CD Blew, Near Death Experience

[Onizuka]

Earlier I was copying a cd from my new liteon 52x cdrom to my liteon 52x burner and like all hell broke loose. The copy was complete and I clicked ok. The door started opening and then BOOM a gun shot rang out, then my room lights flickered and next thing I knew cdrom shrapnel came shooting outta cd drive. Luckly tower is few feet away which ensured my safety. I was wondering wtf just happened and now wtf do I do with this drive?

Also now my video card is all messed up, its running at 640x480@8bit color. I cannot choose any other option, and I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling card and drivers.

Anyone know wtf just happened?

EDIT: Should mention this isnt system in signature, its my HP system.

[ThePerfectCore]

Your CD blew up. End of story. Must've either had a crack or it was really cheaply made. Some drives have survived a CD explosion once you clean them out, but that's rare. I'll bet the drive is ruined too.

As for the video card drivers, I have no idea.

[Rocko[DPC]]

Yea. The CD that blew up probably had fine cracks that at 52x speed caused it to shatter. A few others have posted fears about this before. Basically 52x is so fast, that if youre using cheap CDs or CDs with cracks in them etc, they may explode due
to extremely high rotational speeds. Thats one of the reasons why CDR media has rated speeds.

I would definately throw the drive out after this. Tiny shards of plastic may still be inside it and may fire out at a later time. As far as the rest of your computer, I have no idea. If your lights dimmed etc, you may have shorted out something on your motherboard, or who knows.

There is no reason to fear 52x drives. I use the same liteon 52x burner. But do make sure you inspect your discs before putting them in. What youre supposed to look for is ANY form of cracking. Especially around the central hub area. If it has any crack whatsoever, do not use it. And make sure you buy name brand high speed CDR media. I've seen a lot of cheap crap CDRs that blow up constantly.

And I dunno if anyone else saw it, but that show Myth Busters just had a show about this. They put CDs in the microwave real fast to put some fine cracks in them. Then they spun them up to high rotational speeds (22k RPM+) to simulate 52x CD drives. They used that gelatin that is very similar to human tissue to see what the CD exploding could do. Fragments were 2 inches deep in the gelatin dummy. Check discovery.com to see when there will be a re broadcast if youre interested in this.

[Onizuka]

Ya I saw that Myth Busters lol that was cool. atleast it wasnt my burner that did this, then I would be really ****ed.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by Onizuka
The door started opening and then BOOM a gun shot rang out, then my room lights flickered and next thing I knew cdrom shrapnel came shooting outta cd drive.

This part confuses me. If the door was opening, the CD would already have been disengaged from the spindle and have come to a complete stop. Also, the room lights flickering would be incidental to anything happening with the CD-ROM drive, because those circuits are electrically isolated to the 10th degree.

And then the video card problems - it sounds like a few different things all went sour at the same time. Bad luck I guess.

[stan03]

man donny_paycheck you beat me to saying that. i wonder if there are cd shards on the inside of the case? if yes maybe they messed up your vid card.

[Bigdogbmx]

How can all 3 things happen at once? Lights flicker, CD explodes and card goes funny. Could that not be caused by a power surge in teh mains electric?

[Cjwinnit]

Flickering lights was probably the reflections of light off the falling cd particulates..

[xace]

haha it's a mystery

[Sk8erfreak986]

I'm sorry but that is one of the funniest things i have ever heard...

But also a little scary cause my tower basically sits next to my head.

[Mico]

Wow....weird. I just saw that Myth Busters...only CD they could explode at 52x speed was one that had been microwaved...so don't microwave your discs before burning them! =)

[Big_Baller]

Mabye you were copying a copy write protected cd and RIAA is testing some new form of copy protection. :D

[XunknownX]

There you go. RIAA implements exploding copy protection. Now that's a headline!

[Sk8erfreak986]

And the way they do things i would not be surprised if they would pull something like that

[Quattro]

It's kind of amusing, yet I feel it is wrong to laugh.
<smirks, then realizes it's rude>

[stereo555]

Originally posted by Big_Baller
Mabye you were copying a copy write protected cd and RIAA is testing some new form of copy protection. :D

ROFL ....thats a good one . (sneeky little *******)

[Nukemall]

lol thats what they should do to prevent ppl form playing cds in the computher :)

[drunkmonkey]

when the door came out i guess the cd wasn't disengaged for some crazy reason, maybe a short in the cdrom?(lol freak accident), and the cd hit the door mechanism causing it to explode.

So maybe a surge or short or sumthing caused ur vid card to crap out and you cd rom to eject improperly? Thats my guess. (btw idk much about internals and the mechanisms in cd drives)

[BalliN]

Man thats crazy.......glad your still with us :D


Peace,

BalliN

[prankstar008]

Should mention this isnt system in signature, its my HP system.


Thats your problem right there.

(i own 2 hps and I HATE them w/ a pashion.)

[FunkDaMonkMan]

Whew.. my computer sits a/b 5 ft from me facing the other way!


So... how bad did the lights flicker? Did they flicker before or after the drive opened?

[jimstandard]

dude its like the RIAA is using black ice from what gibson was talking about highly illegal of course

[ar47bl13]

Man, that is just crazy!! Glad your ok. I Have heard of this before where my mom works. I probably would of pooed my pants right then and their if it were me though..I hate to but I just HAVE to laugh..LOL!

[k3nshin]

yeh i had a teacher at my school said that she once had a windows cd expload inside a cd drive. lol

[PatrickBateman]

this is bad news. How can they still manufacture these things?
It seems like a grand liability.

"2 inches imbedded" into flesh simulating material!!!
That's potentially leathal. Some gunshot wounds aren't that deep!
It killed your video card as well! that totally sucks!

I microwave most of my discs before burning (as per Martha Stewart's "preheating methodoolgy" guiedlines), but I'm just gonna warm them in the oven or stovetop from now on.

[Rocko[DPC]]

They still manufacture them because they assume people arent total morons. As long as the CD does not have cracks in it, and as long as its rated for 52x, you should have no problems at all.

Everything is dangerous if youre retarded. I have a battery charger right next to me. I could put all the batteries in backwards, and plug it in. Its a really cheap one, and there is no protection circuitry. I'm quite sure within 15 minutes theyll explode spewing burning hot nimh in my eyes.

They make them with the assumption youre smart enough to inspect CDs before putting them in. And make sure youre not trying to burn 16x $.02 media at 52x speeds.

[Fu_Man_Chew]

True. But who's to say the media was the problem. Maybe it was the drive not spining down before ejecting..?

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by Fu_Man_Chew
True. But who's to say the media was the problem. Maybe it was the drive not spining down before ejecting..?
It would have had to. To eject the disk, it has to disengage from the spindle.

[Cjwinnit]

Originally posted by Rocko[DPC]
They still manufacture them because they assume people arent total morons. As long as the CD does not have cracks in it, and as long as its rated for 52x, you should have no problems at all.

Or short-sighted and didn't notice the crack...

[Onizuka]

LOL@RIAA new copyright protection. Liteon emailed me telling me to download new firmware....wtf lol. Guess they dont understand a cd blew up in it.

[Remove]

Are you sure you were not trying o hack into the CIA and they sent a super secret encrypted ultra power burst through the line to explode the disc onto which classified material was being copied?







sorry...been watching conspiracy theory shows for a few hours today......






......I think someone is coming...gotta go!

[ar47bl13]

Originally posted by Onizuka
LOL@RIAA new copyright protection. Liteon emailed me telling me to download new firmware....wtf lol. Guess they dont understand a cd blew up in it.

I guess they didn't take the seriousness of your email..Weird though:rolleyes:

[PhobMX]

dude, would you by any chance post a pic of the drive and maybe some cd debris??? ive never seen anything like that, pls

[Zuzzz]

I have to comment. . . This is the funniest. . . BUT I am glad you were not hurt.

I have read this over a few times. From what it sounds like to me is the disk was not properly spun down. Something happened and the door tried to eject a still spinning CD. I would venture to guess the power surge was a result of the disk suddenly being stopped as the drawer opened and the powersupply was spiked by the spindle motor. It would have dragged a huge current draw at the moment of impact. I have heard then shatter inside and that is usually do to a defective disk.

I'll offer a strange note here: What if the RIAA copy protections somehow freaked out the drive? If this happened when he attempted to eject the drive the disk would have exploded if it have been anywhere close to speed. ALSO remember most drives now auto-detect the media for speed. If that didnt happen proper the unit could have over spun the disk.

Just a few thoughts

Z


PS:: Got any pics of the damage?????

[Avg]

That's is why cd-roms don't get any faster after 30.000 rotations per minute a cd is at a great risk of breaking, it was on tv a couple of nights ago on Tlc "Myth busters" it turned out to be true.

I think you can exchange it.

[Avg]

Ou and by the way they found out that it can really hurt you, on tv it went 1inch deep into a dummy.

[Onizuka]

I didnt take any pics since I dont have a digi cam. =( Sorry

[StillLife]

This happened to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. He was going to play Battlefield 1942 when he heard a loud <CRACK>!!! His cdrom drives door opened and it proceeded to vomit out the remains of the cd... The drive was ruined.. And now if he ever has to reformat he will need to purchase Battlefield 1942 again, because he can still run it off cd #2..

[PCluva]

I had a CD explode in my Aopen CD-RW early last year, drive survived. I was using a CD ROM that I got with a PC mag. Anyway I put it in the drive and started to copy all the contents to my HDD. When I changed the drive speed to full my tower started vibrating like sh*t and then BANG. It realy did sound like a shotgun blast. (My drive normaly runs at 40x read, but you can change it to 48x by pressing and holding the eject butten)

At first I was gonna take the drive back, but I tried it again after clearing out all the peices and it works fine. I do know that CD's left in cars on hot days can warp! I used to keep my CD ROM's on top of my stereo amp, and I think thats what caused the disk to explode, it got warped by the heat off of the amp

[drunkmonkey]

Well, its obvious. Suing us is not enough, so the RIAA is going to kill us with our own burnt cds!!! lmao :D

[Onizuka]

Just found this lil program that came with my nero, Nero Drivespeed. Now my 52x burner and new 52x cdrom are running at a nice and safe 32x lol.

[autoMATTic]

Originally posted by donny_paycheck

It would have had to. To eject the disk, it has to disengage from the spindle.

Not so. I have an Optorite and I once hit the eject button while a CD was in my 52X CD drive and the tray opened with the CD in the tray spinning really fast.