How Long Does it Last?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drstawl
  • Start date Start date

Average Life of CDRW drives you've used

  • one week

    Votes: 1 2.9%

  • 3 months

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 9 months

    Votes: 2 5.7%

  • 18 months

    Votes: 6 17.1%

  • 36 months

    Votes: 4 11.4%

  • > 3 years and still kicking!

    Votes: 22 62.9%
  • Total voters
    35
drstawl

drstawl

Banned
How long do CDRW drives last for you before they turn into coaster generators?

I've been through a Philips, 2 Yamahas, an LG and now a Norcent.

averaging about a year each..... :(

At least they are getting cheaper.
 
they last me about a year.....but i buy extremely cheap ones.....$50 for my last one......
 
Yo Dr. Draw: [Where you been hiding?]

I'm using the burner on the 2816 and have been using it for over a year. But, I may not burn as much as you or others. I'm hoping the unit built into the Yam will last a few years. Or, until I buy another unit.

Let's turn on the warm weather. It's time!

Green Hornet :D :cool: :D
 
I've only wasted one CDRW drive because I try not to use them unless absolutely necessary. Regular CDROM drives though...they rarely last me a year...pieces of shit...I've got piles of bad drives here from a whole lot of manufacturers.

Slackmaster 2000
 
In my netputer I've had a couple burners but my audioputer has had the same cdrw for the last 5 years...that's three computers! It's a 4X but I'll never let it go...it never makes any coasters!

It's a Creative BTW.
 
I'm still running the first one I ever bought. An HP 7800. I've burned well over a thousand CDs with it and it shows no signs of going tits up.
 
I guess it's like most new technology. They have to make the first ones great to get the word out so folks will dish out the cash but once it has caught on they make the disposable version to keep their cash flowing.

When fuel cell cars come out I'm getting the first one.
 
My HP burner is over 3 years old. The only reason I don't use it is top speed is 4X. Burned a lot of discs on that thing. I now have a cheap Lite On burner. 40x and so far (about 6 months) works great. No coasters so far.
 
My has been running daily (both as CD player and burner) for over 5 years now...but I paid about $1000 for it, so it should.
 
jake-owa said:
I guess it's like most new technology. They have to make the first ones great to get the word out so folks will dish out the cash but once it has caught on they make the disposable version to keep their cash flowing.

When fuel cell cars come out I'm getting the first one.
Click to expand...


Not sure I agree with that one. They make the "disposable" ones so they can bring the price down. If you wanted to pay $300 today for a 4X burner, you could probably find an incredibly well-made, reliable one.
 
Though I don't use my Writeable drive for music I find it is the least reliable part of my PC setup. It really is hit or miss whether it works and it kills CDs like theres no tomorrow. And it's supposed to be a very good one.
 
jrosenstein said:
Not sure I agree with that one. They make the "disposable" ones so they can bring the price down. If you wanted to pay $300 today for a 4X burner, you could probably find an incredibly well-made, reliable one.
Click to expand...
I paid $145 for mine and it works better than my newfangled 24X. This is a common thing, my digital camera was one of the first ones on the market and it still kicks ass whereas I've seen two friend's new cameras die and get all screwey after a few months. I really think that quality control takes a dive after a product has been proven enough to create demand and decrease the price of production. I have a CD rom drive from the early 90s that has outlasted five new ones.

Don't get me started on printers. :rolleyes:
 
I also have an HP burner that's over 3 years old now. It's just an 8x, but it works great all the time.

I recently bought a Philips 24x burner to replace it, but it stopped working after just over a month, and I sent it back to them and havent gotten a replacement yet. But I'd bet a fwe dollars that my HP burner will outlast the replacement.

I'm seeing a trend in this thread that the HP's are dependable.

H2H
 
i have a 12X Plexwriter that's been going strong for a couple years now. I can't remember the last time I got a coaster out of it.
 
I don't think it's shelf life is set in time, but rather by the number of CD's it burnt. just my 2 cents.
 
hmmm...my Yamaha SCSI burner is well over a year old with absolutley no problems.

Actually, I've got a 7 year old PC that still has the original CD-ROM in it.

The only CD drive I've had go out on me is the one in this laptop. Although it still works if you give it the right love.

Seems weird to me, I've worked in tech support/network admin since 96 and haven't seen many bad CD readers or writers. And the 3 or 4 readersI have replaced were straight up defective from the manufacturer and replaced under warranty, with no problems afterwards.



Hard drives on the other hand...
 
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1st one: Mitsumi 2x, should be 5 years old now, still working in my mom's comp.
2nd one: Creative 4x : sits nicely in my office comp
3rd one: Plextor 48x: just have it a half year now, and works perfect.

Never had any technical problems with it (not to count the frisbee's I wrote because I *had* to play Freecell while burning with the 2x, didn't have any burnproof back then).


Happy writer here ! :cool:


Herwig
 
I haven't had any roms crap out on me yet. Although whenever I have upgraded my computer I have been sure to trade old parts in for new ones :D .

How long is a CDRW supposed to last anyways? Surely they aren't meant to burn forever. How many disc's can a person realistically expect to burn out of one of these?
 
drstawl said:
How long do CDRW drives last for you before they turn into coaster generators?

I've been through a Philips, 2 Yamahas, an LG and now a Norcent.

averaging about a year each..... :(

At least they are getting cheaper.
Click to expand...

Buy a Plexwriter.
 
I have an Adaptec CDRW for about 14 months, when I got my computer, and I've burned 130 - 140 cds on it.

I just got a 50 pack of Verbatims, and have burned nothing but coasters with those disks, unless I go down to 4x.

Actually not coasters, you can listen to the first 8 tracks or so, and then each track gets progressivly worse up to the last track, with dropouts, and distortion. When I try to import a track from one of the CD's into Wavelabs I got the blue screen of death!

When I use Taiyo Yudens I have no problems, up to 16x!

I know some people swear by certain brands, and others hate the same brands! Some say it depends more on the burner if you have problems.

Any other Adaptec users have problems with Verbatims?

Also perhaps burner life is related to how often you use
Re-Writables? They require hotter Temperatures from the laser I think? Just a theory.
 
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