Optical burner life
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From: Charlie Gibbs on 27 May 2010 12:20 In article <htli7i$6kg$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, TJ(a)noneofyour.business (TJ) writes: > About a month ago, my LG DVD burner started making coasters, even > though it was still reading discs with no troubles. I investigated, > determined that it was probably the burner itself, andbought a new > one. That did indeed cure the problem. > > However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the > lifetime of burners, where a couple of the participants asserted > that if you use a burner (They were talking about CD burners) for > reading as well as burning, you will shorten its life considerably. > Consequently, as long as my old burner still reads OK, I'll be using > it for that and reserving my burner for burning. > > Makes sense to do that, anyway, just from a wear-and-tear standpoint. > But still I'm curious. The whole assertion sounds something like the > hardware equivalent of an urban legend to me, but then stranger things > are true. Does anybody know if it IS true? Or perhaps it was true of > older hardware but not of more modern stuff? My burner (also an LG, for what it's worth) started doing the same thing a while ago. Although I got a new one myself, I took the old one apart as much as I could and gave it a thorough cleaning: no cleaner kit, just a bit of work with a vacuum cleaner, a spray can, and a clean rag. I put it back together and popped it back into the machine alongside the new one. It's working just fine again. I've been using it for both reading and writing all along. -- /~\ cgibbs(a)kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs) \ / I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way. X Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. See RFC1855. / \ HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!
From: JTF on 27 May 2010 13:05 On May 27, 6:40 am, TJ <T...(a)noneofyour.business> wrote: > About a month ago, my LG DVD burner started making coasters, even though > it was still reading discs with no troubles. I investigated, determined > that it was probably the burner itself, andbought a new one. That did > indeed cure the problem. > > However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the lifetime > of burners, where a couple of the participants asserted that if you use > a burner (They were talking about CD burners) for reading as well as > burning, you will shorten its life considerably. Consequently, as long > as my old burner still reads OK, I'll be using it for that and reserving > my burner for burning. > > Makes sense to do that, anyway, just from a wear-and-tear standpoint. > But still I'm curious. The whole assertion sounds something like the > hardware equivalent of an urban legend to me, but then stranger things > are true. Does anybody know if it IS true? Or perhaps it was true of > older hardware but not of more modern stuff? > > TJ > -- > There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. The burner's laser is the heart of the beast. Most any of these devices are likely built from parts sources from where ever it was cheapest at the time. While other companies will not sacrifice quality for cost of manufacture..... Just because it has the LG logo on it, doesn't mean that it was manufactured for LG....It only means that the device was private labeled/branded. To answer your question: I've had CD/DVD players and writers last 5-6 years before they were replaced out of obsolescence. While other times I've had CD/DVD writers last only a few months. It depends largely on the environment and whether curious fingers have "looked" at the inside workings (kids) or if the unit got knocked or hit at some point....Other times, it is just cheap components which make up the device which lead to a short lifespan. It isn't uncommon but it IS unfortunate that stuff doesn't last anymore.
From: JTF on 27 May 2010 13:20 On May 27, 6:40 am, TJ <T...(a)noneofyour.business> wrote: > About a month ago, my LG DVD burner started making coasters, even though > it was still reading discs with no troubles. I investigated, determined > that it was probably the burner itself, andbought a new one. That did > indeed cure the problem. > > However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the lifetime > of burners, where a couple of the participants asserted that if you use > a burner (They were talking about CD burners) for reading as well as > burning, you will shorten its life considerably. Consequently, as long > as my old burner still reads OK, I'll be using it for that and reserving > my burner for burning. > > Makes sense to do that, anyway, just from a wear-and-tear standpoint. > But still I'm curious. The whole assertion sounds something like the > hardware equivalent of an urban legend to me, but then stranger things > are true. Does anybody know if it IS true? Or perhaps it was true of > older hardware but not of more modern stuff? > > TJ > -- > There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. The burner's laser is the heart of the beast. Most any of these devices are likely built from parts sources from where ever it was cheapest at the time. While other companies will not sacrifice quality for cost of manufacture..... Just because it has the LG logo on it, doesn't necessarily mean that it was manufactured BY LG....It COULD mean that the device was private labeled/branded FOR LG. To answer your question: I've had CD/DVD players and writers last 5-6 years before they were replaced out of obsolescence. While other times I've had CD/DVD writers last only a few months. It depends largely on the environment and whether curious fingers have "looked" at the inside workings (kids) or if the unit got knocked or hit at some point....Other times, it is just cheap components which make up the device which lead to a short lifespan. It isn't uncommon but it IS unfortunate that stuff doesn't last anymore.
From: Michael Black on 27 May 2010 23:57 On Thu, 27 May 2010, TJ wrote: > About a month ago, my LG DVD burner started making coasters, even though it > was still reading discs with no troubles. I investigated, determined that it > was probably the burner itself, andbought a new one. That did indeed cure the > problem. > > However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the lifetime of > burners, where a couple of the participants asserted that if you use a burner > (They were talking about CD burners) for reading as well as burning, you will > shorten its life considerably. Consequently, as long as my old burner still > reads OK, I'll be using it for that and reserving my burner for burning. > I don't know, but one issue may be based on the early days. Drives to read the disks arrived first, and dropped in price as things went along. Drives for writing to the CDROMs (and later DVDROMs) must have lagged behind the read only drives. Given that, if you were paying fifty dollars for a read only drive, and then $200 or more for one that writes (examples pulled out of thin air), it made sense to wear out the read only drive for routine reads. Most people would read more than write, and if you wear out the drive, it's cheaper to buy that $50 readonly drive than the $200 one that writes. Obviously, that changes with time, with very little differential between readonly drives and those that write. Note that it requires considerably more power to write to a blank CD or DVD than it does to read one. That may put more stress on the drive (or at least the laser), and thus frequent writing may wear it out faster than reading. Michael
From: Pascal Hambourg on 28 May 2010 15:51
Hello, TJ a �crit : > > However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the lifetime > of burners, where a couple of the participants asserted that if you use > a burner (They were talking about CD burners) for reading as well as > burning, you will shorten its life considerably. Consequently, as long > as my old burner still reads OK, I'll be using it for that and reserving > my burner for burning. > > Makes sense to do that, anyway, just from a wear-and-tear standpoint. > But still I'm curious. The whole assertion sounds something like the > hardware equivalent of an urban legend to me, but then stranger things > are true. Does anybody know if it IS true? Or perhaps it was true of > older hardware but not of more modern stuff? I don't know if it's true, but I heard of that too. The explaination was that the optical blocks of early CD burners was heavier and more fragile than those of CD readers. So it was advised to use a CD burner only for image copying or burning which involves sequential read/write operation thus smooth head moves, but not for normal read operation possibly involving random head moves. |