of adjusting of mounting brackets and the front plate but what I was able to show was that once the original LG GMA 4082N optical drive was removed, the laptop could detect and use a normal optical drive.......The current "patch drive" is able to read both cd's and dvd's.....Am not as yet able to deal with movies for some reason, but at least it is now behaving more or less like a normal internal drive. The problem is purely to do with the LG GMA 4082N drive that this laptop comes with as its optical drive. From what I can see on the web, this drive is also causing considerable trouble elsewhere..So problem resolved......all based on what appears to be the faulty behaviour of an LG optical drive. I shall be looking around for a good replacement from some other brand.

And update to this: can now play movies as well.....turned out to be where Xine was looking for the drive. Once the correct directory was inserted, there were no more problems. In other words, the laptop is now behaving perfectly, other than the fact that this "patch drive" cannot burn...A good brand replacement will fix everything.......Suggestion: steer clear of that particular LG optical drive....I would certainly not touch it again.

[BAD]

Re: Humidicuts
Sounds like you got a good deal.


RE: Mangus
You make a good point about the Bios.
I personally support AMD because Intel processors are expensive and Intel is more concerned with quarterly sale than putting out the fastest chip. In my opinion supporting Intel is like supporting Macromoney MS it does not help support change.

[MagnusB]

Intel has put more effort into open sourcing their drivers in Linux than ATi (AMD owned, as an example), and I find the overall quality on Intel better than AMD. However, traditionally AMD has paid more attention to what their customers want, and given better value, but still, I prefer quality...

[Guest]

RE:Mangus
Remember a few years ago when Intel put out Processors every quarter 1st 800mhz 2nd 850mhz 3rd 866mhz 4th Christmas 900mhz at that rate we would be at 2000MHZ in 2007. After AMD put out a 1Ghz processor, true they could only ship a few at a time, Intel magically released thousands of 1.0 1.1 1.2ghz processors and their marketing department said see we are the best we can deliver what the customer wants not like our competitors who can't meet demand. If it weren't for AMD the fastest PC processor would be 2.5GHZ right now. Try it go back to the release of the PIII 900mhz and add two processor speed each quarter 00 33 50 66 75 untill you get to 2007 and see how fast the desktop processors would be if Intel had no competition. Did you get to quad core 64bit 9000MHZ?

I am running 3 AMD processors on desktops and none have had problems. But laptops may be a different story like you mentioned.

True ATI has poor support for their products but didn't AMD acquire ATI a few years ago. Maybe the support will change especially since Dell puts Linux on laptops and AMD desperately wants to supply Dell with hardware.

I have an ATI 7500aiw that works but ATI does not support the TV tuner under Linux and I have read people have problems with the 9200 and 9800. However, on my computer I have a 9200SE and it work with no problems guess I got lucky.
I think under Linux if you are going to buy new components you need to research known problems first and find a place with a good return policy.

[MagnusB]

I did not say AMD was poor, I am saying I prefer Intel because of the quality. In fact, competition is good, in no way is monopoly good. On Linux Intel chipset is better supported, with open source, graphics, WLAN and sound (though graphics and sound has some issues).
And as you pointed out, overheating is more of an issue on laptops than on desktops, my previous AMD processor could reach temperatures of 70 deg Celsius on IDLE, but this one seem to be stable at around 50ish (a bit high, but it'll survive), with compiz running! That is why I dislike AMD, I could fry eggs on that laptop....

[Fred]

I tend to like AMD and Nvida on the desktop and Intel on laptops, because of the power consumption/ heat.

I am hoping that as we start seeing the tickless kernel maturing and programs start using it to its best advantage, that power consumption and heat will go down across the board.

Fred