The lifespan of a computer CD burner

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Sean Keane, May 28, 2006.

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  1. Sean Keane

    Sean Keane Pre-Mono record collector In Memoriam Thread Starter

    There's not much stored on this computer except for a lot of songs uploaded on the hard-drive. No internet downloads, although I don't know if that makes any difference as far as keeping the thing running smoothly. I've made about 35 CD compilations on the Windows Media Player, and all of them play perfect. I'm impressed, but the uptight guy in me is waiting for the other shoe to drop. My question is- If treated gingerly, should this four month old computer continue to make perfect CDs for a long time? Is there something I should know and do to keep it in top shape? It's not mine and I don't want to mess it up. It's a Dell Dimension 1100, if that has anything to do with it. Thanks.
     
  2. Manic Mechanic

    Manic Mechanic Active Member

    Location:
    Twin Cities
    I installed a Memorex double layer burner a year ago, and have burned at least 150 discs on it. Its still going strong. I dont see any need to be paranoid about it.
     
  3. Sean Keane

    Sean Keane Pre-Mono record collector In Memoriam Thread Starter

    Thanks! I just thought that since it was performing such a delicate application it would be prone to developing technical difficulties.
     
  4. sgb

    sgb Senior Member

    Location:
    Baton Rouge
    It may be why Yamaha decided to get out of the burner business, but I've had three of theirs go south in short order.
     
  5. Sean Keane

    Sean Keane Pre-Mono record collector In Memoriam Thread Starter

    How did the problem manifest itself? Three's a lot. Were they CD burners built into the computer?
     
  6. sgb

    sgb Senior Member

    Location:
    Baton Rouge
    Two were internal, one was external. All were SCSI models. The software alerted me to the fact that the drives were faulty. On two of the drives this was done by an alert midway through the burning of a music CD telling me that the computer was unable to complete the burn. My only option was to click the "abort" button and eject the new drink coaster. After several attempts at burning more CDRs, I tried restarting, then found out that the drive couldn't even be found on the computer. This is very unusual on Macs. Both of these were installed inside the computer. The external drive actually lasted a little more than a year. I reasoned (based on some LSU tech guys' recommendations) that an external drive probably would last longer since it would be turned on only when needed.
     
  7. Snow Bear

    Snow Bear New Member

    Location:
    Chicago, Illinois
    I just replaced my old Plextor burner because the drawer began to stick. I have had it for years and have burned thousands of CD-Rs with it. So I really would not worry to much.

    For music I prefer an external CD burner. There is a lot of vibration in a computer case especially from the fans. I think the less vibration while burning the better. I like Plextor drives and replaced my old drive with a Plextor Premium. I use EAC to both rip and burn CD-Rs. With EAC in copy and test mode you know there are no ripping errors. If you burn using the cue file you get a perfect copy of the original CD.
     
  8. Presto1D

    Presto1D New Member

    Location:
    Western Canada
    CD Burner lifespans

    I have a Yamaha CDE102 external SCSI burner connected to a Mac. The hardware date is December 1995, and I bought it as a clearance model in November 1996... and it's still going! :D

    Some possible reasons for this: (1) I don't use it as often as some people might, over the past nine and a half years it's done about 700 CDs in total, (2) it's external so it's only powered up when needed, (3) I don't use it as a CD reader unless a disc won't play on my internal drive or I need to read two discs at once, good thing because at 4x speed it's a snail, and (4) I feed it only Taiyo Yuden blanks.

    The only downside besides the speed is that it has problems burning very very long discs. Burning TAO on discs over 76 minutes or so, it won't complete the lead-out properly; the resulting discs always seem to work alright, but knowing this will happen I try to have a 3 or 4 meg null file to pad out the end of these discs just in case. And it won't go over 78:29:74 on DAO, no way no how. I can live with those limitations, though, until the rest of the computer dies and I can afford to get hardware built in this century.
     
  9. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    Sean, with the price of a CD burner so reasonable..I wouldn't worry about it...they are almost disposable!
     
  10. Sean Keane

    Sean Keane Pre-Mono record collector In Memoriam Thread Starter

    Michael, if it ever got to the point where the CD recorder didn't work, would a new one hooked up to the computer still work easily in accord with Windows Media Player? In other words, if I made a 'burn list' with WMP and clicked 'start burn', would it be the same as if it were the burner that's built into the computer? Would it follow the Windows instructions regarding extraction file size and burning speed? Thanks.
     
  11. factor

    factor Active Member

    Location:
    Seattle, WA
    You could always replace it with another internal. That's much cheaper and it's extremely easy. Lots of people seem to have convinced themselves that seeing the inside of a computer is cause to panic and go into confused old grandmother mode, but replacing a drive is about as simple as unscrew 2 screws, unplug 2 cables, plug in 2 cables, screw in 2 screws. The same goes for hard drive replacements and RAM expansions as well. Paying a company some ridiculous sum of money to do installations of that nature is like making a charitable donation to the company, because it takes them about 3 minutes.
     
  12. Jim Foy

    Jim Foy Forum Resident

    I'd like to add:

    I'm the type who panic and go into confused old grandmother mode when I see the inside of a computer.
    Still, I have replaced drives several times so - believe me - when I can figure it out EVERYBODY can !

    By the way, SGB wrote about after having restarted the drive couldn't be found on the computer.
    My system has begun to act up in the same manner: When I start up the drive cannot be found but if I then cut the power and restart then the drive is found.
    Does anybody know what to do about that ?
     
  13. johmbolaya

    johmbolaya Active Member

    Location:
    Pacific Northwest
    The computer will last for awhile. Burners unfortunately come and go, some work better than others.

    I don't remember the model, but I had bought a burner at Office Max because it was cheaper than most. Bad sign. It was a DVD burner, I wanted to make the step up from the old CD burners. It worked great for a few hours.

    Yes, I said hours.

    It burned a number of my old files onto DVD-R, and then it stopped doing that. It continued to burn CD-R's (both music and data), but it did not and would not acknowledge any of the DVD-R's I had. I went back the next day and asked for a refund. The lady there told me, under a hushed tone, that a lot of people were returning that brand. As I was leaving, a guy came in to buy a DVD burner and was about to go to the cashier.

    A good burner will do its job, and I've had mine for over a year without a problem.
     
  14. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I have burned at least a thousand CD-Rs on my Yamaha F1, and it's still running strong.

    I've burned almost that many on my cheapo Lite-On and, it, too, is still burning strong.
     
  15. apileocole

    apileocole Lush Life Gort

    You should look into this. Viruses and the like can cause these problems. If you haven't done so, I suggest you run a thorough scan for viruses, for instance with AVG or AntiVir antivirus program, and then run a thorough scan for ad/spyware, for instance with Lavasoft's AdAware and/or Spybot Search & Destroy. Once such causes are ruled out, there are other things to look into. I can't get too specific, but one thing you can try is to uninstall the drives in Device Manager, then reboot; the devices should automatically reinstall when you restart. These are only generic suggestions, you may need to get more specific help.
    I ain't Michael :angel: but the answer to your question is yes, Sean. It would work the same way to Windoze Media Player and any other program. :)
     
  16. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    CD burners (and CD-ROM drives, for that matter) use fairly standard instruction sets. From time to time you might run into an issue, but for the most part, there's no need to worry.

    On my Mac I'm using software that is several years old (and obviously hasn't been updated), but my brand new Lite-On CD/DVD burner works perfectly.
     
  17. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Luke is right. Software is written to accommodate many types of burners and brands. To see if your burner is on a list, there may be a readme file in the software's folder, usually located in the Program File directory, usually on the C or boot drive in Windows. And, even if it isn't , as Luke said, the instructions are fairly basic. All you need is a certain driver that comes standard with Windows. That's plug-and play.

    AS to your question of burner longevity, there have been some bad burners out there on the market, some OEM drives, but, for the most part, one should last problem-free for many years of normal, even heavy use. And, even if one poops out, they are cheap and easy to replace.

    Sometimes, installing extra programs may cause a driver conflict. I have CD Architect. Whenever I used it before I updated CD creator I would have to reboot to use my burners with other programs. , Obvoiusly, a driver was changed somewhere.
     
  18. speidi1

    speidi1 New Member

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ, USA
    I have an external USB Pacific Digital (Toshiba) DVD burner (two years); an internal Lite-On DVD burner (one year); and an internal CD burner that came with my Dell (three years). I have burned thousands of CDs/DVDs (and I mean thousands) and no breakdowns (knock wood of course). I use Taiyo Yuden DVDs and Verbatim CDRs for the most part.

    I also have a Harman Kardon CDR26 on which I have burned thousands of vinyl albums and cassette tapes. I have cassette tapes I recorded over thirty years ago that still sound like they did back then. I don't think they make quality cassettes like TDK/Maxell anymore. My friends don't believe some of my CDs came from cassette tape, they sound that good.

    I mostly use TDK digital audio blanks on the HK. It won't burn data CDRs. The play-only drawer is getting hinky. It probably needs to be lubed (don't we all).

    I am concerned about the longevity of the disks themselves. I haven't had any go bad on me, but there is talk...
     
  19. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!


    I don't worry so much about longevity anymore. Most are pretty good, but stay away from Comp USA blanks. Those are bad news. Because I use ink-jet printable blanks for the computer, I have to buy Verbatim, Memorex, or Maxell, because that's all I find in Tucson or Phoenix without having to order online. But, i've been lucky. Those brands are made by either Ritek, Prodisc, or CMC. But, my burners work with all of them.
     
  20. Pope V

    Pope V Lurker

    Location:
    Missouri
    Can't remember what brand it was, but if a box pops up and says something like: "Hey dude, if you do this, it might totally destroy your drive."

    Click "no".
     
  21. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Like Michael said, burners these days are dirt cheap, almost disposable. You can get a top-notch DVD+-R/W burner for under $60 that's probably better than the one in your computer, I wouldn't sweat it if it failed all of the sudden ;)
     
  22. stanley chicago

    stanley chicago Member

    Location:
    Naperville, IL
    I have the same issue with a Dell Dimension 8200 - I installed a second hard drive (250GB) for my music library and when I reboot it doesn't always find the drive. So I leave the computer on full time now. Oddly, if I do have to shut down and reboot, and I hold the "on" button in for about four seconds when I reboot, it usually recognizes both drives and everything works fine.

    A Compusa guy told me the Windows XP operating system should have automatically reconfigured to recognize the second new drive on the initial reboot and, failing that, it could be done manually, but I do not know the particulars.

    I do know I have over 5000 192Kbps MP3 tracks on a computer with USB 1.1 ports, which isn't exactly what I want . . . more toys down the road, I guess!
     
  23. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I've had some good luck with CMC (Kypermedia) DVD-R's, they are dirt cheap! I've had terrible luck with HP DVD-Rs...more coasters than not!...been picking up 100 pack DVD-R 8X for $12.00...Speed doesn't matter to me with DVD-R's...lately, I can't seem to find anything under 16X in most stores...
     
  24. idlerwheel

    idlerwheel New Member

    CD burning

    I've been using a high-end Plextor for the last five years. I bought three "new" computers, so I put new drives in two of them. Unfortunately, I have been upset with Plextor's stinginess regarding upgrades of their own software for new OSs; they won't provide me with Plextor burning software to replace my Windows 9x application so I can use XP. It's "get in line and pay list price."

    Their support people, who had been good, no longer knew that they made my drive model. As far as maintenance goes, they won't even tell me how to clean and lube the thing (dust is the enemy of precision machines and disk burning). Who needs this? If it's to be throw-away drives, I'll go elsewhere. So I did; it was Lite-On for the two new ones. They come with bundled Nero, as opposed to Plextor's Roxio (which I despise).

    Regarding disks: most of the name brands no longer make their own blanks, and they can shift suppliers a few times per year. I've had some lousy Sonys (made by Sony). TDK disks now say "India" on the package: look carefully; it's brown on red. I have Fuji disks made by 4 different mfrs; none of them Fuji. The last purchase was on the web: Taiyo Yuden -- I trust them.

    Richard
     
  25. I Am The Lolrus

    I Am The Lolrus New Member

    Location:
    LA, CA, US
    They last a long time. All of the cd writers Ive ever had still work perfectly (going back to a 2x HP from many many years ago). I've been using liteON drives for a while and they are GREAT for DAE (digital audio extraction), and dirt cheap. I believe I paid 30 bucks for my 52x burner 2 1/2 years ago. The drives are beasts.

    Edit- And it seems you guys are interested in software too. The software they include are usually crap, not worth it at all.

    For ripping, I rip losslessly to FLAC. I use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) ripping straight to flac. There is a particularly good one that is the standard used for um usenet.

    After ripping, I use foobar2000 for playback.

    When burning, I use Burnatonce. I hit master new audio cd, select the flac files, and boom it will do it all for me. All the way through these processes, the audio is left completely intact with no loss anywhere. Ill post a guide at some point for it all.
     
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