Reliability Of Optical Drives

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View Poll Results: I expect to need to replace my CDROM drive:
Every Spring & Fall - like Daylight Saving Time	0	0%
About once a year - like doing my taxes	2	8.33%
Every 2-4 years - like US Elections	8	33.33%
Five years or more - they almost never die	14	58.33%
Voters: 24. You may not vote on this poll

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profdlp

Off To The Gym

21,407 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 7:22am

Reliability Of Optical Drives

Either I have the worlds worst luck with CDROM drives, or I am expecting too much. I have a stack of five dead/flaky CD drives on my home workbench which have all gone crappo on me over the past few months. I'm not talkin old drives, either. Among the casualties are a 52X, a 50X, and a 44X (various brands). In the past several years I have tossed out about five more. I do run several computers, so it's not like these all came out of the same rig. I have run the gamut from expensive drives (a Kenwood 72X, which I understand was a dud for lots and lots of folks), to the bargain-basement computer show no-names (figuring I wouldn't feel as lousy when it croaked). You can add three or four burners and a couple of DVD drives to the tally, too.

In a relatively clean environment I would think that a CDROM drive would last for years. Am I expecting too much?

If you bought a brand new CDROM drive today, how long would you expect it to last?

Prof

__________________ ---Prof

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If it doesn't come naturally, leave it
- Al Stewart
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RIP Short-Media

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profdlp edited : 11 Jun 2003 at 7:29am .

Black Hawk

Metaphysically wrinkle free

4,121 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 7:31am

Out of every drive I've owned, only 2 have died and both were DVD's.

__________________ "All we are... is dust in the wind"

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TheLostSwede

Where's the ****ing beers?

3,212 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 7:41am

prof,

I have come to the same conclusion as you have. The quality of theese things isn�t anything i would hang in the christmas tree.

However, there are things to take under consideration here. Vibration is a b**** to optical drives. Use all 8 screwholes by all means. I keep seing lots of people only securing it with one screw on each side which is suicide. Also, the quality of the laser is different from brand to brand. Toshiba used to have the best lasers for optical drives but Sony bought up all the goodies for their Playstation 2 and left us with the garbage. Pioneer did have Toshiba lasers for a while. Dont jump into the 52X speed wagon, thats only begging for troubles. Stay with a good 44X.

I had a Panasonic DVD for 6 months before it found it�s way out of the window, unable to read any discs at all. After that, i upgraded my CDRW to a Yamaha which just smell quality and practically reads and writes anything i throw at it. Unfortunatly, i had to go the cheap way and bought a terrible Asus DVD which i will replace as soon as possible. Plextor has always been good to many people and i will say it�s a safe bet. Dont be afraid to put a tenner or 2 to get the real goods instead of the mambo-jambo.

Mac

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JPP

Icrontic Regular

28 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 8:08am

In the beginning of CD Rom drives you could buy a new one every 3 or 6 month because of the speed factor. Since 3 years I am with my TEAC`s 1. x 32 used in the Server and 2 x40 in the PC�s. I never felt that they are not fast enough so there was no reason for an upgrade. By my experience the TEAC�s are very reliable. Regarding CD Recording we had a HP for aprox 3 years but it realy became to slow. I replaced it by a AOPEN a year ago. My son is now using a Philips which also plays DVD�s since aprox 6 month. We will see how reliable this will be.
JPP

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JPP edited : 11 Jun 2003 at 8:10am .

dodo

Genious

319 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 1:26pm

Let me tell you, Do NOT buy Memorex. I have had a burner completely die on me, and my friend had a different model do the same thing. I am preparing for my memorex CDROM to crap out quite soon.

~dodo

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fatcat

sasquatch wannabe

3,989 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 3:36pm

ive been using my mitsumi 8x4x32x for almost 2 yrs now no problems, my toshiba 12x dvd-rom for almost as long. i had a LG 48x cd-rom die on me after a year. im now paying around with a lite-on external usb2 16x10x40x, been running good for about 3 months so far

__________________ "To the heart and mind, ignorance is kind, and there's no comfort in the truth. Pain is all you'll find"

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Clutch

I'm the man in the box

4,805 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 5:38pm

Only drive that I have had trouble with was a philips cd-rw, my first lite-on is on it's way now for my new system I'm putting together, but I have heard mixed stories about lite-on's more success than horror though.

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profdlp

Off To The Gym

21,407 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 5:48pm

Clutch said
Only drive that I have had trouble with was a philips cd-rw, my first lite-on is on it's way now for my new system I'm putting together, but I have heard mixed stories about lite-on's more success than horror though.

Lite-On has been one of the better ones for me. I had a 24X Lite-On which I foolishly gave away when I "upgraded" to a 72X Kenwood, which worked like a champ for about six months, then died an agonizing, lingering death.

Prof
(Born Loser...)

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dNA3D

Innocent Inhabitant

69 Posts

11 Jun 2003, 5:55pm

Not a single drive has failed on me. Except for that first gen VCD player which, who knows what I've done with (no sexual interactions).

__________________ There's no replacement for displacement (Brain size in particular) - dNA3D

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muddocktor

Wandering about

6,250 Posts

12 Jun 2003, 3:16pm

On the whole, I've had pretty good luck with cd/cdrw/dvd drives, with just a few failures. I had a Lite On cdrw which failed after about 4 months, but I have 2 others just like it that have given no problems at all. I've had a few cdrom drives that have died over the years but have generally lasted pretty well. I even have 1 mitsumi 32X cdrom that's at least 4 years old and still works well.

__________________ I have some computers running Seti@Home.

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danball1976

Veteran Icrontian

2,634 Posts

12 Jun 2003, 10:41pm

I probably had two, one a cheap no name 24x that would overheat and freeze up, and another because a CD blew up in it.

My Plextor 16/10/40, now in my parents computer is over 3 yrs old.

Both Sony 52x CD-ROM's that I have been selling (which are 48x when you first put a CD in, and have to then press the eject button for about 5 seconds to make it 52x) are both over 1 yr old, and work fine. The only reason why they have been removed was to put the Plextor in my parents computer, and the other was removed from my computer for a Buslink (Liteon) 16x DVD-ROM that I bought sometime in August or October last year.

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profdlp

Off To The Gym

21,407 Posts

13 Jun 2003, 6:33am

Curious

danball1976 said
I probably had two, one a cheap no name 24x that would overheat and freeze up, and another because a CD blew up in it.

My Plextor 16/10/40, now in my parents computer is over 3 yrs old.

Both Sony 52x CD-ROM's that I have been selling (which are 48x when you first put a CD in, and have to then press the eject button for about 5 seconds to make it 52x) are both over 1 yr old, and work fine. The only reason why they have been removed was to put the Plextor in my parents computer, and the other was removed from my computer for a Buslink (Liteon) 16x DVD-ROM that I bought sometime in August or October last year.

Is that Sony 52X/48X thing a bug, or by design?

That's a new one on me!

Prof

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elektrik

Icrontic Convert

12 Posts

13 Jun 2003, 6:58am

I've only had my aging old Sony 4x/2x/24x CD-RW drive die on me, the rest have lasted for over a year

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danball1976

Veteran Icrontian

2,634 Posts

14 Jun 2003, 4:48am

Re: Curious

profdlp said

danball1976 said
I probably had two, one a cheap no name 24x that would overheat and freeze up, and another because a CD blew up in it.

My Plextor 16/10/40, now in my parents computer is over 3 yrs old.

Both Sony 52x CD-ROM's that I have been selling (which are 48x when you first put a CD in, and have to then press the eject button for about 5 seconds to make it 52x) are both over 1 yr old, and work fine. The only reason why they have been removed was to put the Plextor in my parents computer, and the other was removed from my computer for a Buslink (Liteon) 16x DVD-ROM that I bought sometime in August or October last year.

Is that Sony 52X/48X thing a bug, or by design?

That's a new one on me!

Prof

Its by design, and is mentioned in the manual. Plus when you buy one new, it has a warning sticker on it about running disks at 52X

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Hornizuka

Icrontic Convert

21 Posts

24 Jun 2003, 5:36am

For me, 2 CDRW drives failed. First one was a Yamaha 4x4x16 which died after a year of service. The second one was a Ricoh 12x10x32 which died after 2 years of service. Other optical drives are still kicking. Especially my acer 12x cdrom, it's still working after 6 or 7 years.

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Reliability Of Optical Drives

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