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RockNRoll
09-28-2006, 02:39 PM
Is it safe to open a DVD burner (unplugged of course) and look inside to clean it or whatever? I am guessing yes and this is probably a stupid question but the laser radiation sticker (and the previous watching of K-19) made me paranoid lolol. :r This is an older used drive so there's no worries of warranty voiding. So can I?
Midknyte
09-28-2006, 02:47 PM
if the power isn't on, how would the laser do anything?
RockNRoll
09-28-2006, 02:47 PM
lol I told you, I'm paranoid of lasers.
RockNRoll
09-28-2006, 03:39 PM
Ok, I got this Lite-on SOHW 1633S from a salvaged dell optiplex and it's having trouble reading stuff. It seems to read audio CD's ok, but if you try a DVD, it takes a while, and freezes before it finally starts to play right. Same with a data CD. It will read the disc, and it knows what disc is in there, but it will stutter and hiccup quite often while trying to explore/read/install from it. I tried cleaning it, so what's up here? Anything else that could cause this besides a dirty laser? Or is this thing just a lost hope.

{edit} I also tried a firmware upgrade.
Midknyte
09-28-2006, 03:58 PM
it might just be the laser going bad. I've seen something similar happen before. You can have a drive that only reads CDs and not DVDs or vice versa.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/dvd3.htm

DVD burners are so cheap nowadays anyway. I got my Benq 16x for under $50.
RockNRoll
09-28-2006, 04:11 PM
Yeah, my B-day is in one week too, and these Lite-On drives go for about 32 bucks on newegg plus shipping so hey I'll just hint around lol.:D But I just wanted to make sure there was nothing that I could do to fix it first since it SEEMS like it works sometimes. It will read everything, so if you go to My Computer and look at the DVD drive it says what disk is in, but the problems start when you explore or run what's on the CD/DVD. Another strange thing is it seems to have the most trouble when the drive spins up to max.

Well thanks, cool link BTW. Guess not everything salvaged can work. Granted, I did pick it up off someone's curb lol. The CPU from the optiplex works though and it's decent. A PIII 933.