DVD drive shenanigans

[Walsingham]

I did not intend to post this. But a friend has the same problem.

 

Both our inbuilt DVD drives have taken to refusing to eject unless there si something already in them. Accessing them requires ether random flailing or strange unqie and limited combinations of pushing buttons and singing songs.

 

This evening I became so enraged by this that I grabbed a pair of pliers and wrenched the drive tray out. Now it won't accept closed a s a stable state.

 

I am literally about three heart beats away from smashing the whole machine with a hatchet, which would be immensely satisfying.

 

What can I do? Replace the drive> spit on a spaniard?

[Purkake]

DVD drives are really cheap now, just get a new one. Everything breaks eventually.

[LadyCrimson]

Yup. Everything breaks, and sometimes you just get a faulty one that breaks earlier than most.

 

If you don't mind OEM (not in a box) especially, you can a DVD drive for $30.

I've had a lot of fail-drives off and on, until I bought this Sony. I now like Sony.

[Humanoid]

DVD drive prices are only just starting to recover after a big price spike midyear (allegedly one of the major component manufacturers closed/burned down), but they'll probably never get as cheap as they were a year ago ever again. Bad news is that in the meantime, Pioneer discontinued their inhouse manufacturing of the drives, so the current model Pioneers are no longer the clear cut best choice anymore.

 

And yeah, the Sony-NEC is probably one of the better drives on the market now (not the pre-NEC ones though).

[Janmanden]

Maybe it's just bad luck or poor quality, but the last couple of DVD RW drives I've had didn't last very long.. All (cheap) Samsung DVD RW drives. I guess they just weren't build for as much playback as I used them for or Samsung just sucks. Still got an old single-layer DVD-R Memorex, which isn't that useful, but it works. So I just decided to buy an ASUS DVD-R instead of a RW drive and I haven't had any problems since. Of course it's 'nice' to have a writer, but I just realized that I really never used it. I think it's probably better to use a drive for it's primary purpose. A reader for playback and and a writer for burning discs.. Last longer. While it's true they are pretty cheap it's a lot of waste to buy cheap especially the day when they start to give up and cause no end of frustration.. Smashing the whole machine just isn't worth buying cheap.. Been there, done that, much regret.

[Humanoid]

I think it's probably better to use a drive for it's primary purpose. A reader for playback and and a writer for burning discs.. Last longer.

 

That's probably only true because there's less wear from twice as many things being used half as often. The best Blu-ray writers at the moment are also measurably the best DVD and CD writers in terms of burn quality and reliability.

[LadyCrimson]

I keep buying DVD-RW drives but then find I rarely burn any discs. Used to be I'd burn backups, but these days it's easier and better to use external HD's (or whatever) instead. But I still like having one in case I do want it, and for me there's no point in having two drives.

 

The cheaper stuff sometimes works fine for years, btw. We have lots of such and they still work. But it is a crapshoot, yes. Then again, w/quality control these days, everything is, to a degree.

[Walsingham]

I use the RW a lot to pass information to clients. It's secure but friendly. A lot of big companies won't let you use USB any more.

 

I'm using an external Samsung now, taken from my laptop kit, but between this and my hardrive issue I'm not sure if I shouldn't just buy a whole new PC.