Optical drive won't read discs

[lti]

When I insert a disc into my computer's optical drive, the drive will spin the disc up to full speed with the activity light on solid and the computer will freeze. I can then eject the disc and the computer will start responding again. I tried inserting a bootable CD and it took an extremely long time to boot from the disc.

The drive's transfer mode is set to UDMA2 in the BIOS (the highest setting I can select). Is the optical drive bad? This drive is an LG CRD-8483B.

I also have a second drive (a Lite-On LTN-301) that will not read a disc. It seems to think that no disc is inserted. The laser still works (it could be weak) and the drive will attempt to focus the laser. Inside, I found three bad caps (all filtering the incoming 5V) and one that is starting to fail (filtering the output of a voltage regulator).

These are very old drives, but the only other working drive I have is a Samsung SD-616 that will not eject the tray (it can close the tray after manually opening it) and will not read a disc with minor scratches (no other drives have trouble reading the same disc). It will also completely freeze the computer if it has trouble reading a disc.

[shadow]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

Generally I find that the lifetime of optical drives is relatively short. If you are using old optical drives (particularly if heavily used), there is a decent chance that it has simply bit the dust.

In my previous experience, some optical drives are better than others. I have had a few that were picky about things to start with and it just simply does not get any better with time and some others last longer. However all seemed to bite the dust eventually if they were used extensively. Add to that that modern optical drives tend to be throw away junk.

I guess I have been relatively lucky that I always had a decent supply of old optical drives for older systems. However I do have to buy new ones if I need SATA or a DVD Burner.

[lti]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

The LG drive is bad. The Samsung worked fine in that computer.

Is there anything I can do to repair an optical drive? Also, what is the best way to repair a scratched disc? I have a disc that is badly scratched, and the Samsung won't even try to read it. It just locks up the computer and won't let me eject the disc. The computer must be restarted, even if I manually eject the disc.

[bigbeark]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

How old are those optical drives? A lot of the older drives are unusable because they wont spin fast enough to load operating systems like Linux via ISO. Less than 16x spin is a waste of time.

I have bought used DVD burners, good ones (Plextor), from my local computer recycler for $10 each. You can buy new LG OEM drives for $20 or less.

A bad drive will scratch your disks.

Some used CD places have a machine that resurfaces disks, they charged me $5.

IMO not worth repairing old drives. I cleaned one successfully once only.

[lti]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

The slowest drive is the Lite-On. It is a 32X drive. The other two are 48X drives.

The Lite-On burned up, and I don't know why. The tray motor kept running as if the tray hadn't closed, and then a trace burned off the board. The burned trace is connected to +5V and ground at the same time, and I don't know where it was supposed to connect.

The Samsung used to scratch discs, but I cleaned it and it hasn't scratched another disc.

[lti]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

I repaired the trace on the Lite-On and it works now. There aren't any shorts now, and it is able to play a CD. Unfortunately, it can't clamp down on the disc properly. The tray ejects very quickly, but it closes very slowly. It might not be receiving enough power to close the tray completely, causing the disc to just flop around.

Edit: I forgot to solder one lead of a filter cap. It seemed to work fine without it. The cap filters the output of a voltage regulator.

[momaka]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

The drive's transfer mode is set to UDMA2 in the BIOS (the highest setting I can select).

It's better to set it to Automatic.

The other two things I can think of: bad IDE cable and/or bad configuration (master/slave/CS).
To eliminate bad (or at least intermittent) cable as the problem, try a different cable.
Also, how are you connecting the drive to the computer? Does it share the same cable as the hard drive? What setting do you have the CD drive on - Master, Slave, or Cable Select?

Is there anything I can do to repair an optical drive?

If you checked the above items and they're fine, clean lens with isopropyl and hope it fixes the problem.

I have the same drive as you - LG CRD-8483B. Don't know how good it is since I haven't tested it yet (even though I've had it for 2 years now). However, I also have a HL Data Storage (Hitachi-LG) GCR-8483B, which seems to have the same specs as the LG. When I insert a disk into it, it spins up and down up and down... and that's all. I got it used from CL so I'm not surprised. But it could also be that this particular model is just not very good.

One particular CD ROM drive I've been very happy with is my Teac 540E (40x CD-ROM). I got it back in 1999 with my PII computer, and it has never let me down since then, even after playing countless hours of games on it. The tray on this drive is driven by gears only (no belts), so I never had it jam on me.

I repaired the trace on the Lite-On and it works now. There aren't any shorts now, and it is able to play a CD. Unfortunately, it can't clamp down on the disc properly. The tray ejects very quickly, but it closes very slowly. It might not be receiving enough power to close the tray completely, causing the disc to just flop around.

Open it and verify - that is open the CD Drive, and check manually (i.e. without power) that the tray can open/close properly. If the tray motor has detachable cable, detach the cable and run power to the motor from an external source to see if the tray open and closes properly. If it doesn't, then it's a mechanical issue. If it does, then the controller board on the CD ROM is bad.

[lti]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

I don't remember seeing an Automatic setting. I don't have a different cable.

When I insert a disk into it, it spins up and down up and down... and that's all.

That is what the LG drive does now. It doesn't freeze the computer anymore. I might take it apart and see if there are any bad components.

Open it and verify - that is open the CD Drive, and check manually (i.e. without power) that the tray can close properly. If the tray motor has detachable cable, detach the cable and run power to the motor from an external source to see if the tray open and closes properly. If it doesn't, then it's a mechanical issue. If it does, then the controller board on the CD ROM is bad.

The tray can close properly unless the tray motor is connected to the board. The tray opens extremely quickly and closes slowly. It acts as if the motor is connected to 12V when it is opening and 3.3V when it is closing.

Replacing four caps and freeing up the plastic disc that clamps down on the spindle motor got the drive working. When I last tested it, it would not read a disc and the tray would not open properly. When I pressed the eject button, the drive would start flashing the activity LED. After flashing the LED for about half a minute, it would finally open the tray, but the tray would only open halfway and close again.

The caps I replaced were three 220uF 6.3V and one 100uF 10V. One of the 220uF caps was filtering the output of a voltage regulator and had 190uF of capacitance. The other two and the 100uF were filtering the +5V input. The 220uF caps were actually 160uF and the 100uF cap was actually 79uF. I currently have a temporary fix using a 1000uF 10V I.Q and a 100uF 10V Nichicon to replace the +5V filter caps and a 220uF 16V "Jakec" cap to filter the voltage regulator output. I may replace these caps with the correct replacements later. The case has plenty of room for larger caps.

[lti]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

What brand of drive would work best to replace the LG? It only needs to be a CD-ROM drive. The computer's power supply is rated for 2.1A on the +12V output.

The Lite-On died again. It looks like the laser doesn't work.

[Wizard]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

Still LG. My drives are still living for few years. Contrast to previous drives I had like philips chassis, Asus, LiteOn had half-life of a year or so.

How old are your LG that died? By the way don't even try to fix anything, Optical drives are so cheap not the effort to fix, except for parts to use in other projects.

Cheers, Wizard

[lti]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

The LG was made in February 2001. I bought it used about six years ago. Since then, it was used to install software and run games.

Now I need to find a store that still sells IDE drives, preferably with a gray or beige front panel. The case is beige, but the computer came from the factory with a gray drive.

[momaka]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

This thread inspired me to check some of the CD drives I've been accumulating over the years from random computers...
Besides the bad HL Data Storage GCR-8483B (which this time spun the disk, but very slowly, and still did not want to read), I found another bad drive - a Mitsumi CRMC-FX4831T 48x CD-ROM drive. It blinks the LED only once when the computer is powered on and then acts totally dead as if there's no power. Will investigate it when I have time.

What brand of drive would work best to replace the LG?

Teac CD-540E (if you can find one).
The roach-infested, dust-stuffed HP NetServer E800 I found a few months also has one of these.
I've never tested it until today. But guess what - it works like new, despite all of the crap I cleaned from it. I just finished a Windows install with it. What's even more amazing is that on one side, the tray rail is quite broken (previous owner probably accidentally hit the tray while it was open). The tray makes a clunking noise when it opens and closes and it stutters a bit. But because it's gear-driven, it doesn't jam.

Like Wizard, I also like LG drives. I've had good luck with two CED-8080B CD-RW drives. Also have 2 Hitachi GD-2500 4x DVD/24x CD drives. These have 2 lenses inside! They are very quiet too.

By the way don't even try to fix anything, Optical drives are so cheap not the effort to fix, except for parts to use in other projects.

There are many cheap electronics nowadays that are not worth repairing... but it's fun sometimes

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

Laser diodes wear out.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

I had a client of mine that had reading troubles on his dvd burner. I blew in the drive and it worked after that

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

Yeah, the laser can get dust on it too.
Especially if you have a negative pressure case which sucks dust through the cracks or through the tray opening when it's open.

Can also get out of alignment from a good drop [in a case or not].

The laser diodes do wear out though. - Limited lifespan.
Heat from burning will make it worse so it's a good idea to let the laser in a burner cool a few minutes between burns.
[Especially when burning DVDs which keeps the burn laser on longer.]

I've also fixed a few of the slim laptop types where the laser arm refused to go full travel. On those [the ones I worked on] the laser arm was guided by a thick wire 'rod' that came originally with some lithium grease on it. Over time the grease got pushed to one end and the 'slider' on the dry rod would hang at about 1/2 travel. I just used a mini flat-tip screw driver and picked up the grease built up at the end and re-lubed the wire. [Didn't want to use some grease that might eat the plastic slider.]
Anyway, it usually did the trick.

Should also note that CD lasers and DVD lasers are different lasers on the same arm so the fact that CD doesn't work doesn't mean DVD also doesn't work. [And vice versa.]

[lti]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

The Lite-On was in a case with almost no airflow.

I also have a Samsung SC-148 drive that is completely dead. The computer doesn't detect it, the tray won't open, and the light doesn't flash. I discovered that the controller IC gets extremely warm and the cache RAM chip has a burn mark on it. The filter cap for the headphone amp on the front panel had a melted sleeve and was slightly bulging, but (strangely) it was still good. The amp worked fine as well, but the IC they used (Anpec APA3541) gives poor sound quality (look at the distortion values at high frequencies).

My laptop has a bad optical drive, but it has so many other problems that it isn't worth replacing or buying an external drive for it. I think it uses a Toshiba combo drive. First, it wouldn't burn CDs (the burn process would complete with no errors, but the disc was unreadable). Next, Windows decided to change the transfer mode to "PIO Only" instead of "DMA if available." Finally, I was trying to install Windows in a virtual machine and the drive wouldn't read the disc. I had to steal the drive from my other laptop to get the virtual machine to read the disc. Windows thought the disc was unformatted.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Optical drive won't read discs

Next, Windows decided to change the transfer mode to "PIO Only" instead of "DMA if available."

IIRC, that's a sign of IDE corruption.