Gradual CDROM Door Failure

[Bart Bervoets]

I too expect a bad belt, my samsung dvdrw started doing this a week after
warranty end,
i suppose it's a calculated wear.
Easy to replace, while you're at it clean the inside and the lens.

Bart Bervoets

 

[John Keiser]

My old but useful I/O magic CD/DVD burner has developed a hangup when
opening the door.
Although I see no physical obstructions, several months ago it began opening
only a few mm, requiring manual assistance.
Now, it is not even giving me the few mms.
I can use a paper clip but I tend to encounter a fast rotating CD which I
assume is not good for the disc.
Drawer closes as normal with a slight tap.
I'm guessing this could be a lubrication issue but would not have a good
idea where to start.
Short of buying a new unit [cheap enough - but no satisfaction in doing
that] any suggestions on where to begin would be appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[Captain Midnight]

My old but useful I/O magic CD/DVD burner has developed a hangup when
opening the door.
Although I see no physical obstructions, several months ago it began opening
only a few mm, requiring manual assistance.
Now, it is not even giving me the few mms.
I can use a paper clip but I tend to encounter a fast rotating CD which I
assume is not good for the disc.
Drawer closes as normal with a slight tap.
I'm guessing this could be a lubrication issue but would not have a good
idea where to start.
Short of buying a new unit [cheap enough - but no satisfaction in doing
that] any suggestions on where to begin would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Take the drive apart enough to clean the area the drawer slides on. Even a
little dust will cause it to bind. That will probably do it but you may have
to put lube on it. Most lubes attract dirt/dust so use it very sparingly.
The drives I've taken apart have been very easy to work on and with the
price of drives tier's little to lose. The face plate is usually held on by
a couple of screws then theirs tabs that have to be worked to get it to
release. Have fun.

 

[ian field]

My old but useful I/O magic CD/DVD burner has developed a hangup when
opening the door.
Although I see no physical obstructions, several months ago it began
opening only a few mm, requiring manual assistance.
Now, it is not even giving me the few mms.
I can use a paper clip but I tend to encounter a fast rotating CD which I
assume is not good for the disc.
Drawer closes as normal with a slight tap.
I'm guessing this could be a lubrication issue but would not have a good
idea where to start.
Short of buying a new unit [cheap enough - but no satisfaction in doing
that] any suggestions on where to begin would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Open it up and see if the drawer is belt operated, someone else mentioned
lube - you don't want any on the belt and you have to be careful what lube
you use, some of the plastic parts may be ABS which goes brittle and
disintegrates if exposed to hydrocarbon lube - silicone grease is safe for
most plastics.

 

[Morse]

My old but useful I/O magic CD/DVD burner has developed a hangup when
opening the door.
Although I see no physical obstructions, several months ago it began
opening only a few mm, requiring manual assistance.
Now, it is not even giving me the few mms.
I can use a paper clip but I tend to encounter a fast rotating CD which I
assume is not good for the disc.
Drawer closes as normal with a slight tap.
I'm guessing this could be a lubrication issue but would not have a good
idea where to start.
Short of buying a new unit [cheap enough - but no satisfaction in doing
that] any suggestions on where to begin would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Open it up and see if the drawer is belt operated, someone else mentioned
lube - you don't want any on the belt and you have to be careful what lube
you use, some of the plastic parts may be ABS which goes brittle and
disintegrates if exposed to hydrocarbon lube - silicone grease is safe for
most plastics.

Heaven knows why they still make belt driven CDRom/DVDRom drawers, it's
completely unnecessary and decreases reliability. The only reason I can
think of that they use them is to introduce some slippage in the event
of the drawer jamming, especially by small fingers, like a cheapo clutch
mechanism.

I recently saw one advertised online which stated it was belt driven in
the spec, like people are supposed to be impressed! I don't trust
anything with belts to last too long, unless it's those tough,
non-stretchy toothed ones sometimes seen in camcorders and the like.

My beloved Aiwa AD-F500 cassette deck would still be going strong if it
wasn't for the damn belts.


Morse

 

[Jeff, WB8NHV]

My old but useful I/O magic CD/DVD burner has developed a hangup when
opening the door.
Although I see no physical obstructions, several months ago it began
opening only a few mm, requiring manual assistance.
Now, it is not even giving me the few mms.
I can use a paper clip but I tend to encounter a fast rotating CD which I
assume is not good for the disc.
Drawer closes as normal with a slight tap.
I'm guessing this could be a lubrication issue but would not have a good
idea where to start.
Short of buying a new unit [cheap enough - but no satisfaction in doing
that] any suggestions on where to begin would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Open it up and see if the drawer is belt operated, someone else mentioned
lube - you don't want any on the belt and you have to be careful what lube
you use, some of the plastic parts may be ABS which goes brittle and
disintegrates if exposed to hydrocarbon lube - silicone grease is safe for
most plastics.

Heaven knows why they still make belt driven CDRom/DVDRom drawers, it's
completely unnecessary and decreases reliability. The only reason I can
think of that they use them is to introduce some slippage in the event
of the drawer jamming, especially by small fingers, like a cheapo clutch
mechanism.

I recently saw one advertised online which stated it was belt driven in
the spec, like people are supposed to be impressed! I don't trust
anything with belts to last too long, unless it's those tough,
non-stretchy toothed ones sometimes seen in camcorders and the like.

My beloved Aiwa AD-F500 cassette deck would still be going strong if it
wasn't for the damn belts.


Morse

I know what you mean about belts going bad in cassette tape decks.
The belts which drive the cassette decks in my Aiwa CX-NA888 bookshelf
digital stereo system (bought new seven years ago) are starting to
go--one deck doesn't work now due to a bad belt, I think. I read on
another site that these belts are very prone to failure after a period
of time, but at the same time it was stated that the left deck
[playback only] is much more prone to belt failures than the right deck
[record/playback]. The fact that the belts are starting to fail in my
system doesn't especially bother me, as I rip my CDs and cassettes into
my computer (the latter using Audacity open-source audio editor
software, the former using the CD ripping feature of Winamp). I use an
external cassette player to feed the cassette audio into the computer,
then I listen to the music as mp3 files. (I rarely listen to local FM
these days, preferring either AOL Radio with XM or an easy-listening
station on Winamp Radio called The Breeze, easy listening from Crown
Point, Indiana.) Makes loads of sense, considering that cassettes are
becoming obsolete, and CDs may not be too far behind; everyone these
days, so it seems anyhow, is listening to music downloaded from the
Internet on those little belt-clip players like the SanDisk Sansa, et
al. as mp3s. Heck, even today's newest cars don't have AM/FM/cassette
receivers anymore. Almost all new cars have FM/XM satellite radio/CD
players available, sometimes with XM radio as an option, and who knows,
maybe next year or even sooner most vehicles may have XM/FM/mp3
receivers that can download mp3s from the Internet on the fly, while
the driver is traveling down an interstate highway at 60 mph, no doubt.

BTW, it should be possible even today to find the belts for your
Aiwa tape deck. I'm not familiar with the AD-F500 cassette deck, but
the belts should still be available if you do a bit of looking. Have
you tried a local repair shop? If I were a betting man (I'm not), I
would be willing to bet that a local shop may be able to find the belts
your deck uses. May cost you a bit, but if the belts are all that's
wrong with the machine it will be worth it. It sounds to me like you
like your deck quite a bit and would like to have it running again.


Jeff Strieble, WB8NHV (email addy not shown to deter spammers)
Fairport Harbor, Ohio USA (33 miles east of Cleveland, near the south
shore of Lake Erie)

 

[ian field]

My old but useful I/O magic CD/DVD burner has developed a hangup when
opening the door.
Although I see no physical obstructions, several months ago it began
opening only a few mm, requiring manual assistance.
Now, it is not even giving me the few mms.
I can use a paper clip but I tend to encounter a fast rotating CD
which I
assume is not good for the disc.
Drawer closes as normal with a slight tap.
I'm guessing this could be a lubrication issue but would not have a
good
idea where to start.
Short of buying a new unit [cheap enough - but no satisfaction in
doing
that] any suggestions on where to begin would be appreciated.
Thank you.





--
Remove -NOSPAM- to contact me.


Open it up and see if the drawer is belt operated, someone else
mentioned
lube - you don't want any on the belt and you have to be careful what
lube
you use, some of the plastic parts may be ABS which goes brittle and
disintegrates if exposed to hydrocarbon lube - silicone grease is safe
for
most plastics.

Heaven knows why they still make belt driven CDRom/DVDRom drawers, it's
completely unnecessary and decreases reliability. The only reason I can
think of that they use them is to introduce some slippage in the event
of the drawer jamming, especially by small fingers, like a cheapo clutch
mechanism.

I recently saw one advertised online which stated it was belt driven in
the spec, like people are supposed to be impressed! I don't trust
anything with belts to last too long, unless it's those tough,
non-stretchy toothed ones sometimes seen in camcorders and the like.

My beloved Aiwa AD-F500 cassette deck would still be going strong if it
wasn't for the damn belts.


Morse

I know what you mean about belts going bad in cassette tape decks.
The belts which drive the cassette decks in my Aiwa CX-NA888 bookshelf
digital stereo system (bought new seven years ago) are starting to
go--one deck doesn't work now due to a bad belt, I think. I read on
another site that these belts are very prone to failure after a period
of time, but at the same time it was stated that the left deck
[playback only] is much more prone to belt failures than the right deck
[record/playback]. The fact that the belts are starting to fail in my
system doesn't especially bother me, as I rip my CDs and cassettes into
my computer (the latter using Audacity open-source audio editor
software, the former using the CD ripping feature of Winamp). I use an
external cassette player to feed the cassette audio into the computer,
then I listen to the music as mp3 files. (I rarely listen to local FM
these days, preferring either AOL Radio with XM or an easy-listening
station on Winamp Radio called The Breeze, easy listening from Crown
Point, Indiana.) Makes loads of sense, considering that cassettes are
becoming obsolete, and CDs may not be too far behind; everyone these
days, so it seems anyhow, is listening to music downloaded from the
Internet on those little belt-clip players like the SanDisk Sansa, et
al. as mp3s. Heck, even today's newest cars don't have AM/FM/cassette
receivers anymore. Almost all new cars have FM/XM satellite radio/CD
players available, sometimes with XM radio as an option, and who knows,
maybe next year or even sooner most vehicles may have XM/FM/mp3
receivers that can download mp3s from the Internet on the fly, while
the driver is traveling down an interstate highway at 60 mph, no doubt.

BTW, it should be possible even today to find the belts for your
Aiwa tape deck. I'm not familiar with the AD-F500 cassette deck, but
the belts should still be available if you do a bit of looking. Have
you tried a local repair shop? If I were a betting man (I'm not), I
would be willing to bet that a local shop may be able to find the belts
your deck uses. May cost you a bit, but if the belts are all that's
wrong with the machine it will be worth it. It sounds to me like you
like your deck quite a bit and would like to have it running again.


Jeff Strieble, WB8NHV (email addy not shown to deter spammers)
Fairport Harbor, Ohio USA (33 miles east of Cleveland, near the south
shore of Lake Erie)

Despite all that's been said about drive belts, the answering machine I
recently scrapped was belt driven and I had it well over 20 years, it was
well and truly s/hand when I got it and add to that I'm a smoker - the
cigarette smoke hardens the rubber making the belt brittle and gums up the
works, OK I scrapped it because the belt was knackered - but 20 years (that
I know of) isn't too shabby.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Heaven knows why they still make belt driven CDRom/DVDRom
drawers, it's completely unnecessary and decreases reliability.

The belt drive method is quieter than most gear drives. There's very little
slippage present in a belt drive tray movement system that is in good
working order, so I doubt there is much difference in that aspect.

William

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

My old but useful I/O magic CD/DVD burner has developed a hangup when
opening the door.

Get a good set of hand tools and carefully take the drive apart. (Note: only
do this if you're comfortable doing so! Otherwise you run the risk of making
things *much* worse!) When you get inside, look for a belt mounted just
under the front of the drive's tray assembly. Chances are it will be flabby,
oily or otherwise disintegrated.

If you don't find a belt, your drive might use a gear train to run the tray
in and out. In either case, if the belt is fine or you have a drive with a
gear train, look for jammed or broken parts. It's possible that the loading
motor or its driving circuitry could be bad. The loading motor could be
replaced if it is bad. Its driving circuitry is another story, depending
upon how the drive was built.

Since speed isn't critical, you could use an appropriately sized rubber band
in a pinch.

William

 

[Captain Midnight]

Hi!


The belt drive method is quieter than most gear drives. There's very little
slippage present in a belt drive tray movement system that is in good
working order, so I doubt there is much difference in that aspect.

William

Agreed. I think a well designed belt drive system makes a lot of sense in a
CD/DVD drive tray. As someone pointed out it needs to be able to slip for
clutch use. A gear system would break or need expensive sensing hardware. As
fast as technology changes you really don't need a drive to last 20 years.
The newest technology can be bought or buy what the early adopters are
getting rid of, cheaply.

Bought a servo controlled cassette deck a long long time ago because just
about every other one I had died from belt system failure. It's still
working fine but have put all the cassettes onto discs. Have a 60disc CD
changer but will be putting them onto a HDD soon for use with a network
media player.

 

[John Keiser]

Thanks to all.
Drive belt [3 years old!] was badly cracked.
Extracted and replaced through open door without removing the CD/DVD ROM
from the PC.
All is fine.

 

[StellarTech]

Hi!


Get a good set of hand tools and carefully take the drive apart. (Note:
only
do this if you're comfortable doing so! Otherwise you run the risk of
making
things *much* worse!) When you get inside, look for a belt mounted just
under the front of the drive's tray assembly. Chances are it will be
flabby,
oily or otherwise disintegrated.

If you don't find a belt, your drive might use a gear train to run the
tray
in and out. In either case, if the belt is fine or you have a drive with a
gear train, look for jammed or broken parts. It's possible that the
loading
motor or its driving circuitry could be bad. The loading motor could be
replaced if it is bad. Its driving circuitry is another story, depending
upon how the drive was built.

Since speed isn't critical, you could use an appropriately sized rubber
band
in a pinch.

William

Hey guys, I'm a fairly new poster here, so sorry if I'm restating the
obvious. As to anything using rubber drives, I offer this suggestion: beside
replacing the rubber, you need to clean any surface the rubber touches. I
use q-tips & acetone. thoroughly clean all pulleys, drivers, etc. You should
also make sure the surface in question is not plastic first. Saturate a
q-tip with acetone & scrub a surface on the part nothing touches. If the
q-tip picks up material, use isopropyl alcohol instead. And use 91% alcohol,
the 70% has too much water, doesn't clean as well and takes too long to dry.

 

[Morse]

Agreed. I think a well designed belt drive system makes a lot of sense in
a
CD/DVD drive tray.

Then how come gear drives are commonplace?

As someone pointed out it needs to be able to slip for
clutch use.

I said that it was perhaps a reason some manufacturers used belt drive, but
by no means is it a case of 'need', or it would be universal, which it
isn't.

A gear system would break or need expensive sensing hardware.

Bugger. Better tell the far east to stop using gear drive then, despite it
being virtually indestructible on every drive I've see it used in, and I've
installed a few. It is far better than belt drive and is almost guaranteed
to outlast the rest of the drive.

As for sensing hardware, I'm not sure how they achieve a safety factor, but
have you *ever* heard of an injury due to gear driven CDRom trays? I
haven't. I think they perhaps use a motor power/gear ratio which cannot
exert injurous forces. Pretty simple and effective.

As
fast as technology changes you really don't need a drive to last 20 years.

Hardly a good excuse to use less reliable technology.

The newest technology can be bought or buy what the early adopters are
getting rid of, cheaply.

Bought a servo controlled cassette deck a long long time ago because just
about every other one I had died from belt system failure.

There you go then!

Morse

 

[Morse]

Hi!


The belt drive method is quieter than most gear drives.

I disagree. They all have gears, even the belt driven ones! There is still a
large toothed gear to drive the tray itself, which is the source of most of
the noise. The small nylon gears are almost silent and in any case are
masked by the tray and motor noise, and a belt only takes away one gear
stage.

Regardless, I think a possible slight increase in noise would be a small
price to pay for better reliability.

Morse

 

[Morse]

I know what you mean about belts going bad in cassette tape decks.
The belts which drive the cassette decks in my Aiwa CX-NA888 bookshelf
digital stereo system (bought new seven years ago) are starting to
go--one deck doesn't work now due to a bad belt, I think.

I have the same problem on my Sony system- both decks failed around the same
time! I hate decks which use the same motor and belt for transport and
servo- in this case via a longish flat belt. Loading the transport up takes
quite a bit of torque, so it stresses the belt. The result is a stretched
belt, the transport won't load fully and the tape gets stuck in the machine.
The servo should always be gear driven IMO, with the belt drive being
reserved for the capstan.

I read on
another site that these belts are very prone to failure after a period
of time, but at the same time it was stated that the left deck
[playback only] is much more prone to belt failures than the right deck
[record/playback]. The fact that the belts are starting to fail in my
system doesn't especially bother me, as I rip my CDs and cassettes into
my computer (the latter using Audacity open-source audio editor
software, the former using the CD ripping feature of Winamp). I use an
external cassette player to feed the cassette audio into the computer,
then I listen to the music as mp3 files. (I rarely listen to local FM
these days, preferring either AOL Radio with XM or an easy-listening
station on Winamp Radio called The Breeze, easy listening from Crown
Point, Indiana.) Makes loads of sense, considering that cassettes are
becoming obsolete, and CDs may not be too far behind; everyone these
days, so it seems anyhow, is listening to music downloaded from the
Internet on those little belt-clip players like the SanDisk Sansa, et
al. as mp3s. Heck, even today's newest cars don't have AM/FM/cassette
receivers anymore. Almost all new cars have FM/XM satellite radio/CD
players available, sometimes with XM radio as an option, and who knows,
maybe next year or even sooner most vehicles may have XM/FM/mp3
receivers that can download mp3s from the Internet on the fly, while
the driver is traveling down an interstate highway at 60 mph, no doubt.

Yep, I must admit I don't have much use for a cassette deck these days other
than for transferring other people's tapes to CD! It just seems such a shame
for it to lie around doing nothing.

BTW, it should be possible even today to find the belts for your
Aiwa tape deck. I'm not familiar with the AD-F500 cassette deck,

It's a fairly good deck. Dolby B and C, HX Pro, front panel Dolby HX
calibration and record bias ajustment. Aiwa are defunct, but I suppose I
could look around for a generic replacement. If only it was a square belt-
they are rather easier to source! The snag is nowadays with all the
technology we have at our fingertips, my motivation to get it back to
working order has diminished somewhat!

but
the belts should still be available if you do a bit of looking. Have
you tried a local repair shop?

I wish! All the local repair businesses have gone bust or moved away from
trivial stuff like this. Sadly, most people seem to regard consumer
appliances as disposable these days. I still have a few options I can try
though- but I have a feeling it'll end up being scrapped. Mind, I have a
couple of similar decks (next model down) without the HX calibration knob
and single motor decks which still work. I could do a Frankenstein with one
of them and use the transport to fix the better one, but as they both work
it seems pointless.

If I were a betting man (I'm not), I
would be willing to bet that a local shop may be able to find the belts
your deck uses. May cost you a bit, but if the belts are all that's
wrong with the machine it will be worth it. It sounds to me like you
like your deck quite a bit and would like to have it running again.

I can honestly say the sound quality was never less than excellent. I'll
keep my eyes open and see what happens, I may source a belt yet. I tried
cutting and splicing the belts which got it up and running again, but the
join noticeably modulates the sound, and obviously the belt's
characteristics have altered causing a little wow and flutter.

Morse