Need help with Lite-on CD burner

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Recently my Lite-on 52x CD burner started giving me problems. When I
burned something, audio or data, it would read fine on everyone else's
computers, or CD players. But increasingly it wouldn't read anything
burned on my own or anyone else's. Manufactured audio & CD-ROMs, no
problem. So I figured I'd open it up & clean the laser. (It's about 5
yrs old) Now that I put it back together, the drawer sticks out about
1/8th inch and ejects to about an inch or so. Question 1:
What did I do wrong? When I open it back up, I don't see anything
blocking the mechanism, but it still only moves about an inch.
Question 2: Was the laser going bad anyway? I feel like the only way
to know is to get it working mechanically so I can see if cleaning the
laser helped.
Any techs out there know what's going on? Thanks.

[Don Pearce]

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 07:23:05 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

>Recently my Lite-on 52x CD burner started giving me problems. When I
>burned something, audio or data, it would read fine on everyone else's
>computers, or CD players. But increasingly it wouldn't read anything
>burned on my own or anyone else's. Manufactured audio & CD-ROMs, no
>problem. So I figured I'd open it up & clean the laser. (It's about 5
>yrs old) Now that I put it back together, the drawer sticks out about
>1/8th inch and ejects to about an inch or so. Question 1:
>What did I do wrong? When I open it back up, I don't see anything
>blocking the mechanism, but it still only moves about an inch.
>Question 2: Was the laser going bad anyway? I feel like the only way
>to know is to get it working mechanically so I can see if cleaning the
>laser helped.
>Any techs out there know what's going on? Thanks.

They are simply far too cheap to be worth servicing any more. Just
stick a new one in there - it'll probably have a better spec anyway.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Tim Padrick]

"Don Pearce" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 07:23:05 -0800 (PST),
> wrote:
>
>>Recently my Lite-on 52x CD burner started giving me problems. When I
>>burned something, audio or data, it would read fine on everyone else's
>>computers, or CD players. But increasingly it wouldn't read anything
>>burned on my own or anyone else's. Manufactured audio & CD-ROMs, no
>>problem. So I figured I'd open it up & clean the laser. (It's about 5
>>yrs old) Now that I put it back together, the drawer sticks out about
>>1/8th inch and ejects to about an inch or so. Question 1:
>>What did I do wrong? When I open it back up, I don't see anything
>>blocking the mechanism, but it still only moves about an inch.
>>Question 2: Was the laser going bad anyway? I feel like the only way
>>to know is to get it working mechanically so I can see if cleaning the
>>laser helped.
>>Any techs out there know what's going on? Thanks.
>
> They are simply far too cheap to be worth servicing any more. Just
> stick a new one in there - it'll probably have a better spec anyway.
>
> d
>
> --
> Pearce Consulting
> http://www.pearce.uk.com
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
>
Always burn at the lowest possible speed - or at least no more than 4x.

[Richard Crowley]

> wrote ...
> Recently my Lite-on 52x CD burner started giving me problems. When I
> burned something, audio or data, it would read fine on everyone else's
> computers, or CD players. But increasingly it wouldn't read anything
> burned on my own or anyone else's. Manufactured audio & CD-ROMs, no
> problem. So I figured I'd open it up & clean the laser. (It's about 5
> yrs old) Now that I put it back together, the drawer sticks out about
> 1/8th inch and ejects to about an inch or so. Question 1:
> What did I do wrong? When I open it back up, I don't see anything
> blocking the mechanism, but it still only moves about an inch.

If you didn't re-assemble the mechanical drawer-opening parts
exactly as they were, you likely have some gear or sensor, etc.
"out of phase" and it is confused.

> Question 2: Was the laser going bad anyway? I feel like the only way
> to know is to get it working mechanically so I can see if cleaning the
> laser helped.

Laser diodes are not rated for infinite lifetimes. Besides there
are many other things that could deteriorate. But the things
are too cheap to spend any resources analyzing.

> Any techs out there know what's going on? Thanks.

A nice new one, built to modern specs costs less than
an evening of movies and popcorn for two. Toss the
broken one and replace it.

[Laurence Payne]

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 07:23:05 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

>Recently my Lite-on 52x CD burner started giving me problems. When I
>burned something, audio or data, it would read fine on everyone else's
>computers, or CD players. But increasingly it wouldn't read anything
>burned on my own or anyone else's. Manufactured audio & CD-ROMs, no
>problem. So I figured I'd open it up & clean the laser. (It's about 5
>yrs old) Now that I put it back together, the drawer sticks out about
>1/8th inch and ejects to about an inch or so. Question 1:
>What did I do wrong? When I open it back up, I don't see anything
>blocking the mechanism, but it still only moves about an inch.
>Question 2: Was the laser going bad anyway? I feel like the only way
>to know is to get it working mechanically so I can see if cleaning the
>laser helped.
>Any techs out there know what's going on? Thanks.


Who cares? Haven'y you noticed just how cheap a replacement is?

[mark]

Thanks for the comments, guys. Actually I haven't been able to afford
to take Cindy to a movie in quite a long time.
I catalog for our local library, and get 20 hrs per week max, no
benefits. Cindy lost her job a month ago, and has health problems.
We're making the house payment with credit cards. My audio business
has been pretty slow lately, 2 non-broadcast videos this month
totalling $550. I'm very good at what I do (industrial & corporate
audio for video, local cable & radio spots) but I lack any marketing
or business skills. But I'm studying for CompTIA A+ certification to
get an entry-level grownup job (I'll be 50 in June). But thanks, Tim,
I just put an old HP 8000 series burner I had laying around which only
burns at 4x anyway, & it seems to work fine. But I figured getting the
Lite-on drive back together would be a good learning experience, even
if the laser is on it's way out. So it sounds to me like burning at
faster speeds produces more errors. I've got a decent computer at my
studio running protools (Athlon, 1 Gig RAM, 80 & 300 Gig Lacie
outboard drives, DVD/CD burner) but this is my home pc I'm talking
about (Pentium II, 192 MB RAM,Win 98 SE, 7 Gig HD) & I get a lot done
on it, Photoshop 7, moving & burning wav & mp3s. No internet at my
studio, but that's fine with me. But I do look forward to more dialog,
advice, etc., and yes, Laurence, I'm aware of how much a replacement
costs, thank you. I'm finished babbling for now.

[mark]

Thanks for the comments, guys. Actually I haven't been able to afford
to take Cindy to a movie in quite a long time.
I catalog for our local library, and get 20 hrs per week max, no
benefits. Cindy lost her job a month ago, and has health problems.
We're making the house payment with credit cards. My audio business
has been pretty slow lately, 2 non-broadcast videos this month
totalling $550. I'm very good at what I do (industrial & corporate
audio for video, local cable & radio spots) but I lack any marketing
or business skills. But I'm studying for CompTIA A+ certification to
get an entry-level grownup job (I'll be 50 in June). But thanks, Tim,
I just put an old HP 8000 series burner I had laying around which only
burns at 4x anyway, & it seems to work fine. But I figured getting the
Lite-on drive back together would be a good learning experience, even
if the laser is on it's way out. So it sounds to me like burning at
faster speeds produces more errors. I've got a decent computer at my
studio running protools (Athlon, 1 Gig RAM, 80 & 300 Gig Lacie
outboard drives, DVD/CD burner) but this is my home pc I'm talking
about (Pentium II, 192 MB RAM,Win 98 SE, 7 Gig HD) & I get a lot done
on it, Photoshop 7, moving & burning wav & mp3s. No internet at my
studio, but that's fine with me. But I do look forward to more dialog,
advice, etc., and yes, Laurence, I'm aware of how much a replacement
costs, thank you. I'm finished babbling for now.

[Laurence Payne]

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 15:31:45 -0800 (PST), mark
> wrote:

>So it sounds to me like burning at
>faster speeds produces more errors.

Back when burners/media WOULD go as low as 1X someone did a test and
found the optimum speed was 2X. 1X actually gave more errors. That
was then. Media evolves. Todays burners, seeing todays media, won't
even offer the lowest burn speeds. They know them to be
inappropriate. If I burn audio CDs somewhere in the 10X - 20X range,
I get few failures. But if I accept the highest speed offered, I get
LOADS of failures, consistently, with a range of computers, burners
and media. Even if the packet says "52X", DON'T :-)

Sorry to hear you've got no work. But throwing in the sob-story as a
retort to perfectly good "don't waste your time repairing cheap
equipment" advice is a cheap trick. Pun intended :-)

If you're seriously making house payments on a credit card, talk to
your lender and work out something better. NOW. That debt will
escalate at an alarming rate and you'll end up in real trouble.

[Richard Crowley]

"mark" wrote ...
> But I figured getting the Lite-on drive back together would be
> a good learning experience, even if the laser is on it's way out.

Then go back and study how the mechanism works and
try re-assembling it until it opens and closes properly.