CDROMS Not Reading Certain CDs

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, May 24, 2005 at 11:41:01PM -0400, Duncan MacGregor wrote:
> I think Lennart is right, and the laser in the drive is deteriorating. My 
> first HP CD-R/W drive ($400), used in Windoze,  got progressively more cranky 
> about the disks it would read or recognize. At first everything worked, then 
> it didn't like coloured disks, then it didn't like CDRWs, and ultimately it 
> failed completely.
>  
> Throughout the warranty period, HP said it was a software problem, and sent me 
> to Adaptec (now Roxio), who sent out a stream of updates and patches that 
> never made a no difference.  (There was even much superstitious talk about 
> CDR colours on the net.)
> 
> Your problems are much more easily caused by progressive hardware failure, 
> then by software.
> 
> In the end, HP said it was a failure of the laser, and too bad I didn't figure 
> it in time. HP, LG, Samsung, and  NEC all make great drives that run like a 
> train under Linux. Drives do  die, though. Any computer store usually has a 
> pile of dead drives. 

Hmm, I prefer Plextor drives.  Since firmware updates seem rather
essential for recognizing newer DVD media types, being able to update
firmware from linux is worth a few more $s initially in my book.  That
and they are such great drives too.

I have only seen one plextor drive ever start to wear out, and I don't
want to imagine how many cds my dad played on his (having
play/track/stop buttons on the front was great when dos was around since
you could actually use the drive even if the program you were working in
had no idea about sound or cd drives.)

> New DVD-RW drives are about 70 bucks now. Don't bother with a CD-RW drive.
> (The DVD-RW  reads and writes CD as well as DVD media.)

A plextor will cost a bit more than $70, but if you find one with a mail
in rebate you can get the price down to closer to the $100 mark.

Lennart Sorensen
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