Dead burner?

Wynd · 05-13-2003, 09:04 PM

Hi all,

My burner is a Philips PCRW804 8x4x32 speed. I got it a few years ago (I think in 2000 or 2001) for Christmas. It's worked fine forever, until recently I tried to read some CDs. For every CD I try, when I put the CD in it will click a few times like it's trying to read the CD, then spit it out. mount gives me the message "no medium found". My other CD/DVD drives around here can read the same CDs fine. Is this something I can fix, or has this burner just reached its time?

fancypiper · 05-13-2003, 09:10 PM

Any smokers around? You could have a dirty lens.

Have you tried cleaning the laser lens? You can get a cd with brushes and a solvent to clean them.

Wynd · 05-14-2003, 05:48 PM

K, thanks, I'll try that. Are there any ways to clean it without having to buy something? Or is this something anyone can afford?

Wynd · 05-19-2003, 02:23 PM

K, well, I borrowed one of the CD cleaner things from a friend, and the drive won't even read that either. This happens under any OS or even when the machine is checking to see if it's a bootable CD in the drive. I'm stumped. Should I just replace it?

fancypiper · 05-19-2003, 02:38 PM

It sounds like the laser has weakened then. My son had a Phillips drive that acted like that and he had to replace it. It wouldn't read the cleaning disk either.

whansard · 05-19-2003, 02:58 PM

as a last resort, you can open up the drive and make
sure there's no dust on the laser. maybe just wipe it
with a really clean cloth. i've probably done that to 10
drives that weren't working and it didn't work on any.
that lens might even be plastic, so i wouldn't be suprised
if solvents would dissolve it.

get a new drive for cheaps.

fancypiper · 05-19-2003, 03:18 PM

I have been thinking about getting this one.

whansard · 05-19-2003, 03:28 PM

i saw that drive too.
i've ordered a million things from there. they haven't
ripped me off once.

Wynd · 05-19-2003, 05:20 PM

One question about that drive, it says "CD-RW Drive only". Does that mean I can only burn CD-RWs with it or is it referring to the contents of the package (i.e., no cables or anything)?

whansard · 05-19-2003, 05:24 PM

it means no software or cables.

fancypiper · 05-19-2003, 05:45 PM

As was popular on Dragnet, "Just the drive, mam".

If you want Windows burning software (Linux has cdrecord freely available) and need the ide and audio cables, you gotta pay a little more.

whansard · 05-19-2003, 06:46 PM

i've used cdrecord under windows too. there's a cygwin
package for that. it works great.

fancypiper · 05-19-2003, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by whansard
i've used cdrecord under windows too. there's a cygwin
package for that. it works great.

I says to myself "Self, you need to download cygwin" for that soothing feeling you need when you have to use Windows.

whansard · 05-19-2003, 07:26 PM

i think this is all you need for it. it has a cygwin.dll in it.
i can't remember for sure if this is what i downloaded
or not, but it's about the right size.
i've seen one frontend for it, but i haven't used it.

ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/al...-win32-bin.zip