1/20/2024 0 Comments Pc clean disk drive lensThe results were the same: 100% success using multiple disks, multiple burning programs, and multiple source file formats. Still slightly skeptical, I ran the disk cleaner on my other test system and tried the same operation. Surprise! The first disk burned just fine. In Windows Media Player, it plays like a music CD, with 14 tracks that include audio instructions delivered in a friendly female voice, along with some test tones to help you determine whether your speakers are wired correctly.Īfter completing the entire suite of tests in 10 minutes or so, I popped in a blank CD, fired up Media Monkey, and told the software to burn a collection of FLAC files from a network location to CD, converting them to WAV files in a local cache on the fly. It looks like a regular music CD with instructions on the label side and a half dozen small brushes arranged in a track on the bottom (shiny side) near the center of the disk. When I received the product and removed it from its packaging, I have to confess I was skeptical. (This Allsop model costs about $5 more at Amazon but also gets excellent reviews.) I found this Memorex model at Amazon for $6.03 (the price has since risen to $7.98), and decided to take a chance. In several forum posts, I had read recommendations for special disks designed to clean the laser on a CD/DVD player/burner. But when I hooked up a second drive to a SATA-to-USB converter and tried using it as a burner, I got coasters again. This time I was able to burn multiple CDs in quick succession with no problems using every imaginable combination of file formats and software. This SATA drive is mounted in an external enclosure with its own power supply, and I used the USB output to connect it to my Windows PC. To rule out the controller, I tried an external drive, using an LG combo Blu-ray reader and DVD writer. In fact, I found several posts from people who had experienced similar problems using OS X.īy this point I was beginning to suspect a conflict between Windows and the drive or drive controller-both drives were connected to a Intel ICH8R/ICH9R SATA controller using Intel Matrix Storage drivers. Searching forums and support sites I found scattered reports of people with similar problems but little in common with my configuration. Both systems had plenty of RAM and fast quad-core CPUs and had burned plenty of CDs over their lifespan. I also knew the cause wasn’t specific to my original test system, as the problem was reproducible with a clean install of Windows 7 on a separate PC from a different OEM using a different brand of CD/DVD burner. I knew the cause wasn’t the media itself (high-quality Sony disks). The problem wasn’t software, either, as I found by repeating the issue with multiple burning programs, including Media Monkey and Easy Media Creator 10. Converting the source files to WAV format and caching them locally didn’t help. I probably turned 30 disks into coasters while investigating this problem, trying every troubleshooting trick I know to find the source of the problem. The burned disks wouldn’t play back properly on any other device. In some cases the drive itself would lock up so tightly the disk couldn’t be ejected until a restart. The writing software would hang or appear to complete successfully and then return a write error. In a typical session I might be able to burn one music CD successfully, but trying to burn another would fail. But that turned out to be the sure cure for a stubborn problem I encountered recently, and I thought it might be worth sharing my experience here.įor the past month or so, I’ve been frustrated when trying to burn music CDs. Have you cleaned your CD or DVD burner’s laser lately? Until this week, I had never tried using a special disk to clean dust from the laser in my optical drive.
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