1. SPS Accounts:
    Do you find yourself coming back time after time? Do you appreciate the ongoing hard work to keep this community focused and successful in its mission? Please consider supporting us by upgrading to an SPS Account. Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting a good cause, you'll also get a significant number of ever-expanding perks and benefits on the site and the forums. Click here to find out more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
You are currently viewing Boards o' Magick as a guest, but you can register an account here. Registration is fast, easy and free. Once registered you will have access to search the forums, create and respond to threads, PM other members, upload screenshots and access many other features unavailable to guests.

BoM cultivates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We have been aiming for quality over quantity with our forums from their inception, and believe that this distinction is truly tangible and valued by our members. We'd love to have you join us today!

(If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you've forgotten your username or password, click here.)

What could cause 2 optical drives in 2 separate computers to fail at the same time?

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by SlickRCBD, Jun 30, 2015.

  1. SlickRCBD Gems: 29/31
    Latest gem: Glittering Beljuril


    Resourceful Adored Veteran

    Joined:
    May 7, 2005
    Messages:
    3,015
    Media:
    47
    Likes Received:
    173
    Gender:
    Male
    I'm not sure if this belongs in alt.cdrom or this group. I haven't had access to a Usenet server from my ISP since 2008, so Google Groups is my only option.


    Something happened in my room that seems to have wrecked not one but two optical drives at once. I have no idea what could have happened, but both failed overnight after the computers were turned off.

    The first is a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive in my old Windows 98SE/XP computer I use for some retro gaming and as a print server for my old parallel printer. It usually recognizes a CD, but won't recognize a DVD anymore. If I try to view the contents, it will show up, but if I try to access anything larger than a couple KB it gives up and acts like a CD/DVD with a fingerprint on it that needs to be wiped off with rubbing alcohol.

    The second usually doesn't even recognize that the disc is there, but if it does, it will list the content of the disk but acts like there are fingerprints on it and won't play the music/video or access the file.

    I've tried cleaning them both to no avail. Heck, I just cleaned the one in the Windows 7 computer the day before yesterday and it was working fine. The reason my responses are so generic are because I tested it with audio CDs, data CDs, commercial DVD movies, and data DVDs with both movie files and normal data files.

    The really strange thing is that they both failed at the same time. Both computers are in the same room.
    I've heard rumors about brownouts killing hard drives, but all four hard drives in both machines are fine (they are both dual boot and each OS is on a different hard drive with the larger hard drives having partitions for data).

    Any ideas what could cause this kind of failure and what I can do to prevent it from happening again?
    I might be able to get my hands on some spare drives from somebody with some old broken computers lying around and I'm A+ certified so I can install them fine, but I don't want to put replacement drives in if they are just going to fail again.

    One drive is from 2011, the other is older, some time from 2008-2011. I just recall I had to replace the drive in the old computer a couple years before the Windows 7 computer.

    Should I be troubled that the drive in the Windows 7 computer failed after 4 years? The OEM drive failed after only a couple of years.
     
  2. Keneth Gems: 29/31
    Latest gem: Glittering Beljuril


    ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2002
    Messages:
    3,108
    Media:
    20
    Likes Received:
    224
    Gender:
    Male
    Coincidence? It's a known phenomenon in real life.

    I've stopped using optical drives years ago.
     
  3. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,407
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    231
    Gender:
    Male
    I think optical drives are just poorly made and don't last all that long. You can basically get a replacement CD/DVD writer for $15 on sale either internal or USB external these days.
     
  4. Old One

    Old One The Old Warrior ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2006
    Messages:
    419
    Likes Received:
    25
    Gender:
    Male
    @SlickRCBD I know this does not answer your main question but I have optical drives that are from the 80's and still working. Failure after 4 years or even a bit longer must mean a lot of hard usage! Might I suggest replacing one drive in one machine, one with a good warranty and try to do just what you did when you shut down your comps?
     
  5. ConjurerDragon

    ConjurerDragon Ich dien ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

    Joined:
    Feb 20, 2010
    Messages:
    417
    Media:
    1
    Likes Received:
    31
    Gender:
    Male
    When you say that both drives failed what exactly do you mean?

    Does the BIOS still find and list them as available?
    Does Windows find the drives and displays the drives in the windows explorer but is no longer able to read CD´s?

    Did you perhaps disable "autoplay" and that´s why the computer does not automatically start to read the CD or DVD?

    What is the exact type and name of the drives and the manufacturer?

    Did you open the case and find heaps of dust from the past years? If so blow it out.


    Here is a general forum where you might find help too
    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/32/dvd-drives.html
     
  6. SlickRCBD Gems: 29/31
    Latest gem: Glittering Beljuril


    Resourceful Adored Veteran

    Joined:
    May 7, 2005
    Messages:
    3,015
    Media:
    47
    Likes Received:
    173
    Gender:
    Male
    The last time I looked at new drives was some years ago. I couldn't find anything cheaper than $45 in stores.
    I could type a long explanation, but I've used salvaged drives for replacements acquired from various sources for free.

    The main concern is that they both failed at the same time, when I used both the day before. One to play Mechcommander Gold and the other to play a DVD.
    I thought I described in detail what was going on in the initial post. Please reread it carefully and then ask me to elaborate on what the problem was. I'm not sure what was unclear.

    As for hard usage, I don't think I've done that, but I do hear them spin up a lot at seemingly random times if I leave a CD or DVD in the drive when I'm not playing the game it's for or watching the movie, or accessing the data, or whatever.
    I've tried to figure out how to keep Windows from polling the CD (sorry, I had a CD-ROM for 10 years before I had DVDs, and I'd dealt with them for at least five years before I had one of my own. I keep typing "CD-ROM" even though I should say "optical drive" or "DVD+/-RW".


    The main concern is that I haven't done anything I haven't done for the last five years (I need a new computer, but need a steady job first instead of these short-term temp jobs) and can't figure out what could have caused the drives to have such short life-spans or what could have wrecked them both at the same time. I don't want to put new drives in if they are just going to fail again, but have absolutely no idea what could have caused this.

    By luck, I've already managed to secure a couple of salvaged drives. Somebody I know had a broken computer with a SATA drive. I ripped it out and can swap it at any time. I already had an IDE drive, but it's only a combo drive. I do need to be able to read DVDs for playing Final Fantasy 7 or 8, or the Infinity Engine games as I've converted them to DVD, although I could probably go back to CDs and disk swapping if I really had to.
     
  7. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,407
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    231
    Gender:
    Male
    If you're interested in a new drive, and aren't averse to ordering online, go to Newegg and sign up for email promotions. I got a promotion just today for a Lite-On internal SATA DVD burner for $12.99 with free shipping.

    Even so, the regular price is only $19.99...
     
  8. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2000
    Messages:
    23,475
    Media:
    494
    Likes Received:
    538
    Gender:
    Male
    I just checked yesterday and the same Samsung DVD+/-RW drive I've got in my desktop is selling for €14 (new) here. These units are basically the new throwaway floppy drives.
     
  9. SlickRCBD Gems: 29/31
    Latest gem: Glittering Beljuril


    Resourceful Adored Veteran

    Joined:
    May 7, 2005
    Messages:
    3,015
    Media:
    47
    Likes Received:
    173
    Gender:
    Male
    The main concern is, if I put a new drive in, will it just die on me again?
    I suppose I could test things out on the old computer with an old 20xCD-ROM which won't be a big loss if it gets ruined (assuming it still works, it's been sitting in my spare parts collection since I bought my first CD burner), but I'm hesitant to test things on the more modern SATA system since spare SATA drives aren't plentiful yet and I lost my main source in 2013 when I was laid off (broken computers the company was going to throw out, while they salvaged the RAM and destroyed or DoD wiped and salvaged the hard drive, they rarely bothered with the optical drive).
     
  10. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2005
    Messages:
    2,445
    Media:
    23
    Likes Received:
    53
    Gender:
    Male
    Quote: spare SATA drives aren't plentiful yet

    Sata drives are a dime in a dozen. Some pc here are sold without them especially since Windows 10 is available on a USB stick.
     
Sorcerer's Place is a project run entirely by fans and for fans. Maintaining Sorcerer's Place and a stable environment for all our hosted sites requires a substantial amount of our time and funds on a regular basis, so please consider supporting us to keep the site up & running smoothly. Thank you!

Sorcerers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.