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DVD-ROM skips

I bought a 16x MSI DVD-ROM about 9 months ago. About four months ago, I noticed problems whenever I tried to rip new CDs with it: the first 5-10 seconds of each track would skip like crazy. More recently, it really struggles when I try to watch a movie. I've never heard anything bad about MSI drives, nor have I encountered similar problems. Is it possible that the lens is simply dirty, or is it something more serious?
 
Possible fixes:
- make sure your DVD-R is sound and clean:
A small speck of dust, a scratch or fingerprint can be the difference between a successful burn and a coaster.
- It is recommended to not use your computer for other tasks while burning (some even recommend re-booting before a burn, and even stopping any background programs like anti-virus...)
- Try using a better media.
- Compress the movie a bit more, so that the media edge is not being used (on bad media, the edge can be defective and not written to or read properly).
This can be achieved by lowering DVD Shrink target size:
"Edit >> Preferences >> Target Size >> Custom >> 4300MB"
- Try a lower burn speed (if you were using x2 or higher).

Having previously had successes with cheap media is no indication they're not the cause of the problem.
Their "quality control" is often not as good as other more expensive media, and you can easily end-up with a bad disc or even a bad batch of discs.

Using cheap media can also make your DVD player work harder to read the discs.
This, in turn, will make it overheat, and sometimes freeze (I know, you wouldn't expect something freezing when overheating, lol).

Important!!
There is another cause for a backup skipping and/or freezing: the use of labels on the disc.
It is highly recommended not to use labels on your backups.

Another probable cause:
Your hard-drive(s) is heavily fragmented.
Make sure to defragment it regularly
 
Thanks, but I'm not even playing burned media. They're store-bought DVDs and CDs that I'm having problems with. I also tried defragging my hard drive but nothing changed. Any other ideas? :

If it is dirty, how exactly can I clean it? Compressed air would get rid of dust, et cetera, but what about the lens?
 
Actually, it was in PIO mode. I changed it but still have the same problem, though everything else seems to be running better. 😛
 
If you just manually changed it, it's likely it went right back to PIO mode, or it will soon.

The usual cure is to reset XP's error counter by uninstalling the IDE controller and letting XP redetect it.
 
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