finally...my Pioneer A05 is dead.

[Red96TA]

After about 2k burns, my A05 is dead....two years old and $350....dead.

time for a 108 8)

how many burns do YOU get before your drive died?

[lordsmurf]

Yours died early. You sure it's not just dirty?

[Bodyslide]

My 105 died after around 4500 dvd burns and 1000 cd burns.

[canadateck]

I have 2 Dead and a A06 dead, maybe dirty? heard you can clean the lens not sure how to do it, I never got more the 2 k to burn..wow thats a lot. Maybe not?

[kiki]

The 105,s are very prone to dirty lenses.
Espesially if you are a smoker.
A little alcohol on a q-tip and a wipe of the lens
will make it perform like new.
Being a smoker, I have to clean mine every few months.

kiki

[canadateck]

The 105,s are very prone to dirty lenses.
Espesially if you are a smoker.
A little alcohol on a q-tip and a wipe of the lens
will make it perform like new.
Being a smoker, I have to clean mine every few months.

kiki

You have to take it apart to get to the lens? or from the tray?
Thanks

[redwudz]

I would take it apart to clean it. If it's dead, you have nothing to lose. Be careful pulling the tray out, it's easy to break the mechanism. I would use a paper clip and extend it that way. Denatured alcohol is the best for cleaning. Check the rails that the laser slides on and make sure they are free. If you Google around, there is probably a site that shows the details of cleaning.

[lordsmurf]

There is no need to push the tray around. Just take out drive, unscrew, pull off top metal cover, swipe twice with alcohol (isopropyl "rubbing" alcohol is fine). Swipe once to dry. Done.

[kiki]

Smurf nailed it.
Simple as that.
You'll be up and running in no time.

kiki

[Brutus1234]

I had problems with my A05 off an on as well.

I've also experienced what I assume are dirty lenes. I bought $10 CD cleaner at OfficeMax and it seems to do the trick. It's nothing more than a CD with some brush bristles glued on to it.
I guess when your spinning at 16X across the lens though, they can generate some good cleaning power. The burner seems to come back to life.

However I would recommend buying the 108 anyways. I did it and never regretted the purchase. The 105 gave me bad burns on some of the cheap media even at 2X burns. My laptop DVD ROM has a hell of a time reading some of the disks. Take the same cheap media and burn it at 8X with firmware patch on the 108 and it plays like a charm on any DVD player.

It's definitely worth the piece of mind and you can make up the cost of the 108 with 2 or 3 spindles of cheap media that will now work just fine.

[tacoman97x]

I had some CMC media layin around that wouldn't burn worth a damn in my 2 old DVD200i's, I stick it in my new pioneer 108 with nil's firmware. I'm impressed, no problems with the crappy media, even burning at 12x (4x rated CMC +R media). This burner is great.

[888888]

One day, when my Optorite burner "dies", I am going to take it apart and try cleaning the lens. I will take a lot of pictures and finally write a good guide on how to do clean your burner. Hopefully, afterwards, it will no longer be "dead". To be honest, I want to use my burner FOREVER! A nice guide on this is long overdue!!!

Until then, you will just have to take their word for it.

[lordsmurf]

One day, when my Optorite burner "dies", I am going to take it apart and try cleaning the lens. I will take a lot of pictures and finally write a good guide on how to do clean your burner. Hopefully, afterwards, it will no longer be "dead". To be honest, I want to use my burner FOREVER! A nice guide on this is long overdue!!!

Until then, you will just have to take their word for it.

I have to dismantle my LG drive this month, so I'll be doing just this. DVD-ROM, DVD burner, same difference.

[Red96TA]

Good idea guys...when I take mine apart, I'll take some pics and put together a guide.

[Coopervid]

I'm tempted to start a poll. I bet it will work again after the cleaning...

Actually I trashed a Pioneer DVD-104 before I knew about this 2 years ago. Pretty sure it was just a dirty laser lens as I was still smoking then.

Vid

[aanaravs]

2 years, eh? My Optorite died in about 6 months after 4000 burns