[TriLUG] cdrom: does pushing the tray in damage them?

[David McDowell]

To get your drive closed, power down the machine, unplug power to the
drive and you should be able to gently push it all the way closed.
Maybe by being unplugged it may also reset it's dumb bit which keeps
re-opening.  Worth a shot I suppose.  It's just the same as when the
machine is powered off and you use a straightened paperclip to pop
open the drawer, then gently pull it open to retrieve a CD you forget.
 The gentle push/pull method has been fine to every drive I've ever
encountered.

FWIW, I have had a Sony DVD R/RW drive for over 2 years now and it's
fine.  I have no negativity towards Sony.  I still believe their
non-consumer grade products are manufactured very well.  Too bad I
like my Samsung 50" DLP HDTV better than anything Sony had out at the
time that I could afford!!  :)  Samsung++

laters,
David



On 10/9/06, Joseph Mack NA3T <jmack at wm7d.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 9 Oct 2006, mike shlitz wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I was told and/or read somewhere long ago (around the
> > time cdroms came out), that one should ALWAYS use the
> > button to effect closing and NEVER push the tray to
> > close  it.
>
> did a quick survey of the conventional wisdom with google
> and "cdrom drive damage push in tray"
>
> gentle push not OK:
>
> http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Tips_on_Maintaining_CD-ROM-75805-1.html
>
> http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:HiVphJI8K5wJ:www.tascamcontractor.com/ftp_resources/files/manual/TEAC_CD-W512S_manual.pdf+cdrom+drive+damage+push+in+tray&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=39&client=firefox-a
>
> http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spr00/cs111/labs/sound/2.html
>
>
> gentle push is normal method of closing tray:
>
> http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/archive/t-4191.html
>
> http://www.informat.io/?title=cd-rom
>
>
> forum where some think it OK and some don't:
>
> http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/archive/index.php/t-55805.html
>
> There's several stories of trays being pushed too hard,
> presumably jumping a cog and the drive going clickety-click
> thereafter. This is hardly a surprise. Neither of my two
> drives are making any unusual noises.
>
> So google hasn't resolved the matter either.
>
> I'd hate to spend the rest of my life gingerly pressing
> buttons because two cdroms in a row died the same way, only
> to find out on my death bed that the IETF RFC for cdroms
> requires them to accept a gentle push, and that I just had
> two crappy drives in a row. (I don't use cdroms much and so
> I don't spend any money on them - most of my cdroms have
> come from recycled machines). This is the way weird
> religions get started. "Son, pusheth in thine tray with
> thine button, lest thou fall into bedevilment and
> confusion".
>
> cdroms clearly allow you to give a gentle push to start the
> retraction. Otherwise you'd push and nothing would happen -
> the motor wouldn't start till you hit the button. Presumably
> if it's possible to do, then you should be able to do it if
> you want.
>
> I guess I could assume I've had a run of crappy cdroms. I
> could go hog wild and pay $29.99 at Intrex for the deluxe
> model and see how long it takes to die. This is a drop in
> the bucket compared to what I spend on hard disks.
>
> Joe
>
>
> --
> Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
> jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
> generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
> Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!
> --
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