Author Topic: DVD then cdrw eating my cds (Read 1725 times)

zephra · « **on:** August 07, 2005, 03:54 »

I had two games that I played alot Age of mythology and simcity 2000 both have blown up in my drives.
3 Months ago I had age of mythology(a few hairline cracks in the center) in my dvd rom(game year old).
I was not even playing the game.I was on the web and the drive was spinning and I heard a bang like a gunshot that i could not figure out were it came from hours latter i went to remove the cd and the drive was somewhat stuck and my game was in a thousand pieces.I removed and opened up and cleaned the dvd rom out
Today i was playing simcity2000 6 years old on my cd-rw and i heard the same noise and i opened up the drive and the same thing
I have had a compaq before that the simcity worked fine for 5years.Now i have a compaq presario 1-1/2 year old winxp sp2 and i have not tweaked these drives yet i have 2 blown up cd's.Can anyone make any sense of this?

Simon · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2005, 11:13 »

One possible theory could be the way you are taking the discs out of the cases. Maybe they are stuck in quite firmly, and you are bending them to get them out, and thus, over a period of time, weakening the centre? You said you used them a lot, so maybe getting them in and out of the cases caused some damage? Just a possibility, although I have never heard of a disc 'exploding' inside a drive before. You were very lucky to be able to clean the drive out, and it remained usable!

sam · « **Reply #2 on:** August 07, 2005, 14:18 »

gosh thats odd, ive also never heard of that before. I doubt it is a cd error, i have played some rather damaged ones in the past. It has to be something to do with the drive - have you contacted the manufactuer? Is it the same drive or same make as the last one?

Simon · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2005, 14:25 »

According to his post, it's happened in two different drives, Sam, which made me think it might be damaged discs. :?

zephra · « **Reply #4 on:** August 07, 2005, 16:59 »

I have googled around and i guess this is starting to happen more frequently with the constant push to go faster.I do not put these in cd cases only in the paper slips.Age of mythogy had a decent crack in the center so i can see why.Sim city did not.

daveeb · « **Reply #5 on:** August 07, 2005, 17:01 »

I've heard of discs exploding in drives before and Simons correct in that it tends to be when they are repeatedly taken out of tight fitting spindles in the cases so weakening the disc centre.. I tend to store discs like that in different cases with narrower spindles. i would never play a disc with a fracture, maybe risk it once just to back it up if possible.

Discs are also incredibly brittle its amazing how they last at all. I dropped one on a stone floor once and it shattered into many pieces. :shock:

davy51 · « **Reply #6 on:** August 07, 2005, 18:18 »

It sounds like something inside the drive is binding the cd and breaking it

it looks like something is trying to stop it spinning and finally just destroys it

try to pull the case apart and watch while a bad cd spins and you should see whats causing it

sam · « **Reply #7 on:** August 07, 2005, 20:07 »

probably not a safe idea as some of the lasers are pretty powerful. most will contain the beam but you never know what will happen - especially if a cd breaks inside.

davy51 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 07, 2005, 20:59 »

I agree with you sam must take precautions

I work with laser so for me its a matter of just setting tools up

it can be done but must have safety equip

the beams in a disk drive can damage the eyesight but they are not powerfull enough to burn the skin

sam · « **Reply #9 on:** August 07, 2005, 22:01 »

I agree with your assessment on the skin (assuming I am remembering my laser safety course info! that was a few years ago now!). Its probably not worth the risk without the right tools though.

The reason I asked about the drives being the same one was I wondered if this was a generally fault withone particular make / or manufacturer. Might be worth us missing them in the future. Oh and for future referrence dont buy a Benq drive. I have had about 3 mates get them and they all flop. My own mate even got it replaced then about 3weeks later the replacement failed!

Reno · « **Reply #10 on:** August 08, 2005, 21:54 »

Came across the problem twice in my 6 months working at this pc repair shop im at.

What happens in a cd rom when a cd is prompt to be read is that he arm of the cd rom pushes the spinner up into the center of the cd. Then raises it slightly off the tray to start the spinning. If the hole on the cd is a hair too small or the balls barrings that put pressure against the cd to hold it in place have too high a tention then you'll start to see the hairline fractures and breaking around the cd. Then as time progresses the pressure builds on the cd and it will eventually explode. Take a spare cdr and try and break it. It has a breaking point and then it shadders. I took apart one and watched it :cool. Thats how i came to my conclusion. The only way i could think to solve the problem was to replace the drive. These were regular cd-roms and i had spares in the back so no one was out some dough like they might for a dvdrw. The people haven't called me saying they're still having the exploding disk problem so I think I was right.

sam · « **Reply #11 on:** August 08, 2005, 21:56 »

sounds right.

Rose9994u · « **Reply #12 on:** September 04, 2005, 15:16 »

Hi you are not alone

I also lost my two mp3 cds But without making any noise .:roll:

Other problem is that it only recognise mp3 cds & Rewritble data cd.
If i insert Datacdr then it try to read and give message please insert the disc

I have samsung Cd writer

:!: