Possible solution for your "Write Append Error"

If you are desperate, here are the possible solutions for your "Write Append Error". Provided by some other 4020 or 6020 users (victims), they have done something engineers at Philips and HP should have done but haven't (or couldn't) accomplished.

Caution: You will void your warranty when you disassemble the drive, and these solution don't work for everyone. So me and original posters can't hold any responsibility. Do it at your own risk!

Spring fix for your HP 4020i by Rick Richardson

Grease fix for your HP 6020 by HK

HP 4020i / Philips CDD2000 Spring Fix for Write Append Errors
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Here is the fix I applied to my two year old HP 4020i CD-Recorder when I started to get Write Append errors when writing CD's larger than about 550 MB's.

Rick Richardson Sr. Principal Engr.
Digi Intl. Email: rick@dgii.com
11001 Bren Rd. East http://www.dgii.com/people/rick/
Minnetonka, MN 55343 Tel: (612) 912-3212

My HP 4020i CD-R recorder (a.k.a. Philips CDD2000) recently (Dec. 1997)started getting the infamous "Write Append" errors when trying to writeCD-R's longer than about 550MB's.

I got a tip that this problem was due to a "spring" wearing out orof insufficent strength from David Neal on the cdwrite@pixar.com mailing list (Unix CD-R software mailing list).

Armed with this clue, I searched DejaNews on the subject ofCDD2000 & Spring. Here I found basically two theories for theproblem - the spring theory and another one that said it is duston the laser lens that needs to be blown off with compressedair (*not* wiped).

Since my HP 4020i drive is over two years old, I figured I had nothing to lose by opening it up and seeing if I couldn't applythe "spring fix". Also, at the same time I blew off the laser lens with compressed air.

After applying the "spring fix" and blowing the lens with air, thedrive now works 100% again. I cannot say with confidence whichof the these actually fixed the drive.

I attach the approximate procedure I used for applying the"spring fix" below. I disclaim any responsibility forthe correctness or incorrectness of this fix. Apply thefix will void your warrantee. You should not attempt thefix unless you have the proper tools and ability.

-Rick Richardson

Tools Needed:

Torx T-10 screwdriver
Torx T-? screwdriver (even smaller than above). I did not have this small a Torx screwdriver, so I used a regular slotted screwdriver with about a 1/8" blade from a jewelers screwdriver kit. I was able to wedge the slotted screwdriver into two of the Torx slots and get enough friction to remove the screws
*Very* small phillips screwdriver. Again, I did not have this screwdriver, but was able to use another of the slotted screwdrivers from a jewelers kit.
Two pair of small needle nosed pliers.
Pair of dikes (cutters) used for electronic work

Parts Needed:

About 1.25" long straight but springy wire. I found a suitable wire in an old 5.25" floppy drive that was used to apply pressure to the spindle.

Skills Needed:

Good eye-hand coordination
Good eyesight
Steady hands
Patience

The first step is to remove the case. Remove two screws with theT-10 screwdriver and four screws with the T-? screwdriver. Removemetal case. Gently release the top circuit board from two plasticalignment posts -- this may require gradual rocking of the circuitboard but do not stress the circuit board as it is very thin.

The next step is to remove the main circuit board by disconnectingthree ribbon cables and two sets of two pin connectors. The largerribbon cables are released by moving two pieces of plastic ateach end of the cable connector away from the connector bodyby about 1/8". The cables should then easily slide out of the connector. The smaller cable has a slightly different releasemechanism, but again just move it about 1/8" away from theconnector body. Slowly rock the two pin cables from theirsockets.

You should now be able to see 4 more T-10 screws. Remove theseto free the drive mechanism from the other part of the metal case.

The next step is to remove the smaller circuit board on thelaser transport assembly. Remove 4 phillips head screws.Pull the board up and lay it over - you will not be ableto fully remove the baord because two wires are soldered to the motor.

If you look at the transport now, you will see a worm gear which drives a regular gear which drives a rack gear.The rack gear is spring loaded to press up against the regulargear. According to theory, the spring which causes this pressureis worn out and/or not designed to be strong enough.

The spring itself is a straight length of springy wire, about1" in length and rumored to be about .012" in diameter. SinceI don't own calipers, I couldn't verify this.

The spring is held in place only by its springiness. Each endfits into a slot and the middle is bowed down an under a notchin the plastic rack gear.

What you want to do is add a *second* spring wire. You shouldnot need to remove the original spring wire. I found a suitablewire in a 5.25" floppy drive I had laying around. I removed thewire from the floppy drive and straightened out a couple ofbends that were in it and ended up with a straight piece ofspringy wire about 1.25" long, which is longer than the springin the CD-R drive. You want it longer for now because it iseasier to install it that way. It will be cut to length later.Use the two pairs of needlenose pliers to straighten the spring wire.

With your finger, rotate the worm gear on the shaft of the motorto move the transport carriage so that the center of the springis under the center of the regular gear. You should be ableto see the notches that hold both end of the spring now.

Lay your new spring on top of these notches. Using the bladeof a small screwdriver perpendicular to the length of thespring, press the spring down in the middle until it isunderneath the slot in the black rack gear. This bows thespring about 1/8" in the middle. The spring should now be in place.

Using your smallest dikes, cut the ends of the spring wireoff so that they are the proper length. Wear eye protectionwhen doing this, and if possible grasp the end being cutoff with needlenose pliers so that the wire won't flyaround the room or worse into the drive mechanism.

With the drive still opened up, use a can of compressed airto blow off the dust on the laser lens. DO NOT touch thelaser lens as it is magnetically floating in its holder.

Now, reassemble the drive by reversing the disassembly instructions.

FIXING THE "WRITE APPEND ERROR" FOR PHILIPS 2600 OR HP 6020

Note that the write append error can have anumber of reasons, for example a wrong configuration setting (e.g.transfer speed of SCSI controller). Please read the symptoms carefullyand decide whether this is for you. If you only have the error a few times or once in a while it may actually not be the same problem, but in case this happens more and more often in future, then this is it! Also, please note that this was written for the 2600/6020! I did this repair myself with good success and have positive feedbackfrom 3 others who tried this, no negative feedback until now, so Iguess this really is the solution! The bad news is that you cannot fixit by any configuration settings, you really have to open the drive.The good news is that it is easy and works!

HK
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If your Philips 2600 or HP 6020 burner displays ALL of the followingsymptoms:

after weeks/months of succesful burning, you suddenly get more andmore coasters. Maybe not all the time, but certainly *most* of thetime.
in those cases your CD burning consistenly fails with "Write AppendError" or "Buffer Underrun" or an error that includes hex #50 (dependson SW).- the error always occurs on the same area of a blank CD (for example,always at around 70% of writing).
you have checked all configuration settings and are sure you don'tactually *have* a buffer underrun due to inadequate settings orperformance of your system.
you have checked that your drive is not malfunctioning due toexcessive heat buildup (see FAQ) by testing on a cold/cool drive.- and...puzzingly, the error does NOT occur in emulation writing, onlyon a "real" burn (Try this!).

Then, if you have all of these problems, you are suffering from afrequent HW problem many other users before you have encountered. Ifyou don't have ALL of them, you probably have a different problem andshould check the FAQs on the subject. Most likely, you may have thetransfer speed setting of your SCSI-controller wrong - set it to the lowest speed! Also, please read this paragraph from the FAQ at http://www.cd-info.com

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Whenever I get about 70% of a CD written, the 4020i stops and says"write append error." (...) What going on here?

The following answer was given by Hewlett Packard SureStore tech support: Write Append and Internal Controller Errors are usually caused by bad SCSI card settings, bad cables, and/or memory issues.Use a different SCSI cable if one is available. Otherwise switch endsof the current calbe so that the connectors are hooked to the otherdevice. Check for third-party memory managers like QEMM or RamDoubler.These can cause problems Windows 3.x and should not be used in Windows95.
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Now, if all this doesn't help, then we are back to the problem athand:
This problem occurs both on the older burner Philips CDD2000 / HP4020and on the newer Philips CDD2600 / HP 6020. Unfortunately, it hasdifferent causes on the two drives.

On the older models, this problem is caused by a "spring" (actually apiece of wire) inside the drive which begins to malfunction after sometime. This problem needs to be fixed by sending the drive in forrepair! While there have also been reported methods to repair ityouself, I don't know of any. Therefore:

*** *** *** I M P O R T A N T W A R N I N G *** *** ***

!!!!! THIS WILL PROBABLY NOT WORK ON A CDD2000 or HP4020. The following is only tested on and intended for the 2600 and 6020 !!!!!!

The newer model 2600 / 6020 doesn't have a spring/wire anymore, Philips learned from its mistakes. Unfortunately, they made another mistake by trying to save a few bucks and not including a fan, whicheventually creates the same problem: The lens inside the drive cannotmove and position itself accurately anymore. The actual reason forthis is (believe it or not) that the lubrication of the moving partsdisappears over time, especially in the presence of heat. The lenscannot move as accurately as is required to position itself preciselyon the pregroove of a blank CDR.

Normally this means that your drive needs to be sent to HP or Philipsfor repair. Great if it is under warranty, but not so great if youneed to pay for it. And definitely not so great that you may have towait for weeks for the drive to get repaired, or that HP/Philips sendanother, refurbished drive, which may even be worse than yours... :-(Luckily, it is possible to repair this drive yourself, and it is veryeasy too. You don't need any special parts, only the courage to takeyour burner apart. However, please be adised that THIS WILL VOID ANYWARRANTY you have left on the drive. So you should probably onlyconsider doing it if your drive is really producing only coasters andserves no useful purpose anymore.

Unless you are really clumsy, you will not damage the drive, but ifyou do, please don't blame me for it. If you don't feel comfortableopening your drive, then it is better to send it in for officialrepair. Just to say it again: USE THESE INSTRUCTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK!Now that this is out of the way, here is what you need:

Torx screwdrivers (these look a bit like Philips screwdrives, butwhere Phillips drivers have four blades and come to a point, torxdrivers end in a flat area and look somewhat like two squares twistedat 45 degrees when you look at them head-on). You need two sizes: Size8 for the small screws and size 10 or 15 (sorry, I don't rememberthis) for the big screws. If you don't have these and cannot buy them,you may try with a small flat blade or Philips screwdriver, but it canbe more difficult and is not recommended.
high-performance silicone lubricant. Please don't even think aboutcheap bicycle-type grease or even oil. Your best bet is to go to astore that specializes in RC airplanes and boats, people who buildthese radio-controlled mini-planes need this grease all the time fortheir servo-motors. Get either a silicone grease or an all-purposelubricant of high quality with teflon. It has to fulfill thesecriteria: a) be temperature resistant b) should not harden c) must notaffect plastic (i.e. must be designed to lubricate plastic as well asmetal)! You can buy the smallest quantity they will sell you, you onlyneed one drop anyway.

That's all you need. Now the repair itself:

Before removing your drive from the PC, open the tray. Then powerdown and remove the drive from the PC. Leave the tray pushed out ofthe drive the whole time.
Place the drive upside down in front of you, the tray facing awayfrom you, rear towards you. You will see two large torx screws and 4small ones. Remove them.
Now you can remove the metal cover. Under the cover is a sheet ofwhite pastic foil, remove it.
You will see a circuit board that has cables attached to it on thebottom side. First, remove the two small 2-pin cables on the left andright. Wiggle the connector slightly and pull gently.
Now, you can lift the circuit board up a little. There are threemore flat cables attached on the underside. If you are very careful,you can try to remove them by slowly pushing away the plastic pins that hold the plugs with a long, thin screwdriver. However, this iskind of tricky and you have the potential of messing this one up. Ifyou do, your drive is toast. Therefore, you can decide to leave thecables in place and simply lift up the circuit board at the front,pull it slightly towards you and lift it some more until it standsupright. The cables are long enough so you can lean the board againsta box or a large object behind the drive.
Now you see 4 more screws that you can loosen, these hold the blackmechanical part against the housing of the CD burner.
Put the circuit board loosely back and take out the entire assembly(mechanical part plus board) out of the lower half of the housing.
Turn the assembly over. Place it on a cardboard or newspaper or another not-too-soft and not-too-hard surface. You will place themechanical part on top of the circuit board, so be careful! If youactually removed the flat cables in step 5, you are better off now,since there is no board to worry about.
Now you will see a thin metal bar (search for it - you have to lookat an angle). This requires one drop (no more!) of the grease spreadover the entire length. A good idea is to *carefully* turn the littlemotor on the other/bottom side (between mechanical part and circuitboard) to move the lens all the way to one end of the bar. Then applygrease onto bar. Then turn the motor in the other direction to haveaccess to the other end of the metal bar, apply grease there. Carefulnot to apply any pressure on anything, or you may de-adjust the lens!Don't touch the lens or move the lens slider with your hands, you canonly touch the little wheel on the motor!
On the other side of the sliding lens opposite the bar is not asecond bar, but a simple rail with a small metal hook. Put a littleamount of grease on the rail so the hook can glide better.
That's it - put everything back together.
Put the CDR back into PC. Use a test program that will read filesfrom the beginning and end of a CDROM or manually select reading anaudio track alternating from beginning and end of a CD, repeat around5 times. This will evenly distribute the grease and align themechanism. Don't skip this step.
Now, burn a CDR and be amazed - no more Write Append Error!
You may have to repeat this procedure after a few months, althoughthis hasn't yet proven necessary for me or the other people who havetried it. Think about installing a fan in the back of the drive or toput the drive away from any source of heat - don't install it directlyon top of other components such as hard drives etc.
Finally...I would appreciate to hear from you if it worked (andalso if it didn't, let's hope that is not the case). So far only a fewpeople have tried it, all with good success, but it would be great tohave more reports, so I can feel confident that this is a "guaranteed"solution for all the people with the dreaded error... Good luck,Original idea and instrcutions (in German) by Olaf Kaluza(olaf@criseis.ruhr.de). Many thanks to Olaf for this!Adaptation and these instructions: HK (hk@mindless.com)