Prolonging the life of a cheap DVD drive

[John Doe]

If you are concerned about overheating, if you are good with your
hands, you can help prevent your new DVD drive from overheating.
First, figure out how to remove the tray cover door. Usually it is
probably held on with some little pieces of plastic that stick
out. After carefully removing the door cover, you can use a
utility knife to shave those pieces of plastic. That way, you can
easily slide the door cover up and off when the CD/DVD drive is
going to be used for a while. Apparently it helps greatly with
cooling, you can feel a brisk stream of warm air coming out of the
right hand side of the DVD drive when it is spinning quickly. So
as long as you are not in a dusty environment, that might help
avoid premature DVD death due to overheating.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Mint]

If you are concerned about overheating, if you are good with your
hands, you can help prevent your new DVD drive from overheating.
First, figure out how to remove the tray cover door. Usually it is
probably held on with some little pieces of plastic that stick
out. After carefully removing the door cover, you can use a
utility knife to shave those pieces of plastic. That way, you can
easily slide the door cover up and off when the CD/DVD drive is
going to be used for a while. Apparently it helps greatly with
cooling, you can feel a brisk stream of warm air coming out of the
right hand side of the DVD drive when it is spinning quickly. So
as long as you are not in a dusty environment, that might help
avoid premature DVD death due to overheating.

Good luck and have fun.

What drive make(s) have you done this with?

Does this occur with models that only read DVDs?

Andy

 

[John Doe]

What drive make(s) have you done this with?

The last two were both branded ASUS (including the one I just
bought), but each with a different plastic mold for the door
cover.

Does this occur with models that only read DVDs?

You have to get the drive tray door cover off in the first place,
so you have to inspect the individual drive. Probably works with
most cheap CD/DVD/whatever drives that have plastic trays with an
attached plastic door cover. The door cover should be removed by
sliding it upwards, otherwise you might have a difficult time
replacing it when not in use.

By the way... Of course you want to make sure that the door cover
is replaced properly so that when the door closes it does not
break stuff.

 

[John]

If you are concerned about overheating, if you are good with your
hands, you can help prevent your new DVD drive from overheating.
First, figure out how to remove the tray cover door. Usually it is
probably held on with some little pieces of plastic that stick
out. After carefully removing the door cover, you can use a
utility knife to shave those pieces of plastic. That way, you can
easily slide the door cover up and off when the CD/DVD drive is
going to be used for a while. Apparently it helps greatly with
cooling, you can feel a brisk stream of warm air coming out of the
right hand side of the DVD drive when it is spinning quickly. So
as long as you are not in a dusty environment, that might help
avoid premature DVD death due to overheating.

Good luck and have fun.

Then what brands do not have an overheating issue, for those of us not
good with our hands but would like equipment that stays relatively cool?

 

[John Doe]

Then what brands do not have an overheating issue,

An expensive unit? Look at reviews, ordered by ownership length.

I suspect that premature death is caused by overheating and is
partly due to cheapness or the expectation that the drive will
always be used in a cool environment. I vaguely recall having one
or two CD/DVD drives fail before making the drive tray door covers
removable. Again, probably not for dusty environments.
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