Another CD/DVD drive bites the dust

[SomeGuy]

I have been testing one of my Pentium 200 machines, and discovered the DVD drive I had in it has stopped working. Put a CD or DVD in and it just acts like it can't read anything (head keeps trying to re-seek just trying to ID the disk to spin it up, not an OS thing). Well stored, good condition, perfectly clean. No visible signs of anything that could be a problem. I don't remember exactly where I got that one, but I thought it had minimal use and worked well. And this one had the CD audio out. Four small electrolytic capacitors on the main PCB, but somehow I doubt those are the issue.

I just seem to have rotten luck with CD/DVD drives. The DVD writer in my main system started to give me verification fits the last time I tried to burn a recordable DVD. And that is a drive I have replaced multiple times over the years for the same reason. Always the same thing, just starts going flaky for no reason and then eventually fails.

Wish there were something I could do about this.

 

[MCollins]

I have been testing one of my Pentium 200 machines, and discovered the DVD drive I had in it has stopped working. Put a CD or DVD in and it just acts like it can't read anything (head keeps trying to re-seek just trying to ID the disk to spin it up, not an OS thing). Well stored, good condition, perfectly clean. No visible signs of anything that could be a problem. I don't remember exactly where I got that one, but I thought it had minimal use and worked well. And this one had the CD audio out. Four small electrolytic capacitors on the main PCB, but somehow I doubt those are the issue.

I just seem to have rotten luck with CD/DVD drives. The DVD writer in my main system started to give me verification fits the last time I tried to burn a recordable DVD. And that is a drive I have replaced multiple times over the years for the same reason. Always the same thing, just starts going flaky for no reason and then eventually fails.

Wish there were something I could do about this.

That sounds very similar to the stunt my Averatec 3150 pulled a few years ago. For me, the drive simply started to act up and fail to read before, eventually, stopping entirely. The ribbon cable on mine was coming a little loose from storing it on its side for years (I didn't know at the time that components could shift!). It might not be the same kind of issue, but maybe that's a place to start? If nothing looks damaged, and since you've tried multiple drives, maybe it's a faulty cable? That might be worth looking into if you haven't already!