OT: Exploding CD & A1

[asian1]

Hi
I read several case of Exploding / shattered CD inside a high speed CD-ROM drive(faster than 48X).

Most reported cases are with AOpen, Benq, LiteOn and Samsung CD-ROM. SONY put a warning label on their drives.  This explosion may harm (or even kill) the user. It may also damage hard drive or power supply.

The cause of the explosion are mysterious.
Some suggestion:
1. Micro crack near the spindle.
2. Paint / label that cause imbalance.
3. Misaligned hole.
4. Heat / cold problems.
5. Old CD / bent CD.

Is this a hoax or a real case?
Will similar hazard / problem exist on AmigaOne?
Is it possible to buy AmigaOne with slower CD Drives?
Thank's

Exploding CD

[mikeymike]

I've never had a CD shatter in a drive before, but I think it might be possible under certain weird conditions.  I've had one crack while inside a drive.  Not a small crack either, but a clean, through the CD crack.

I would guess the cause is poor quality drives *and* poor quality CDs.

Britney Spears for example.  :-]

A tip is definitely to find out how noisy a drive is before buying.  Ask people, read up on forums, etc.  DVD drives especially can be very loud or almost silent.  Apart from the annoying loudness, if it's making that much noise it's got to be doing *something* wrong or not quite right at least.

[odin]

I have a very crappy  52x Creative CD-ROM which makes a sound very similar to a jet taking off, even the volume. So far it's happened twice that I opened the drive and the CD came flying out at a pretty high speed.  :-o

So perhaps this story isn't as weird as it sounds...

[elendil]

Haha! I know it would be tragic if the cd struck you, but the image of you opening the cd drive and a cd flying right past you, struck me as very funny

I myself own two 6x scsi drives and a 14.4 (i think) scsi drive that suits all my needs. They are silent and initialize quick unlike the 800x pc (ide drives I have seen. The comparison with the jet seems very appropriate.

As with PC programs, stick to stuff some years old if you want partly quality. Be very careful with your upgrades. Before you know it you will have a 600 mb cd player that is also a web browser, an office pack solution, a first person shooter and a wild demo.

brrrr.

Sincerely,

-Kenneth Straarup.

[blobrana]

Yes it`s true,
i`v`e heard of hackers who have upgraded the firmware to allow the cd to spin even faster!

i think i heard of a guy who cranked his up to 100x
before the thing exploded.

But , i think that at 52x which is near the limit for reading that type of media ,that it is generally safe(, if you use normal Cd's) :-D .

[amigamad]

Out of my drives my 24x liteon is fine and my 24 speed philips is very noisy and the disc get quite warm in it maybe heat is part of the problem :-?

[Alcom]

@Asian1: yes it is true...i have personally seen some cd-drives with a blown cd in it (The Sims Orginal cd f.ex. - the person owning it was NOT happy.). It is probably only a problem with 48-52x or faster drives...

[Mike_Amiga]

I get a gradually building hum that could be said to sound like a jet taking off. All be it a very quite jet when my DVD ROM starts spinning, it also seems to start spinning when ever an application starts. No explosions to report though.

[Blomberg]

It is definitely true.

I saw it on a danish consumer program just the other night.
Some kid was complaining that his 1 week old game had broken inside the drive.
Then they showed footage from a lab test made by the proper authorities (consumer-something...?) in which they spun a cd that had a crack in it up to modern drive speed and after some time it simply exploded.

Looked cool, actually  :-D
But it *does* make you think  :-o

Yeah - I'm a technician, and I've seen it on many an occasion.  Sometimes you can just clear the fragments out and it works, sometimes not.  I've had cases where bits of cd havew been embedded in other parts of the drive case!  I've also had more than one case where the front of a drive is missing (either the facia on the front of the tray, or the drop-down bit on hinged-front drives), so if a CD blew in one of these - there's a high chance of bits of it ending up around the room.  I suppose it would be the hinged-front types that would be the most dangerous, as a high-speed fragment could easily blow its way out through one of those :-o.

Incidentally -  most software companies (including M$) will replace media that gets damaged in this way for a nominal fee, or even for free if you make out that it was defective.  

The main cause of noise in drives is discs that are not spinning totlly flat.  This can be due to a warped disc, a crappy drive mechinism, a badly centred label (though this would probably hold the thing together) or a combination of them all.  

But!  Have you heard the BANG it makes when it happens?  Man!  me and several other people in the room almost had a pants-based accident when the last one went!

[ropey]

Hi,
I had an AmigaActive cover disk blow in a 56 speed drive within about 10 minutes of me buying the mag, it made quite a bang. Fortunatley the drive worked after I had dismantled it and cleaned the bits out, the largest piece was only about the size of a 50p piece :-o . I ended up buying the mag again just for the disk :-( . I eventually put the drive in my nieces PC and it's still going strong, I was just unlucky I guess.

[Radfoo]

Yeah, once on a work PC I had an NT4 installation CD explode on me. Scared me half to death, I thought the PC was blowing up or somthing. I think the drive was only 24x.

Trashed the CD drive too.

[Argo]

I was just reading an article about this on slashdot. It was a story about a new fast 58X (I think) CD drive. Supposed limit before centrifical force rips your CD to pieces was listed as 66X. Some, people did comment that even in current fast CD drives el cheapo noname brand CD media can be damaged or fly apart.

Here's the article

[blobrana]

I`ve forgotten the article i read it in, but it was saying that most of the cd-roms are all the same device.
It`s cheaper to manufacture...
And that the makers just FLASH the firmware to up grade the speed... ( yes , it`s a con!).

But the funny thing is that reading Amiga data is sometimes slower on a `fast` CD-ROM , because of the spin up times and small file sizes...
Probably 8x is the optimum speed for the lean files of an Amiga, unless you`re` into movies etc.
 :-D

[Acill]

Its true, I've had two of them shatter in my Sony 52X cd drive. They dont go shooting plastic out like a shotgun or anything, but they do break up into about 50 or so parts. I use a 48X in my Amiga though, it sounds like a jet too at times. Never had any problems with it.

-Acill