Burner having trouble reading

[johnsees]

Hello folks.
I've got a 5-year-old Lite-on SOHW-1653S that seems to be having trouble reading disks. With either commercial disks or ones that I burned on another cd/dvd burner, it has to retry over and over again before finally reading it. With commercially-made ones, it doesn't matter whether it's a music CD or a software disk, except that in the case of a software disk, I've noticed that the software loads a lot slower with this drive than with the other drive on the same computer. Is there anything that can be done about it, or is it a doorstop?

Thanks

[[_chef_]]

Make sure its properly connected and running in UDMA4 mode.
If thats the case, then the lens may be needs a proper cleaning.

[redwudz]

You could try cleaning the laser lens, but with that old of burner, other parts may be worn. A foam tip Q-tip lightly saturated with 99% isopropyl alcohol should work. Regular cotton Q-tips may leave fibers. You may have to remove the cover from the drive to access the laser lens. They look like this:

[johnsees]

Well, duh! I didn't even think of that!
Thanks a lot, guys.