Is it really necessary to improve the life of your drive?

[nickelzy]

My DVD Rom drive is all of a sudden causing me twice as long to read discs. What once took 20 minutes is now taking 40 minutes. I checked the properties, and it shows that DMA is still enabled. Therefore I don't know what could be causing this.

A guy at Office Depot yesterday suggested that I use one of those Lens Cleaner discs - that you acutally put in your drive and it cleans the lens of your drive. It costs 10 bucks and is good for about 100 cleanings. He was telling me that it might not solve my problem, but it's important to do anyway to improve the life of your drive.

Is this really necessary? I don't feel like hocking 10 bucks on something that really isn't needed - but if it helps, then I will. I'm just weary when it comes to things like this. I've never cleaned the insides of any of my electronic items, and they all seem to last me a long time. At any rate, what do you all think?

[loughary]

I would guess that could possible help if the laser is dirty then it might be struggling to read the DVD. I have never had that problem with a DVD Rom drive, but I have had that problem with a PS2 and when I took the top off and cleaned the laser with a Qtip and alcohol then it solved the reading problems.

[stillmars321]

try defrag on the hard drive you are ripping to. It may only allow a certain amount of data at a time because it is too framented.

[lordsmurf]

The "lens cleaner" things are crap. Open it and use q-tip/alcohol (IPA).

It may jsut be the disc.

My ROM reads diff discs at diff speeds.

[aggies11]

With regards to the DMA issue.

Sometimes drives will show DMA enabled, even if it's not.

A way to make sure everything is o.k. is to go into device manager, "uninstall" the drive, then "uninstall" your ide channels and controller.

Then the next time you start windows, it will autodetect them an "reinstall" them, "Refreshing" the DMA settings if you will.

(Only do the above if it's something you are comfortable with. As with any of these types of changes, there is the smalll chance of it fubar'ing up your system if something goes wrong. But they also give that disclaimer for registry editing. So proceed at your own risk ).

That being said, it very well could be a dirty lense also.

Hope that helps

Aggies

[nickelzy]

Aggies - I'll give that a try (thanks)

by the way, my burner has no problem (like my DVD rom is having) so it's definitely not the disc or a fragmentation problem. I just don't buy the lens thing - it seems that this would have caused gradual problems rather than one day things now taking twice as long to read. At any rate, I'll give Aggies' suggestion a try.

[smearbrick1]

Does anybody here think it's strange that someone mentioned to run a defrag on a dvd-rom drive? Call me crazy but that's just smoke and mirrors... I'm quite certain that a dvd-rom drive cannot be fragmented.


Back to question:

Everytime I have this issue, it's with media. Usually a scratch or fingerprint... Maybe a scratch that you can't see...

[MrShavez]

Actually, stillmars321 suggested to defrag the HARD DISC, not the DVD-ROM 8)

DVD-Roms can´t be defragged, there is no data to defrag on a dvd-rom...

[JimJohnD]

I just don't buy the lens thing - it seems that this would have caused gradual problems rather than one day things now taking twice as long to read.

If you were only talking about a smoky film then you may be right but dust particles to full sized "dust bunnies" might be running around in there. Have you taken the side of the case off of the computer to see how much dust gathers in those things? Try using a small vac around the open drive tray to pull out any dust. The fans are set up to pull air through any opening in the case and out the power supply. This makes the cd/dvd drive trays and floppy drives prime targets for dust buildup.

[weasel]

had the same problem recently.
Said "use DMA if enabled", but was actaully in PIO mode.
Tried Aggies suggestion above which worked.

[8trackkid]

Just a wild guess, but...

Is it a newer drive? Could it be that your drive has had its rip speed locked, like some drives will do after a set number of rips? If nothing else works, maybe this is the problem. If so, flash that badboy with new firmware and off you go.

Hope this helps...

[jimmalenko]

I see three possibilities:

1. Uninstall/reinstall IDE controllers;
Hopefully does the trick.

2. Spend the $10 to get the lens cleaner.
Could work.

3. Spend $50 on a new DVD-ROM.
Will definitely work.

The choice is yours. $10 seems pretty insignificant considering your probably paid around $1000 for your PC.

[nickelzy]

Ok, I tried doing the first suggestion and uninstalled and reinstalled the IDE controllers and the dvd rom drive. Unfortunately, that didn't work.

I opted not to try the disc cleaner (if it worked, then yeah, it would be 10 bucks well spent - but my gut tells me it's going to be an extra expense and I'll still need to get another replacement drive anyway). So...

I bought a new dvd rom drive tonight and installed it. Before doing so, I uninstalled the old one and uninstalled the primary IDE controllers. After rebooting, I tried copying a disc again, and problem solved. Instead of taking 34 minutes to copy a full DVD, it's taking the normal 17 minutes or so.

BUT ONE QUESTION - when I look in the device manager, the old drive is still listed. The new drive is not listed anywhere. I don't understand this because before taking the drive out, I uninstalled the drive and primary IDE controller in device manager and then turned off my computer and installed the new drive. Why doesn't the new drive name come up in device manager instead of the old one which isn't there anymore? The good news is that the drive works fine, but I'd like to get things right in device manager. Any help would be appreciated.

[jimmalenko]

Did you buy the same brand DVD-ROM ?

[aggies11]

Just "uninstall" (the option in device manager) the drive.

It should then autodetect it normally and label it correctly.

If you have given up on the drive, (old one) really do try going at it with a q-tib and some rubbing alcohol. It aint' expensive, won't hurt, and it might very well work

Aggies

[nickelzy]

Jimmalenko - no it's different. I don't even know what my old drive is (it came with my eMachines computer. The only thing it really has listed on the drive itself is the model: XJ-HD166S). My new dvd rom drive is a LiteOn.

[Roderz]

Have you tyied putting the old 1 back in - be intresting to see if its fixed itself

[nickelzy]

Aggies -

I tried that immediately after I noticed the problem. I just tried it again - it STILL shows the old drive. I don't get it!! What's going on here?

Roderz -

Actually, I was thinking the same thing. What the hell, I'm already behind on my work, I guess I can spend some more time on this damn thing. I'll let you know what happens after I put the old one back in.

[shmorq]

Jimmalenko - no it's different. I don't even know what my old drive is (it came with my eMachines computer. The only thing it really has listed on the drive itself is the model: XJ-HD166S). My new dvd rom drive is a LiteOn.

The XJ-HD166S is a very common model made by Lite-On. You could very well have gotten the same drive.

[nickelzy]

Oh, I didn't know that.

Well, I tried putting my old drive back in and at first it looked like its old self, but then it would go from 17 minutes left of copying to 171 minutes and back and forth. Something screwy is going on.

Well, back to the new drive again...

[jbelder]

Jimmalenko - no it's different. I don't even know what my old drive is (it came with my eMachines computer. The only thing it really has listed on the drive itself is the model: XJ-HD166S). My new dvd rom drive is a LiteOn.

The XJ HD-166S is a Lite-on. Are you sure its not the same kind of drive, whats the new one?