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
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
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Comments
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
JPP
~dodo
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...);)
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