Optical burner life
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From: TJ on 27 May 2010 06:40 About a month ago, my LG DVD burner started making coasters, even though it was still reading discs with no troubles. I investigated, determined that it was probably the burner itself, andbought a new one. That did indeed cure the problem. However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the lifetime of burners, where a couple of the participants asserted that if you use a burner (They were talking about CD burners) for reading as well as burning, you will shorten its life considerably. Consequently, as long as my old burner still reads OK, I'll be using it for that and reserving my burner for burning. Makes sense to do that, anyway, just from a wear-and-tear standpoint. But still I'm curious. The whole assertion sounds something like the hardware equivalent of an urban legend to me, but then stranger things are true. Does anybody know if it IS true? Or perhaps it was true of older hardware but not of more modern stuff? TJ -- There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
From: General Schvantzkoph on 27 May 2010 08:08 On Thu, 27 May 2010 06:40:48 -0400, TJ wrote: > About a month ago, my LG DVD burner started making coasters, even though > it was still reading discs with no troubles. I investigated, determined > that it was probably the burner itself, andbought a new one. That did > indeed cure the problem. > > However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the lifetime > of burners, where a couple of the participants asserted that if you use > a burner (They were talking about CD burners) for reading as well as > burning, you will shorten its life considerably. Consequently, as long > as my old burner still reads OK, I'll be using it for that and reserving > my burner for burning. > > Makes sense to do that, anyway, just from a wear-and-tear standpoint. > But still I'm curious. The whole assertion sounds something like the > hardware equivalent of an urban legend to me, but then stranger things > are true. Does anybody know if it IS true? Or perhaps it was true of > older hardware but not of more modern stuff? > > TJ I doubt that there is any truth to it. However DVD burners are so cheap that you might as well consider them to be disposable, I certainly wouldn't do anything to optimise their life. In fact even a cleaner kit is questionable as they are priced at 50% of the price of a new burner.
From: TJ on 27 May 2010 08:21 On 05/27/2010 08:08 AM, General Schvantzkoph wrote: > On Thu, 27 May 2010 06:40:48 -0400, TJ wrote: > >> About a month ago, my LG DVD burner started making coasters, even though >> it was still reading discs with no troubles. I investigated, determined >> that it was probably the burner itself, andbought a new one. That did >> indeed cure the problem. >> >> However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the lifetime >> of burners, where a couple of the participants asserted that if you use >> a burner (They were talking about CD burners) for reading as well as >> burning, you will shorten its life considerably. Consequently, as long >> as my old burner still reads OK, I'll be using it for that and reserving >> my burner for burning. >> >> Makes sense to do that, anyway, just from a wear-and-tear standpoint. >> But still I'm curious. The whole assertion sounds something like the >> hardware equivalent of an urban legend to me, but then stranger things >> are true. Does anybody know if it IS true? Or perhaps it was true of >> older hardware but not of more modern stuff? >> >> TJ > > I doubt that there is any truth to it. However DVD burners are so cheap > that you might as well consider them to be disposable, I certainly > wouldn't do anything to optimise their life. In fact even a cleaner kit > is questionable as they are priced at 50% of the price of a new burner. A good idea for many people, I'm sure. But, things being what they are with my financial situation, I must get every moment of use that I can from any purchase. Helps keep me out of debt, a very comfortable position. There are those who once called me *too* miserly. Then they lost their jobs, and picked up the habit themselves. TJ -- There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
From: General Schvantzkoph on 27 May 2010 08:44 On Thu, 27 May 2010 08:21:17 -0400, TJ wrote: > On 05/27/2010 08:08 AM, General Schvantzkoph wrote: >> On Thu, 27 May 2010 06:40:48 -0400, TJ wrote: >> >>> About a month ago, my LG DVD burner started making coasters, even >>> though it was still reading discs with no troubles. I investigated, >>> determined that it was probably the burner itself, andbought a new >>> one. That did indeed cure the problem. >>> >>> However, at one point Google led me to an old discussion on the >>> lifetime of burners, where a couple of the participants asserted that >>> if you use a burner (They were talking about CD burners) for reading >>> as well as burning, you will shorten its life considerably. >>> Consequently, as long as my old burner still reads OK, I'll be using >>> it for that and reserving my burner for burning. >>> >>> Makes sense to do that, anyway, just from a wear-and-tear standpoint. >>> But still I'm curious. The whole assertion sounds something like the >>> hardware equivalent of an urban legend to me, but then stranger things >>> are true. Does anybody know if it IS true? Or perhaps it was true of >>> older hardware but not of more modern stuff? >>> >>> TJ >> >> I doubt that there is any truth to it. However DVD burners are so cheap >> that you might as well consider them to be disposable, I certainly >> wouldn't do anything to optimise their life. In fact even a cleaner kit >> is questionable as they are priced at 50% of the price of a new burner. > > A good idea for many people, I'm sure. But, things being what they are > with my financial situation, I must get every moment of use that I can > from any purchase. Helps keep me out of debt, a very comfortable > position. > > There are those who once called me *too* miserly. Then they lost their > jobs, and picked up the habit themselves. > > TJ The usual cause of DVD failure is dirt on the lens not component failure. The cheapest solution is a DVD cleaner kit, although at $10 for a cleaner vs $20 for a new DVD burner the savings aren't that great. Dust is function of time not use. If the laser has a 10,000 hour life expectancy (I think it's really closer to 100,000 hours, but lets use 10,000 to be ultra conservative), then at an hour a day that's 27 years. Time based degradation is much more likely to kill the device then use based so I wouldn't worry about it.
From: AZ Nomad on 27 May 2010 11:02
On 27 May 2010 12:08:34 GMT, General Schvantzkoph <schvantzkoph(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >I doubt that there is any truth to it. However DVD burners are so cheap >that you might as well consider them to be disposable, I certainly >wouldn't do anything to optimise their life. In fact even a cleaner kit >is questionable as they are priced at 50% of the price of a new burner. Optical drive cleaning kits are a hoax. Scraping off dirt (read: tiny rocks) at high speed is only effective if you want to be sure a drive has been destroyed before replacing it. They are only popular because idiots see the kits as a tool that they have the skills to operate. Now if only I could get my father to quit doing daily defrags on his windows machine before he manages to do it during a disk error and destroys all his data. (again, popular with idiots because it is one of the few tools they feel competant to operate) |