CD-Rom drives suffer wear and tear?

[clicknext]

Just wondering one thing. Do CD-Rom drives suffer wear and tear from long usage? The creative 52x I've been using for about 1 and a half year is having trouble reading even perfect condition discs now. I'm wondering what the cause is.

 

[compudog]

Of course they suffer wear and tear. Nothing lasts forever. Especially an electromechanical device. Perhaps the lens is dirty. You can try a lens cleaning disc that you can pick up practically anywhere for a couple of bucks. A year and a half of hard use is a reasonable life expectancy for any CD-ROM.

 

[PCMarine]

Maybe it's time to swap out that CD-ROM and pick up a DVD-ROM.

 

[corkyg]

Yes - they do - as was said - just like any electro-mechanical device. The wear and tear is significantly accelerated is anyone smokes in the vicinity of the drive. Colloidal tobacco particles can really gum up laser lenses. Pperiodic cleaning with a cleaning disk can help. DVD drives are even more sensitive because they have two laser if they can read CDs as well as DVDs. It is adviseable not to waste a burner by using it as a reader.

 

[Jeff7]

Echoing what's been said - anything mechanical suffers from wear and tear. Even electrical stuff can suffer from it it seems, electromigration I think it's called? Not sure on it, but I think that the electrons (especially in overvolted components) can erode the contacts.
But anyway, yes, it might be time to get a new optical drive, though I wouldn't expect yours to be going after only a year and a half. I have 2 24x CD-drives yet, both of which see fairly regular use, and they still work; both are at least 4 years old.
For a new drive, the Liteon 16x/48x DVD-ROM seems popular; I like mine.

 

[clicknext]

Hmm... no one smokes in this house, and all the discs I put in the drives are sparkly clean (I clean the dirty ones before they go in).

I need a really cheap drive. I can get an LG 52x, does anyone know if that's any good?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: clicknext
Hmm... no one smokes in this house, and all the discs I put in the drives are sparkly clean (I clean the dirty ones before they go in).

I need a really cheap drive. I can get an LG 52x, does anyone know if that's any good?

LG=LuckyGoldstar ..why don't you ease over to the HotDeals forum and look around..bought a 48x12x48 CDRW for $30 and tax at CC the Friday before Christmas from CircuitCity(CC) on a PM(PriceMatch) to OM(OfficeMax) using the OM sales circular ..as always YMMV(YourMileageMayVary)

 

[clicknext]

LOL, I live in this place called Ca-na-da, and things like "Circuit City", "Office Max", "$30 (or $50 CND) CDRWs", and sometimes as well as "PriceMatch" don't exist.

Anyway, I know that LG is a reliable brand for refrigerators, so maybe they can make CD-Roms well enough.