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CD Blew, Near Death Experience

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Onizuka

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
Location
Texas
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Ya I saw that Myth Busters lol that was cool. atleast it wasnt my burner that did this, then I would be really ****ed.
 
Onizuka said:
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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
Flickering lights was probably the reflections of light off the falling cd particulates..
 
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.
 
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! =)
 
It's kind of amusing, yet I feel it is wrong to laugh.
<smirks, then realizes it's rude>
 
Big_Baller said:
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 *******)
 
lol thats what they should do to prevent ppl form playing cds in the computher :)
 
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)
 
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