Drives keep on dying

[Ziemas]

I know I'm grasping at straws here, but I'm about to go mad. I've had three new drives die in the last three months. One was a Samsung DVD (sorry do not remember the model number), one a Pioneer DVD-ROM 105sz, and the third a Ricoh MP7125A burner. They all die the same slow death, first having problems reading discs, and then not reconizing discs at all. I tried cleaning them all to no avail. Any ideas what might be causing this? My system is as follows: Chaintech 7KJD mainboard, Athlon 1.4ghz, 512MB Hyundai DDR RAM, 40GB IBM DeskStar HD. Thanks.

[TRILIGHT]

Well, I've never heard of a "Chaintech" system board so I can't say how reliable or unreliable their IDE bus is. That is the first thing I would suspect. Incidentally, have you ever tried these drives in other systems to see if they work any differently? Tried different IDE cables? It's all a process of elimination.

Another thing you need to consider is your power source and power supply. If you have dirty power or your power supply is overworked, you could be getting voltage drops on the power connector connected to the CDROM drive. This could cause the disc to spin at the wrong speed or even worse, underpower the laser which will cause read errors and, ultimately, will damage the drive permanently.

[Ziemas]

I've tried all the drives in my other computer, and none work. I have a decent 300 watt power supply with a UPS. Funny thing is that an old Philips 4401/71 burner that I canablized out of a Compaq has been working fine in and out of different boxes, including said drive killer, for three years. Is there any way to test the ide channels?
Thanks.

[TRILIGHT]

Well, if that's the case, the best I can tell you is that you are very unlucky to keep buying faulty drives.

[avih]

actually, it's quite interesting. i have a chaintech too (7aja2), and i ALSO had this 'dieing drives' problem. i've lost an old cd-rom x48 (btc) wd6.4G and maxtor20G in ONE YEAR. i got the maxtor replaced on warranty, but the others just got lost.

the only thing i can say to u, is.. KEEP YOUR BACKUPS UPDATED. i lost too much stuff with the maxtor dieing...

cheers
avi

[kilg0r3]

another question you might try to answer yourself is how hot the drives get. i recently opened my case after smartripper had some problems with a dvd, and, i was quite shocked as i realized how hot my dvd drive had become.

[fisix]

its probably heat or a problem with the onboard ide controller thats causing damamge. or, you consistently drop your drives before you install them. heh. might be worth getting a new main board.

-fisix

[theReal]

You say you have a decent 300W PSU - well, I also thought my old 350W Enermax was a decent PSU until it rendered my new system useless with its 5V instability. I'd consider buying a new PSU in your case, plus I'd check the temperatures.

But then, I also think the newer the HD the faster it breaks. One of my WD 60GB drives had a (recoverable) read-error recently and makes strange noises sometimes. It's only one and a half years old and has never been running too hot...

[omol]

Originally posted by Ziemas
I know I'm grasping at straws here, but I'm about to go mad. I've had three new drives die in the last three months. One was a Samsung DVD (sorry do not remember the model number), one a Pioneer DVD-ROM 105sz, and the third a Ricoh MP7125A burner. They all die the same slow death, first having problems reading discs, and then not reconizing discs at all. I tried cleaning them all to no avail. Any ideas what might be causing this? My system is as follows: Chaintech 7KJD mainboard, Athlon 1.4ghz, 512MB Hyundai DDR RAM, 40GB IBM DeskStar HD. Thanks.

Let me repeat this again. Never ever use your DVD drive to read CDR/RW media in long session. Reading CDR/RW is a stress to the DVD drive laser head. For Ricoh DVD/Burner combo, I don't believe it has seperate laser head, ie., for both DVD or CDR/RW, it uses the same DVD laser head.

regards,
omol

[Ziemas]

Thanks for all the replys. My case temp is 53 C while encoding. Is this too hot? I also have heard of problems with DVD-ROMs and CD-R media and do not use them in my DVD-ROM. Also the Ricoh was just a simple burner with no DVD. I'm not sure at this point what to replace, the MB or the PSU.

[kilg0r3]

yes. where do you think the from the components can go at that temp level? nowhere. it will stay there until the temp in the devices is high enough to create enough 'pressure' to be transportet. (well, from a point of view of physiscs, this is probably the most incorrect explanation)

my case temp is at 40-46, which i still deem too high. i aim for 10-15°C above room temp. an amd cpu may run at temps as high as 65°, the specified max temp by amd being something like 90° afaik, but, the drives and other hardware in your pc should not be forced to heat up that far but with 53° they will.

[theReal]

My case temp is 53 C while encoding.

I even panic when my CPU gets that hot!

[TRILIGHT]

53C is WAY too hot for a case temp. My processor is a P4 1.4Ghz overclocked to 1.7Ghz and even that only runs at 46C! One aspect that is all too often overlooked in cooling is the exhaust. People are all happy about blowing air into a case but don't think about where the air is flowing to. You need to have fans pulling air in from the front and blowing the air out the back via an exhaust fan.

Don't assume that the one fan on your power supply is good enough to do the job for the whole case either. That is only for the power supply heat. Make sure you have a good exhaust fan for proper airflow and good ventilation around the case.