[wellylug] disc drive hassles

John Durham johndurh at spunge.org
Wed Feb 8 19:48:01 NZDT 2006


Sorry for replying late- just noticed your message. Consider this:
The problem might be CD related instead of drive related. Tiny scratches
or marks on one can render parts unreadable. You can confirm the drive's
condition by trying 2 or more known good CDs in it. If they read, it
isn't the drive.

If you confirm the drive is OK, then closely inspect the CD in question
for tiny scratches, scuff marks or fingerprints. There is an old
technicians's trick for getting poor CDs to read properly.

Get some baby oil (that's right) or optical quality lens cleaning fluid.
Taking a tissue, gently apply it to the underside of the CD. Then very
carefully, wipe off the excess. The idea is the liquid fills in the
scratches, rendering them practicaly invisible (by making a close match
to the refractive index of the CD). Try to make the layer as thin as
possible before trying it in the drive. It may not read first time. If
not, take it out and keep removing more liquid with fresh tissue until
it will read properly.
On Thu, 2006-01-19 at 12:31 +1300, Hamish Low wrote:
> hi,
> have a hardware question someone may be able to help me with.
> Seems my laptop cd/dvdr drive is not working. 
> XP, (that i need for a little while until I can get the software I need 
> running under WINE) can see the drive, but the cd just spins and stops.
> The drive can read a linux install disc, but I got most of the way 
> through a DeMuDi install before the drive failed.  My guess is hardware 
> failure, but as I got my laptop from the States (while i was in Japan) I 
> would have to send it back there possibly with the original XP installed 
> for the warranty to be valid at great expense.  So before I resort to 
> this,  is there any other way i can get the drive working? 
> almost new qsi dvdr sdw-081 drive, have the latest drivers, flashing the 
> firmware (though this may void the warranty)
> any suggestions appreciated?
> 
> Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com 
> 
> 




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