Optical Drive making burning smell while running DVDs

[Big_McLargeHuge]

My optical drive seems to be making a burning smell while it is trying to read a dvd that i just wrote. Dvds are also taking a long time to run. From the time i put them in to the time the autorun screen pops up. Though Dvds i burned this morning are working fine and starting up fast. What could have happened in that short time? I just rebooted my computer today, and i haven't done so in about a 4 days. I usually close it when i'm done but this week i was using it a lot. Anyways, could something have changed in that short time with the way the optical drive writes DVDs? I am backing up games from my GOG.com library by the way. Could it be from Securom or something other form of DRM? I heard they sometimes mess with Optical Drives.

By the way, i've tried these DVDs i burned on a different computer. The ones i burned on my computer this morning work fine on both computers, the ones i burned tonight are not working fine on either. Both take a long time but only mines is making really loud spinning noises and now starting to making a burning smell.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Post which optical drive you're running. Did you switch brands of media between the ones you burned in the morning and the ones this evening?

 

[Big_McLargeHuge]

Post which optical drive you're running. Did you switch brands of media between the ones you burned in the morning and the ones this evening?

Asus 24 DRW B1st

No i didn't switch the media brand

 

[C1]

Interesting as I just had one of my DvDROMs go bad (ARTEC 16X). Although the active LED indicator would light, the door wouldnt open. I opened the unit up in attempt to try to find something fixable, but no luck. However, when running, the main chip in that unit was so hot it would immediately burn your finger and the unit did have a classic electronic overheating smell to it. So yes, some parts inside these units including the lasers can get hot. You should notice that a freshly burned CD/DvD feels quite warm.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Smoke and electronics is never good and, considering the price of a new drive, I'd just replace it before it fries something else. Asus makes good hardware but, like anything else, some junk falls through the cracks of quality control. As for optical drives I've always found Sony to have the longest lived, most reliable optical drives of any mfg...just my personal experience. The Egg's got the ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS for 25 bucks including shipping.