How often do your optical drives die?

[Zepper]

I don't recall having one die on me. I still have my Plextor 4220 (~ 5 years) and I had an early Pioneer slot-load DVD ROM drive for over a year and sold and a recent MSI combo drive that got little use and I just sold. I added another Plextor, the PX-712A, last fall. One of my friends did a few years back. But few of the current drives are really built to last like they used to be when they cost real money (most had internal fans back in the day...).
. You guys must be engaged in piracy to put your drives thru the wringer like you do. Most of these drives aren't really designed for that type of manufacturing use.
. If you are doing manufacturing level quantities, you should have a stack of drives with decent cooling so each one only does 1/10th or so of the work. That should make them last a while

.bh.

 

[fierydemise]

Not very often unless there is some other issue with your system, I went through a period about 2 years ago when I was getting a new optical drive every 4 months, it turned out my powersupply was underpowered and the motors in the drives were dieing. Since I changed the powersuply I've never had an issue

 

[teutonicknight]

I've never had an optical disc die, but I usally retire them after I get a faster one. (Lite-On DVD-Rom, Nec 3200 DVD Bruner currently in my system, replaced an old generic 4x DVD-rom and a Sony 8x CD-Burner)

 

[bigboxes]

About 2 years is about right, but by then I am usually ready to upgrade.

 

[hemiram]

My first burner, a Memorex 2X CDRW died after about 30 disks, was fixed under warranty (laser died), and it kept going for over 4 more years, and was still working when I sold it. I burned about 700 discs on it.

My next one, a Lite-on 48X burned probably close to 500 CDRs (I don't mess with CDRWs much at all), and it's still working fine.

The next one, my first DVD burner a Lite-on 812, burned a couple of hundred before being moved to "reserve" status when I bought my current burner..

My present NEC is doing very well, with about 50 CDRs and 150 DVD burns.

 

[xsilver]

the worst ones arent the ones that die, but rather the ones that are half dead (eg. reads some discs , not others) --- you kinda want to chuck it out but stop yourself cause its still kinda working

also what about blank discs? I've had a couple just peel away like a sticker leaving just a clear disc .... pain in the ass to get that crap out!

 

[DanDaMan315]

One in a old 133mhz gateway.

 

[BFG10K]

My old Sony DVD drive died after about two years.

 

[Maggotry]

I've never had a Lite-On last longer than 6 months. My Plextor, TDK, and ASUS drives have lasted a long time and are still performing well.

 

[dnuggett]

I haven't had one die yet.... but I think my MadDog CDRW may be on it's way out.

 

[QuantumPion]

My mom's computer has my old creative labs 1x dvd drive from the 1990's. That thing is awesome, it will read damaged cd's that no other optical drive can for some reason. I use it to rip some of my damaged audio cds from time to time.

 

[CraigRT]

don't usually have drives die.. but I had a 12x Ricoh CD burner go out on me after about 2 years.. no longer picks up any CD's at all, blank or full.
I think that was the only death I've had personally.


seen many in the workplace, but just the 1 death at home.

 

[QuantumPion]

The only optical drive that I have owned that ever died was a slot-loading dvd drive (forgot what brand). It was having some problem with the cache or something, dvd movies were constantly skipping and then finally the loading mechanism crappped out. Most of my other optical drives I have had for 4+ years and only got rid of them to upgrade to faster drives.

 

[eplebnista]

I have not had one die on me yet.

 

[esun]

I had an old 24X CD-Rom die a long time ago. An old 52X CD-Rom died as well. Some of my older optical drives (maybe 3-4 years old) act a little strangely (louder than before, some stranger noises, closing right after I open them--really annoying). I would consider 2+ years normal, though. Four years and I won't expect it to be the same as before (though it may work).

 

[pnb263]

The only drive I have had that died on me was an old Smart and Friendly 4X CDR. I put about 12000 discs through it before it bit the dust. and of those (about) 12000 discs, I only had three coasters including the last one. It too went out with a bang though. When I was in the middle of burning the CD, I heard it spin down about half way through. I thought it was done, so went to push the eject button. When I did that, it spun up REALLY fast and threw the broken CD out at me (the tray front broke).

Although, I dont know if you classify it as a total death as it still READS CDs, just does burn them (if you try to burn on it, it does the same thing as before and revs up really high (im talking like a 52X or so)). The only thing I could trace it to was corrupted firmware. Useless to fix it though as the laser was starting to get weak (needing longer and longer to burn, and would burn slower (2x, and eventualy only at 1x)).

Ah, memories. I had that drive for about 4 years. first burner, but never the last. PLEXTOR from there on out, no bad drives yet (crosses fingers).

 

[d2arcturus]

I got a MSI drive that was DOA, never went with that again (it was on sale)... LG and Lite-On drives I use have never died on me.

 

[DoNotDisturb]

2 years. I'm about to replace my Lite On combo DVD + CDRW

 

[allanzzz]

only had a tdk 52 32 52 died cos some coolant leaked into it, took it out and replaced it with another tdk 52 32 52

any1 interested in buyin an ancient kenwood 72x ?