Ouch! CD just blew up in my cd-rom drive!

Papier · Apr 9, 2004

I've heard of horror stories about how cds exploding in drives, but I was an ignorant fellow and didn't expect it to happen. Well, it happened to my mother. She said that she heard a loud pop and she came and got me. We managed to only salvage 1/3 of the cd. Rest of it is still in the cd drive. The CD tray can't close because of all the shards jamming it.

I'm gonna take it out tomorrow and see if I can salvage the cd-rom. Any chance of it actually surviving or do I need a new one?

dead_man311 · Apr 9, 2004

might be able to save it , really cant tell. goodluck with it

is it a 52x ?

DayUSeX · Apr 9, 2004

dang thats crazy post some pics of the mayhem if you can, im sure it will be very intersting.

SimGuy · Apr 9, 2004

Send those pics off to MaximumPC magazine. I remember reading an older issue (mid 2001) where someone's I/O Magic 56x CD-ROM had jutted out of the desktop AT case because the guy's son had placed the NBA-Jam CD in the drive and it had a slight crack in it.

Thing spin's up.... BOOM. Shatters in the drive, pieces fly out, the drive juts out of the case.

As for needing a new drive, yes. You'll need a new one. Even if you could dig out all the shrapnel, the drive may have been permenantly damaged due to component damage from the flying CD shards.

Play it safe and grab a new CD-ROM, or for a few extra dollars, a DVD-ROM.

Cjwinnit · Apr 9, 2004

Didn't manage to fix mine after it nuked itself.

Lat · Apr 9, 2004

it's probably dead

yeah, just get a new one, they're pretty darn inexpensive anyways

Mr.Radar · Apr 9, 2004

If someone has 15 megs of webspace I could upload a video clip from the Discovery Channel's Myth Buster's TV program where they blow up CDs.

Papier · Apr 9, 2004

I will try to get pics of it later when I got a camera. Right now it's not here and with a bunch of car nuts.

As for the webspace, I got plenty. I'll set up a temp FTP account for you to upload to, if you're willing to do that. My main email is down and I can't get any email.

Agent_Mull · Apr 9, 2004

Yeah that myth busters thing was the best. I think they managed to blow them up using cd rom motors, but then use a router motor and really got them to break. THEN they ran 220 Volts thru the router...

Breadfan · Apr 9, 2004

Yeah you should send a letter to mythbusters, let them know. They had trouble getting it to blow in their 56x drive they bought. The thing is, it's not something that happens all the time, but I remember watching that episode going "I KNOW THIS HAPPENS!!!" I don't think they were too convinced how much it actually happens though...

The real question is, is it cheap CD's, cracked CD's, worn out or unbalanced CD's, or is it cheap CD drives that are failing and over volting their motors thus spinning the discs past 56k.

Oddly enough, this didn't ever seem to be a problem on the old 72x Kenwood drives...so what then...is it just cheapo drives?

Papier · Apr 9, 2004

Or better yet, tell me your icq/msn handle and we'll just tranfser it over that. easier for both of us

I.M.O.G. · Apr 9, 2004

Why would you advise someone to just go buy a new drive, while you don't even know if the one they have is damaged? You can lose a CD like this in even a 40 or 48x drive too if the disc is damaged.

Buying a new drive because you lost a CD in yours would just be silly... Opening up the drive case and giving it a good shimmy to get the shards out of it is simple enough. Inspect and get anything that didn't fall out on its own, look carefully around the moving parts and gears. Put the drive back in and fire it up to see if it still works. If it happens again I would replace the drive, otherwise, just forget it ever happened.

I think I know the answer to your "odd" proposition Breadfan - I was under the impression that 72x Kenwoods used multiple heads at the same time and their rotational velocity was actually much lower. I think thats the case atleast - Perhaps you are referencing another drive as I forget the names of the drives that did this, but I know there have been drives who achieved higher read speeds by reading with more than just one laser.

me12345 · Apr 9, 2004

I once used a dvd that had a crack spanning an entire side of the CD (from the outside all the way to the middle). I put it in my DVD drive to play (I of course didn't realise it was cracked at the time), and while it didn't actually read, nothing blew up. It was however a very expensive laptop CDRW/DVD drive. I've always suspected that this problem is mostly the fault of cheap drives without proper balancing.

BTW, your drive is almost certainly hosed. I strongly doubt anything as sensitive as an optical read head could have survived the... "event"

I.M.O.G. · Apr 9, 2004

The optical read head probably took little if any damage - everything would be firing outwards, not towards it. If theres anything wrong with the drive, it is likely mechanical problems from the shards being jammed in places they don't belong.

TheTick · Apr 9, 2004

All I know is that I had a PS2 that got knocked over by some movers when I moved. Played some games fine, some, but also developed a loud ticking noise, and wouldnt play any movies.

The only thing you can do here is try to get everything out, see if anything is left inside (softly shake it and listen for anything). Then try it, and it might work for some, but if the laser was hit with any of the pieces, it could be damaged. (you could aldo try to take it apart too and visually inspect the insides)

Yuriman · Apr 9, 2004

Lol, im gonna set up an old pc with a spare 52x drive and crack a cd. I have to try this!

penquissciguy · Apr 9, 2004

Breadfan said:
Oddly enough, this didn't ever seem to be a problem on the old 72x Kenwood drives...so what then...is it just cheapo drives?

I'm pretty sure the Kenwood drives were multiread drives. They had multiple lasers that could read files off different parts of the disk at one time. They didn't spin the discs as fast as today's single read laser drives.

Ken

N1vek215 · Apr 9, 2004

so are you all saying that 52x is the highest a cd-rom drive can possible go, because of not, the cd blows up?? if so, then no wonder I haven't seen anything passed 52x for such a looong time. and Yes I remember Babbages sold those 72x drives, I think they were $150 at the time? or was it $300??

Yuriman · Apr 9, 2004

They have 56x drives, havnt seen more.

dead_man311 · Apr 9, 2004

im going to stick with my 48x , no point going to a 52x when there blowing up disc's

Ouch! CD just blew up in my cd-rom drive!

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