Are DVD burners supposed to have one short pin?

[Insomniator]

My cd drive stopped working a few weeks ago and I figured out that my cheap round cable
was causing the problem; switched to a regular ribbon and it worked fine.

Since then, I've installed Vista on the computer (using the same drive) and a few other programs on cd's.

Now however, the drive does not read any discs and windows kinda hangs when a cd is inserted, I can eject the cd and restart explorer and its ok however.

I noticed that one of the pins on the drive is half the length of the others.. it's a pin right in the middle and its not the same on another burner that I have (not talking about the empty hole). I've been unplugging and plugging in the cable a lot lately because of various reasons; different hard drives, cleaning out wiring etc.. but maybe the last time I did it messed it up?

The one that doesnt work is a lite on that is less then 6 months old so I dont think it just failed for no reason. The burner without the short pin is a 3 year old plextor which I havent even tested if it works yet..

I've noticed Vista has a lot of odd quirks so I'm wondering if it is just a wierd security setting or something that is messing it up..

thanks

 

[cubby1223]

One row of pins is the power & data pins, and the other row is all ground. If the pin pushed in is one of the ground pins, then it's not an issue if it's not making contact with the cable. Of course, it could be making contact with another pin on the other side that you can't see. If you have needle-nose pliers, grab onto it and pull it out to normal length.

 

[Captante]

Also check out the IDE cable you used to connect it because some 80-pin cables them have one pin-hole near the center filled in & that could easily be the reason the pin has been pushed down in your optical drive.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Captante
Also check out the IDE cable you used to connect it because some 80-pin cables them have one pin-hole near the center filled in & that could easily be the reason the pin has been pushed down in your optical drive.

And that empty pin spot is part of keying the cable so it will only go in one way. Forcing it upside down can cause a pin to be pushed back because the blank, solid piece is pushing against a pin instead of going in the empty space. That event is a user caused blivet.

 

[Insomniator]

Yeah the pin was messed up, pulled it out with pliers and it works now.

I really never put that much pressure on it the wrong way before.. guess it doesnt take much.