[AbesInTrouble]

So about a year ago my CD rom started having problems opening. The motor was trying to eject, but it was obvious something was obstructing it. I just dealt with it and manually ejected my cds when needed (which caused me to scratch several of them). Finally I got fed up started using a different drive (both are LiteOn) from my friend. It worked fine for a couple of weeks, but now it is starting to stick just like my old one (even though my friend never had a problem with his). When I got it to eject today, I noticed that there was a sticky residue on the very center of the cd (inside the burned area). Looking at my older cds that were having this same problem in my old drive (but which I never used in the new one), I noticed that they had this same goop on them.

So where is this stuff coming from? Is there any way to get at the insides of the drive and clean it off?

[Advertisements]

If its doing the same thing on two different drives with the same media, I would suspect the media. It's entirely possible that the residue is the result of the dye on the data side of the CD coming away from the physical disk, because the reflective layer has been corroded or damaged. Therefore the dye comes away and gathers on the mechanics of the drive, eventually jamming it up. In serious cases it will burn the motor of the drive out, which renders it beyond economic repair considering the cost of new drives are next to nothing.

[Neil Jones]

If its doing the same thing on two different drives with the same media, I would suspect the media. It's entirely possible that the residue is the result of the dye on the data side of the CD coming away from the physical disk, because the reflective layer has been corroded or damaged. Therefore the dye comes away and gathers on the mechanics of the drive, eventually jamming it up. In serious cases it will burn the motor of the drive out, which renders it beyond economic repair considering the cost of new drives are next to nothing.