Yamaha SCSI burner

[ultravox]

I've had the burner not quite 2 years.....it's a 6-4-16. It cannot read any CD's except one back-up of Win98se....a back up ! It can't read my brand new retail Win XP or any other CD except that damn back-up. I get a "device not ready" message and since I've installed XP I just see an empty page when I explore.
When burning, 1 out of 3 CD's will skip or make noises similiar to a record that has a scratch going through it.
I really like this burner and I know there are newer, faster ones out there for about half the price of what I paid for this one. Is there any maintenace that can be done to it? Someone suggested trying to clean the lens with a Q-tip and some alcohol. Is sending it in for repairs worth it or would it cost as much as a brand new IDE Plextor ?
Any suggestions?

 

[Actaeon]

Just get a new one.

They aren't very expensive for a faster 48x speed burner. Less than $100 for a nice Lite-On. (not sure about the prices, someone correct me)

I have a Yamaha 4x4x16 SCSI CD-RW Burner as well, It has problems reading some discs, and fails to burn on CD-RWs w/o messing them up.

 

[ultravox]

bump

 

[IanthePez]

The Lite-on 52x24x52 is on sale at newegg for only $54!!

That one will cost a bit to get repaired I would think. With a new one you would get incredible speeds at a great price.

 

[ultravox]

The Lite-on 52x24x52 is on sale at newegg for only $54!!

So Plextor is no longer the top of the heap ?

 

[farmercal]

Plextor is still at the top of the heap but bang for buck equal LiteOn.

 

[bacillus]

yamaha is also pulling out of the cdrw business!

 

[RanDum72]

Try clean it with one of those CD- cleaner disks available almost everywhere. Second is to to look for new firmware for it. This is a good place to look for one. It may enable the drive to read media that it didn't support before.

 

[Sahakiel]

Originally posted by: bacillus
yamaha is also pulling out of the cdrw business!

Not surprising considering CD speeds are maxed out at 52x and few people would need 52x rw capability.

 

[Mingon]

Try clean it with one of those CD- cleaner disks available almost everywhere

Dont bother they are next to useless. It is better to use a cottonbud (do the US have those?) and some lens cleaner for glasses on the lens unit. Aiwa Hifi's are notorious for needing the lens cleaned and the above is the best method.

 

[RanDum72]

I've had some CD cleaners that worked pretty well. I have a 3M one that has little 'brushes' all over the disk that cleans as well as the q-tip method (this cleaner is 'dry' so it doesn't need any fluid). Its worth a shot for those that are not that adventurous or feels uncomfortable opening up a drive and tinkering with the lens.

Aiwa Hifi's are notorious for needing the lens cleaned and the above is the best method.

No, Aiwa hifi's are known to have laser units that fail prematurely. One of the first signs are reading disks poorly There is a large class action settlement recently in the U.S. and my Aiwa mini system gets a free repair/replacement.

 

[SuperSix]

Is this since you installed WinXP?

 

[ultravox]

"Is this since you installed WinXP?"

no, it was happening when I was on '98 and I was hoping that XP as well as an upgrade to a newer version of nero would help but it didn't. I also did install the latest firmware for it which is dated Nov. 2001. I will try the disassembly and cleaning .......I havr nothing to loose except a hall hour and a Q-tip

 

[dkozloski]

I've had a SCSI Yamaha burner for years and I would wager that all yours needs is a little cleaning. If it works at all it should be good to go with a little TLC.

 

[ultravox]

dK........I think you're absolutely right. I just took it apart and cleaned the lens with some alky and a Q-tip and I can now read any
CD. I'm byrnibg one right now to see if it's really solved the problem. I"ll let you guys know if all is well. It's the least I can do to acknowledge the replies I got to my thread.
You Liteon guys..........point taken ! If I ever need another CDRW or if this one really is fried, I'll have a good plan B.

Thanks again for the imput !