Vibrating CD drive

[Enigmo]

Hi everyone,

My CD drive has suddenly start to vibrate like a mad man as soon as I insert a CD and it starts to spin up. It sounds like it's ready to explode. Any ideas why this might be? Is it beyond repair?

 

[stevewm]

Most high speed CD-ROM drives tend to be very loud. If the drive works then there is nothing wrong with it.

Have you taken apart the case and made sure the drive's mounting screws and all other screws are tightend?

One thing that can really make high speed drives noisey is putting in a CD with a sticker on it or a disc with a off centered label. (causes ALOT of vibration)

My drive used to make the detachable top part of my case vibrate very loudly. Had to move it to the bottom drive bay to stop it.

 

[Enigmo]

Thanks for the reply. It's not one of the latest super fast models. It's a 32x and has only just starting doing this. I'm not using any CDs with labels on them so that's not the problem, but I'll check to see that the screws are tightened up properly.

 

[ride525]

Did you try more than one CD?

Sometimes a single CD can be warped and make it vibrate.

 

[Enigmo]

Yep, it vibrates like mad with almost all the CDs I try. What's strange is that it's only just started doing it

 

[Ryukumu]

It might be getting old and/or dusty. There's physical moving parts in there, and I doubt that of ALL the components in a PC, the CD-ROM is the best constructed, so maybe it's just getting worn out. I know my old 2x/8x CD-R (note the lack of a 'W') would sometimes have trouble reading a CD disk and would make strange noises. It almost sounded like the drive mechanism would get stuck on something and you'd hear the CD disk 'skid' on part of the drive.

 

[Bartman39]

This may not have any "Bearing" upon it... But it does sound like you have a dying drive (bearing failure) since newer cdrom drives are about twice as fast as their older counter parts and about half the cost of what you paid for the 32X you have... I`d say its time for a new drive...

 

[Enigmo]

Thanks for the info both of you. I think your right and I'll probably replace it sooner or later with a DVD/CD combi drive. I've also got a CD writer which reads at 8x so I won't be without a drive if my faster one dies on me.