burners failing left right and centre..

Howdy..

can someone please explain why optical drivers are so damn sensitive to being moved around ???

Over the last 2 weeks I've had a few weird things happen...

My friend's moved house and I've helped him move the PC. Transported the PC with great care (wrapped it in a blanket and put it on my car's comfy leather seats - secured properly). Since the move the Panasonic CD Burner no longer reads CDs. Bought new DVD burner after trying to fiddle with it to get it working. $60

Another friend at work moved house and again she was really careful with transporting the PC. Samsung DVD Burner no longer reads CDs. Again tryed fiddling. Moving IDE channels, set to Master on different IDE channel. Still no go so bought a new DVD Burner. $60

Yesterday, I've build a little box for my girlfriend. It's in a little miniATX case, Celeron 2.6 @ 3 Ghz. Lots of cooling. Tested it for 12 hours, burned a CD with the LG CD Burner I had in there (6 month old). All was sweet. Brought the CD to her house - CD BURNER NO LONGER READS CDS !!!

I'm quite annoyed. I've managed to install a couple of things by sharing a cd drive but now I gotta buy another one. What am I doing wrong ? Are my transporting/ packaging skills not good enough ? Perhaps my leather seats are not soft enough... F**K !

cheers
front2back

You live in austrailia, right? It's pretty warm there, no? You didn't leave the computer sitting in the warm car for a long time did you? Maybe the lense is getting messed up because of the heat? That's my best guess, I have never had your problem before...

Howdy.

The Pc's were never in the car for more then an hour. and even then they were always protected from the sun, either covered by blanket's or other things..
And at the moment it's been pretty darn cold for the last few months or so, so the sun hasn't been that bright enough to really of done anytype of damage i would of thought..

cheers
f2B

Hi f2b,

Are you getting any kind of error message like ' Incorrect Function '?

Eg ;)

Howdy..

No errors what so ever, they just sit there and refuse to acknowledge that there is a CDR inside..
on both occasions i even formatted and clean re-install of everything, still no luck. :(
i' checked for error logs but there were none relevant to the devices.

cheers
front2back

Hi f2b,

Have you tried to insert the cd before you reboot? if it works that way i may have found the solution...but i need to know what operating systems we're talking about...and have you checked to verify if the CD Auto Insert Notification is enabled?

Eg ;)

In the meantime here's a couple of sites that might help...

http://www.eio.com/repairfaq/sam/cdfaq.htm
Notes on the Troubleshooting and Repair of Compact Disc Players and CDROM Drives

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/cdfaq.htm
Notes on the Troubleshooting and Repair of Compact Disc Players and CDROM Drives

Howdy..

pc 1 is running xp home, tried leaving the CDR in drive then reseting to see if it would then aknolewdge it was present, picked up the CD drive, but it would not acknowledge that there was in fact a CD in the drive.

pc2 xpmedia edition. Pretty much the same as above, but i never tried rebooting it with a cd left in the drive.
Just ripped it out and replaced it with a new one..

pc2 running suse10.0 it would detect the CD drive was there, then if you rebooted it would show up on the bios menu, but when you actually got into KDE desktop and tried to mount it there with a CD in the drive it would say it was not attached. etc etc.

i toggled the auto notification thingy to the off and on position.

cheers
f2B

Hi f2b,

The solution was for windows2000 and it was solved by changing or reinstalling IDE drive...? You'd know more about that than me.

I'll have another look around later to see if i can dig anything up.

Eg ;)

I have noticed this occaisonaly in the past - I was chatting with a colleague one day and he said leave a CD in the drive when you transport it.

I aint got a scobby-doo why or even how this works but I was never troubled by it again!

Or- take them out and then re-install them when you get to location?

1) On the 2 moves, did you use the same blanket?

2) On both moves, was there a CD in the drive while it was moved?

3) At what speed where these Unreadable CD's burned at? and what media (cheap??)?

4) Did you, instead, try to play a music CD in them? (a disc that you DIDNT burn)

5) Did you, after finding the problem, completely disconnect all cabling to the CD drives, completely disconnect the power cord from the wall and the power supply from ALL connections, all at the same time? (There is such a thing as static lock and I've solved problems by doing just what I've suggested).

6) What kind of music were you playing when you moved the computers?

:D

Sorry f2b...I took another stoll around and found nothing else...like Nokia said, I've read that too...in the same circles I read to put a cd in before re-boot...
the guy that had the same problem who fixed it by doing something with IDE said it solved his problem but even then he said it wasn't perfect.

Are there any other details you can throw my way so i can refine my search?

Eg ;)

Quote:

---

6) What kind of music were you playing when you moved the computers?

---

Exactly!..............even CD drives have taste?

:p :D

On a more serious note, I have encountered quite a few failed drives (burners rather than read only) recently. I think that as the price has fallen, so has the quality/testing?

just my experiences :)

hi,
just curious, do they work if you take them out and put put them again in different pc?
Can you see them in hardware device manager?are they enabled?Can you see them in bios set up.
I transport them millions times to lan parties without blanket and nothing has ever happened.
Woolen blanket?merino wool?
NOTE:
Driving with gf in the car not always smooth run.:)

Hi F2B,

just a word of caution, a friend of mine used to leave a CD in the drive, that was until one time when the cd had been dislodged from the tray slightly and actually jammed it self in the drive!

In the end in order to get the cd out, we had to remove the drive and force it open, needless to say once it was forced open, the damage to the drive was too great, and the CD was too damaged to use again, but atleast we had fun destroying a drive...

So all i'm saying is be careful with that one. I personally have moved computers about a lot and never had a problem. I suppose static could be a problem, however surely there are much more sensitive bits on the motherboard than the CD Drive if that really was the case.

To be honest, you could just be unlucky because you haven't done anything i wouldn't. When moving a pc, i always wrap it in a blanket/duvet strap it in using a seatbelt, and make sure all the cables (outside) are disconnected, and that there is nothing in any of the drives, that has always worked for me. In terms of robustness, i once deliberately dropped a pc from above head height on to the floor in a deliberate attempt to break it and the damn thing still bloody worked, every component was fine! I ended up having to throw it down a flight of stairs and into the wall at the end in order to break it, and even then it still turned on, just got no screen, and that was probably because the video card had been slightly dislodged...

Tried a cleaning disk or just opening the drive and blowing?

Might be dust in the drive dislodged by moving?

yes the drives can be sensitive in moving.. especially if it recieved a shock in transit.. and this need not be the journey in the car.. just lifing it to the floor, or a bump on a wall while moving.. Typicly with the optical pickups it in the vertical motion that can damage/dislodge the laser diode assembly.

Also if any forigen material, read dust lint and dirt, are in the dive this may dislodge and jamb the laser assy.. the dislodge is can result from the normal motions involved in transporting..

NEVER NEVER transport a drive with a CD in the tray..

You have also listed a couple of my most trouble bound brands of CD/DVD drive samsung and LG

Also in a car regardless of the out side air temp the temp in a closed vehicle even on a warm day WILL rapidly raise 20degrees and more above ambient. Wrapping the pc in a blanket will only reduce the direct heating from the sun but more only reduce the chances of scratches to the case. The blanket provides very minimal protection from vibration and shock. and as for the seats in the car.. the springs INCREASE the motion experienced by the PC not reduce it..
the leather only feal nice on ya bum, makes FA difference to the comfort of the PC.
Where I worked, we regularly will transport PC's 5 to 50KM to customers homes, this was carried out with pc's in the shipping boxes or without, on the front seat of a light truck, in the back of the same , in the trunk of the car, on the back seat of car.. And never have I had it happen to me, and only once to a customer.
And where I currently work, we had 75 pc shipped from Perth (Western Aus) to Kogan (SEQ), in a container. The pc's were not correctly packed or secured, 10 arrived physicly damaged from movement.. 5 died due to damaged Mobo's.. none ahd problems with their optical drives.

Personally I think it is just a run of bloody bad luck.. but it dosent help with some brands.. LG has only given me grief of many levels over the years with many products..

Have you tried different CDs? If you're only testing CD-R's, it is possible you have some really cheap brands like Ridata? I've never run into so many coasters before my Ridata dics, so I'm actually using them as coasters on my computer desk for when I cook some soup in a small pot and don't want to burn a hole in the desk.

Also I've never had an optical drive fail. And I even have an LG Drive that has traveled a lot across gravel roads. I suspect your problems are from CD Media, though you might just have some very bad luck with optical drives...Kind of on the same batting average as Catch has with Seagate hard drives that seem to fail left and right for him...