CD ROM drive repair?

  • Thread starter Thread starter NRS
  • Start date Start date
N

NRS

New member
I have a few aging DVD-Rom drives on some desktop PC's that are beginning to stick so the tray is not always ejecting when the button is pressed. I suspect the most likely reason for this is from worn or stretched drive belts which is probably easy to fix.

Anyone have much luck repairing them? If so, where would you get replacement belts assuming thats the problem?
 
I have a few aging DVD-Rom drives on some desktop PC's that are beginning to stick so the tray is not always ejecting when the button is pressed. I suspect the most likely reason for this is from worn or stretched drive belts which is probably easy to fix.

Anyone have much luck repairing them? If so, where would you get replacement belts assuming thats the problem?

Hey NRS,
this is a topic that is quite debateable, if it was worth it!!

I have had 50% success in repairing worn/older units....but with the price of them nowadays, I don't tend to bother as much!

If u have specified the problem as being belts, then you may use other belts from other broken player units, ...,many of these players are made in the same factory, so they share similar/same components!!!

Sometimes, an intermittent switch (contact) can be cleaned with a little CO cleaner..(just a little)....if you specify an eject switch fault.

Sometimes just by opening the unit up, cleaning it, and re-assembling it, can get them working!!!.

In the end, weigh up weather your player has given you good service, (2-3 years) and consider replacing the unit.

I can buy players for AUS $25 at the local swap meet.....new!!

Regards,
Spit.
 
You can get an excellent Lite-On 4.3Gb DVD burner from newegg.com that will also read and write CDs for $35.

CD burners are almost cheap enough to be given away in CrackerJack boxes.

Repair is just not worth it for less than $40.
 
I agree that they are generally cheap enough to replace, but with 4 desktops going and a couple others I'm repairing, maintaining them all does add up. I'm doing it just as much from a hobby standpoint too, just to know I can. Also hoping the experience will enable me to later salvage some of my more expensive drives that I paid good money for.

Swapping the belts from other drives is a great idea. I have plenty of old ones around I can try this with. Thanks
 
I agree with both sides above - disassembling those drives and trying to put them back together is going to be a major pain in the ass, and you may very well accidentally destroy the entire mechanism by simply popping out one little moving part.

On the other hand, I have a feeling regreasing moving parts might just solve your sticking problem. The drive belt seems less likely, since if its stretched, it wouldn't work, period. Or at least that seems to be the case in my mind... Ive seen computers do stranger things tho :)
 
yeah the life hours I wasted doing that kind of shit...:rolleyes:

and I'd like to say I learnt something, but usually it was just a fn waste of time.

spend the $25. imo
 
Well, since its more out of curiosity than economics really, I've got to try it at least once, then may very well end up forking over the cash next time. The compulsion to do so reminds me of a funny "REAL MAN" quiz I saw online once of which one of the questions went something like:

If you encountered a crashed UFO and a dying alien passed on to you a device of advanced alien technology, what would you do with it?

A). Turn it in to the govronment
B). Give it to NASA
C). Release it to the press
D). Take it apart

Of coarse the "real man" answer would have been:
D). Take it apart
 
If you encountered a crashed UFO and a dying alien passed on to you a device of advanced alien technology, what would you do with it?

I'd figure out how to make it control my TV first and foremost!:D
 
Back
Top