Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
that polishes scratches out of a plastic surface. Products labeled as cleaners usually are designed for
more serious scratches, whereas those labeled as polishes are usually milder and work well as a
final buff after using the cleaner. Try using the polish alone if the surface is not scratched deeply. You
can use the SkipDR device made by Digital Innovations to make the polishing job easier.
Most people are careful about the bottom of the disc because that is where the laser reads, but at least
for CDs, the top is actually more fragile! This is because the lacquer coating on top of a CD is thin,
normally only 6-7 microns (0.24-0.28 thousandths of an inch). If you write on a CD with a ball point
pen, for example, you will press through the lacquer layer and damage the reflective layer underneath,
ruining the disc. Also, certain types of markers have solvents that can eat through the lacquer and
damage the disc. You should write on discs only with felt tip pens that have compatible inks, such as
the Sharpie and Staedtler Lumocolor brands, or other markers specifically sold for writing on discs,
such as Maxell's DiscWriter pens. In any case, remember that scratches or dents on the top of the disc
are more fatal than those on the bottom. It's also important to keep in mind that many household
chemicals (and even certain beverages), if spilled on an optical disc, can damage the coating and
cause the material to crack or flake off. This, of course, renders the media useless.
Read errors can also occur when dust accumulates on the read lens of your drive. You can try to clean
out the drive and lens with a blast of “canned air” or by using a drive cleaner (which you can
purchase at most stores that sell audio CDs).
If you are having problems reading media with an older drive and firmware upgrades are not
available or did not solve the problem, consider replacing the drive. With new high-speed drives
with read/write support available for well under $50, it does not make sense to spend any time
messing with an older drive that is having problems. In almost every case, it is more cost-effective to
upgrade to a new drive (which won't have these problems and will likely be much faster) instead.
If you have problems reading a particular brand or type of disk in some drives but not others, you
might have a poor drive/media match. Use the media types and brands recommended by the drive
vendor.
If you are having problems with only one particular disc and not the drive in general, you might find
that your difficulties are in fact caused by a defective disc. See whether you can exchange the disc for
another to determine whether that is indeed the cause.
Updating the Firmware in an Optical Drive
Just as updating the motherboard BIOS can solve compatibility problems with CPU and memory,
support, USB ports, and system stability, upgrading the firmware in an optical drive can also solve
problems with media compatibility, writing speed, and digital audio extraction from scratched discs,
and it can even prevent potentially fatal mismatches between media and drives.
Determining Whether You Might Need a Firmware Update
If you encounter any of the following issues, a firmware update might be necessary:
• Your drive can't use a particular type of media, or it performs much more slowly with one type
of media than other types/brands of media.
• Your drive can't play some types of burned discs or movies.
• Your writing software doesn't recognize the drive as a rewritable drive.
• You want to use faster media than what the drive was originally designed to use.
