How Long a CD-RW/ROM Combo Drive Runs?

[sillious]

Drive info:
LiteOn CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo
- LTC4816H, 48x24x48x16
- PIO, DMA 2, UDMA2

Bought on July 2003 from ZipZoomFly and used heavily since then. Is it time to put it to sleep? Recently my windows crashed when the optical drive was working. I don't know if the drive caused the crash or the crash defected the drive. Either way, it seems both dead to me now.

I need to determine if it's dying or not, as it lights up and shows in Windows but very slugish and sometimes I see long time activity. I just updated the farmware (found on Liteon website), switched around from master to slave and back to master, cleaned optical head - same results!

I can't find this drive anymore go get more info, but found similar drive which says it's lifetime it around 70000 hours. So if this being older and say has 50000 hours warrenty, then it's about time for it to die.

Can anyone pronounce it dead so I can go on and buy one? If so, please recommend any good drive (maybe Liteon). This is my 4th Liteon and I know they are good - there are just so many model I just need to know which one is good. I have a HP DVD burner, so I don't want to buy another DVD burner yet.
:clock:

 

[CalvinHobbes]

You can get a DVD-R drive for less than $40. It's time to move on.

 

[sillious]

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
You can get a DVD-R drive for less than $40. It's time to move on.

I know. Budget isn't matter. I need to have a CD-RW/ROM combo drive along with my DVD burner. I just don't want to through away without confirming that the drive is dying.
Thanks.