I've been pissed off at my Smart & Friendly TurboWriter RW 6x4x24 CD-RW (same as Ricoh 6x4x24 and 4x4x24) for some time because it didn't like some media. I kept getting these odd write errors when I first tried to burn a CD. I never got any errors after burning started until a couple days ago.
Someone tipped me off to the fact that Ricoh doesn't lube the shaft that moves the laser head back and forth (or in and out). So tonight I decided to stop by Radio Shack and pick up some Multi-Purpose Lubricant with Teflon. Cracking the drive open was a bit of a pain (the face has to come off, etc) but I got it done. I followed the directions about getting the whole shaft lubed (no jokes, hehe) by skipping around a music CD from track 1 to the last track.
On to the test - pop in a Ricoh Platinum CDR (ah, the days of $20 off $20 @ buy.com) and the drive cooperates. Red Hat 7.0 ISO 100%! Then I moved on to the Kingston 8x CDRs from outpost.com. Wazam! These hadn't been working at all and suddenly no problems.
This is simply awesome. Now I can skip buying a 8x drive and wait until I feel like getting one. Hopefully this will help someone else out there - if you start getting "power low" type errors or something similar, consider greasing the shaft that the laser head is on. Apparently all Ricoh drives may suffer from this problem.
> ==========================================================
> Due to the inadequate lubrication of a mechanical part of the
> Ricoh 7060/7040 and the AOpen 9624 (= Ricoh 7060) write failures may
> occur.
> Take the unit out of the computer, remove the top cover of the casing
> and eject the loading tray by inserting a pin into the small hole
> situated in the bezel, just below the loading tray.
> Next you need to remove a bracket, approx. 5 cm wide, by unscrewing 2
> small screws.
> Then, seen from the front side of the burner, a worm drive is
> visible on the left.
> This is the part that requires lubrication.
> Apply some light grease (vaseline may do the job just as well) and
> after reassembling and reinstalling the unit, your Ricoh 7060/7040 or
> AOpen 9624 will/may perform flawlessly again!
> =======================================================
deja.com search for ricoh and teflon
Someone tipped me off to the fact that Ricoh doesn't lube the shaft that moves the laser head back and forth (or in and out). So tonight I decided to stop by Radio Shack and pick up some Multi-Purpose Lubricant with Teflon. Cracking the drive open was a bit of a pain (the face has to come off, etc) but I got it done. I followed the directions about getting the whole shaft lubed (no jokes, hehe) by skipping around a music CD from track 1 to the last track.
On to the test - pop in a Ricoh Platinum CDR (ah, the days of $20 off $20 @ buy.com) and the drive cooperates. Red Hat 7.0 ISO 100%! Then I moved on to the Kingston 8x CDRs from outpost.com. Wazam! These hadn't been working at all and suddenly no problems.
This is simply awesome. Now I can skip buying a 8x drive and wait until I feel like getting one. Hopefully this will help someone else out there - if you start getting "power low" type errors or something similar, consider greasing the shaft that the laser head is on. Apparently all Ricoh drives may suffer from this problem.
> ==========================================================
> Due to the inadequate lubrication of a mechanical part of the
> Ricoh 7060/7040 and the AOpen 9624 (= Ricoh 7060) write failures may
> occur.
> Take the unit out of the computer, remove the top cover of the casing
> and eject the loading tray by inserting a pin into the small hole
> situated in the bezel, just below the loading tray.
> Next you need to remove a bracket, approx. 5 cm wide, by unscrewing 2
> small screws.
> Then, seen from the front side of the burner, a worm drive is
> visible on the left.
> This is the part that requires lubrication.
> Apply some light grease (vaseline may do the job just as well) and
> after reassembling and reinstalling the unit, your Ricoh 7060/7040 or
> AOpen 9624 will/may perform flawlessly again!
> =======================================================
deja.com search for ricoh and teflon