Beware of some USB3 portable DVD writers / Blu Ray reader

Hi there.

Be careful of buying some of the newer USB 3 DVD writers (with Blu Ray reader / writer).

These come with a USB3 cable for attaching to USB3 as standard and have a second power slot where you attach this into a USB2 slot to get the 5V power.

My Laptop that I mainly use doesn't seem to have enough power to drive the hardware even when the laptop is connected to the Mains.
Attaching it to USB3 slot + USB 2 slot on my NAS it works perfectly -- so ensure your laptop can deliver enough power to the device.

I've since returned it as I wanted it for my laptop. BTW Amazon do actually seem excellent in taking returns etc -- no probs whatsoever in spite of a lot of criticism amazon gets these days (regards Tax etc etc).

Just a warning - some of these modern really light laptops and power efficient tablets / surface Pro etc etc might not deliver enough power for using these USB devices.

(I could have made it work with my own 5V power supply -- but the whole idea was NOT to carry all that junk around).

This is one area I think unless you specifically want Blu Ray where the OLDER technology works best -- a dropping to bits USB2 writer working fine even on the new laptop. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Are you sure you are using the right USB ports on your laptop? I would start to wonder if the laptop had an issue, because these drives are designed for use on laptops.

Checking on the power usage has always been the case with external drives, but it really shouldn't be an issue anymore.