How to keep your Optical Drive in good working order!
I have been asked a few time about which Brand’s CD- Drives are the best performers, initially I used to give old hat advice that Sony’s optical drives are good, or Asus is the player in this category, with the opinions evolving in tandem with the Drive speeds and features as well as hear-say experiences. But then I realized that I have been using Samsung for almost 4 years without any problem and my brother uses Sony for almost the same stretch without a hiss.
While one of my friends’ new drive went kaput in just a few months of use, not that he burned more CDs per week than me; but because he never tried to maintain it, that’s it. Just like may of us do. So I discovered an urge to write some thing about it since I had received some requests by friends and my blog readers alike. So here are few tips and tricks:
Do’s
1. Always check the connecting cables inside your case.
(Take Precaution!! Get a certified workman for it if you are not sure and KEEP THE POWER SUPPLY OFF!!!!!)
1. Make sure they are snugly fit. 2. Make sure they are of the proper rating; you don’t want your drive running at fluctuating voltage when burning data for your project. 3. Make sure they are properly ventilated. 4. Clean the cable contacts regularly with a soft brush, it really helps!
2. Use licensed software to burn your CDs and DVDs.
3. Make sure that the drive is properly mounted and does not loose ground (read shake) when working at high speeds. It is 7200 RPM and about after all!
4. Use proper CDs and DVDs; always check for warped or cracked ones, they might get fragmented while in the drive and spraying the interior of the drive with plastic shrapnel. That ruins your drive, dead sure!
5. Use the eject/retrieve button only. That is why it is there! Most users forget this and try to lush the door by themselves. Cant’ you see that BUTTON? Doing this will reduce the life of the drive tray or even misalign it.
6. Wait till the drive starts reading the disk. There is always a wake up track where the head starts so as to not scratch the disk but as the disk gathers speed it move a hair’s breadth away from the disk and the laser head reads (much similar to the hard disk’s functioning). Do not fret at the drive taking a few seconds to wake up; you do get up grumpy in the morning too!
7. Try out some good drive cleaning disks, I tried one and am pretty satisfied. (Take Precaution!!)
Don’ts
1. Do not use those cheap off the cart CDs and DVDs which cost less than that standard chocolate. They are often warped and misaligned (tick and thin at some random gradients).
2. Do not use bugged, unregistered software to burn your disks. They are not sometimes able to properly handle the power transmission while burning or reading the disks.
3. Do not use extremely scratched disks.
4. Do not use the drive in high humidity areas, the components stick up.
5. Do not pull the drive door.
Take all these factors in mind when next using your drive. Keep it healthy and it will give you good returns for your investment. Then you will also realize that almost all the manufacturers make quality hardware for you and you will be happy telling others that all drives are good if you maintain them. Happy burning!!
[The guidelines are of suggestive nature and not certified help lines. Please contact your manufacturer for complete details on how to maintain your drive. No damadge responsibilities taken- use your common sense too!]
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Hi, I am URJIT,18, from India. I have a 2 blogs on the technological front:http://www.thenewtech.blogspot.com/
DIGITAL AND TECH and http://www.turboc.blogspot.com/ The C++ Blog.I am currently pursuing my B.E (computer science degree) in India. Visit my blogs and stay updated.
