A WEIRD & UNUSUAL EXPERIENCE W/MY CDROM DRIVE

[beeper]

It was totally unexpected and an experience I'll never forget and really hard to believe!

I was just trying to boot up my Windows ME on my PIII computer- inserted the Start Up Disk and my backup WinME CD to my 52X CDROM drive when all of a sudden BIG BANG! . I was stunned and before I knew it the front of the CD Tray blew off and my back up Win ME CD shattered to pieces! Too bad the CDROM is out of warranty - just over a year:( but I was comforting myself with the thought that it did not happen to my original Windows ME or to any of my valuable CDs or VCDs! Whew! That was a close call and luckily I wasn't hurt either. I believe its dangerous specially for kids like my daughter who's been on my computer during weekends playing her favorite PowerPuff or Barbies if ever the CD explodes and hurts her in the eyes God forbid!!

The culprit hopefully not a CDROM MADE TO EXPLODE was a DELTA 52X max CDROM manufactured March 200l and made in China. I bought this over a year ago on May 18, 2001. Its available locally at some computer shops.

Upon research on the web, I found out that others had the same experience as I did! This time its AOpen 52X speed CDROM and a LITEON LTD-163 and a LTR-40125S. I'm not sure though if the particular model is available locally but AOpen and Liteon are well-know brands here.

I don't know if my DELTA 52X CDROM still works as I had not opened its case to take off the remaining shards inside. I did try to push the Eject button but it won't fully open which I believe was stuck with those bits and pieces. Didn't bother to do so last night as I had a Creative CDROM on my old P1 which still works fine and use on my P3 instead. I intend to bring this matter either to the attention of the local distributor or to the manufacturer in Taiwan.

on the lighter side I came upon one of the threads posted in that forum which read as follows:

That would actually make good copy protection...

Disclaimer Reads: Due to high amounts of music, video and software piracy, this disc will explode when used in a computer's CD-ROM. We are not responsible for damaged equipment or loss of eyes. NOTE: I ADDED VIDEO AND SOFTWARE

Has anyone else ever experienced this???

[SellandBuy]

yup, this really happens, and it seems to be happening quite often now in the country... this is the 3rd local incident that i am aware of.

the culprit is not the drive, but the disc. low quality discs usually "bubbles" after some time, and even cheap cd labels may cause the problem.

when either of the above culprit is present, the disc spins "unbalanced" and sometimes hits other parts of the drive. for the first case, the polycarbonate layer eventually peels of and at times the disc shatters completely inside the drive. on the second case a poor quality label may not be balanced thus causing the disc to rotate unevenly inside the drive and hits other parts of the assembly.

be careful with CDs, when you notice that either the label or the metallic layer below is showing signs of peeling off, copy the disc and throw it away.

like i said, it seems to be happening quite often here now, it may be because of the proliferation of cheap low quality cdr in our country.

[mcriselda]

May effect ba ang use of cheap and low quality cd-r sa cd-writers? I've noticed lately na yung performance ng writer ko is not like it used to be. Dati I only use branded cd-rs like Sony,TDK etc. until a friend told me about cheap blanks cds sa quiapo. Okay naman nung start pero after a while may changes;
- namimili na ng cd
- wont read cds na I know is really working naman
- sometimes it wont detect even the branded blank cds like Sony, as in kakatanggal lang ng plastic cover sa case.
- destroys cd...cds na working wont work anymore after ko gamitin sa writer

I've stopped using those cheap cds na pero hindi na yata maayos yung writer ko. I've learned na my lesson. Next time I'd go for yung pricy na talaga pero ok naman.

[hisoka]

There are few things to consider about cd-roms.

1. kapag bago ang cd-com/dvd/cd-writer/dvd-writer nyo, halos lahat ng ilagay mo na cd (wag lang yung talagang sira) ay babasahin nya. You wanna know why? kasi malakas pa yung pag-produce nya ng laser red light kaya halos halat ng ilagay mo na cd kahit na pirated or not eh mababasa. BUT, in the long run, the laser red light will eventually loose it's ability to produce the same quality of red light due to stress of reading pirated cds.

2. Yung ibang CD-ROMS ay namimili talaga ng cd like CREATIVE CD-ROMS (hindi naman sa siniriraan ko yung CREATIVE) example is when you put an audio cd in, let the cd read a few tracks, eject the cd and put in a data cd, eventually mag-aauto-eject sya.

3. May iba namang cd-rom na sa sobrang bilis nya ay umi-eject yung cd. Nangyari na ba sa inyo na tumasik yung cd-rom disk from the cd-rom drive na umiikot (wow! buti na lang naka-ilag ako) This happened when I was working in a computer shop here in Quezon City.