hey, I've got what appears to be the following, according to windows:
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4082B

basically, its a dvd+rw drive.

anyway, the problem I'm having is that every so often, it simply won't
read the disk thats inserted. sometimes it even sounds like the disk
isn't spinning up at all.
you put a cd in, the light on the front flashes for a second, and then
it stops. nothing happens.
but then other times, it works better than any drive I've had in the
past.

I assume this could be a variety of problems, such as dirty laser, bad
tray, misalignments.. but I figure I'd ask here first, before I go
playing with things, like I said in my post about my monitor.. I'm no
technician.

Once, it seemed to have completely stopped working. so I took it
apart, thinking "well, I can't do any further damage to it." and I
didn't see anything visibly wrong, so without touching a thing, I put
it back together. it worked again. but then after about a week or so,
it started acting up again.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

"kronflux" wrote in message
...
hey, I've got what appears to be the following, according to windows:
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4082B

basically, its a dvd+rw drive.

anyway, the problem I'm having is that every so often, it simply won't
read the disk thats inserted. sometimes it even sounds like the disk
isn't spinning up at all.
you put a cd in, the light on the front flashes for a second, and then
it stops. nothing happens.
but then other times, it works better than any drive I've had in the
past.

I assume this could be a variety of problems, such as dirty laser, bad
tray, misalignments.. but I figure I'd ask here first, before I go
playing with things, like I said in my post about my monitor.. I'm no
technician.

Once, it seemed to have completely stopped working. so I took it
apart, thinking "well, I can't do any further damage to it." and I
didn't see anything visibly wrong, so without touching a thing, I put
it back together. it worked again. but then after about a week or so,
it started acting up again.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Open it up and play with it, it might be something easy, otherwise they're
so cheap, just buy a new one and take the old one apart to play with the
bits.

On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 12:08:45 -0800 (PST), kronflux
put finger to keyboard and composed:

hey, I've got what appears to be the following, according to windows:
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4082B

basically, its a dvd+rw drive.

anyway, the problem I'm having is that every so often, it simply won't
read the disk thats inserted. sometimes it even sounds like the disk
isn't spinning up at all.

IIRC, here in Australia LG drives come with a 2-year or 3-year
warranty.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 12:08:45 -0800 (PST), kronflux
put finger to keyboard and composed:


IIRC, here in Australia LG drives come with a 2-year or 3-year
warranty.

Just a guess here, but I'll wager opening it up would void any warranty. As
other posters have noted, try upgrading the firmware. With intermittent
issues, I'd also suspect cabling, both power and data. If you have another
power plug from the supply, swap them around. Ditto with an empty connector
on the ribbon cable, although PC makers seem to have realized that it's
cheaper to give you no spares and make you buy a different cable if you want
to add anything...

DAve S.

"Dave" wrote in message
news:lGg6j.41431$Zn.1690@edtnps90...

"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 12:08:45 -0800 (PST), kronflux
put finger to keyboard and composed:


IIRC, here in Australia LG drives come with a 2-year or 3-year
warranty.

Just a guess here, but I'll wager opening it up would void any warranty.
As other posters have noted, try upgrading the firmware. With
intermittent issues, I'd also suspect cabling, both power and data. If
you have another power plug from the supply, swap them around. Ditto with
an empty connector on the ribbon cable, although PC makers seem to have
realized that it's cheaper to give you no spares and make you buy a
different cable if you want to add anything...

DAve S.

Try the easy stuff first. If it is a belt driven tray, then the belt may
well be getting marginal and starting to slip. In this case, the tray does
the easy bit, and slides back in, but then the belt really comes under load,
when it has to bring the deck up under the disc, to press it into the clamp.
This is the time when it really slips, and the loading sequence does not
quite complete, and the disc is not left free to rotate. If it starts acting
up, open the tray, then close again,'helping' it along with some firm - but
not silly - finger pressure. The extra inertia imparted is often enough to
carry the loading sequence through to the end. May be way off-beam with your
particular drive, but many computer ones are belt driven, and it is common
for them to suffer symptoms like you describe, when the belt gets worn.

Arfa

Try the easy stuff first. If it is a belt driven tray, then the belt may
well be getting marginal and starting to slip. In this case, the tray does
the easy bit, and slides back in, but then the belt really comes under load,
when it has to bring the deck up under the disc, to press it into the clamp.
This is the time when it really slips, and the loading sequence does not
quite complete, and the disc is not left free to rotate. If it starts acting
up, open the tray, then close again,'helping' it along with some firm - but
not silly - finger pressure. The extra inertia imparted is often enough to
carry the loading sequence through to the end. May be way off-beam with your
particular drive, but many computer ones are belt driven, and it is common
for them to suffer symptoms like you describe, when the belt gets worn.

Arfa

at the very least, its something to look into, perhaps, if this is the
problem, I can replace the belt or something. tinker a little bit and
get it to function properly. I'll look into it! thanks for the info.

i had the same prob with my LG
i updated the firmware, now it reads
anything.

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:08:45 -0800, kronflux wrote:

hey, I've got what appears to be the following, according to windows:
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4082B

basically, its a dvd+rw drive.

anyway, the problem I'm having is that every so often, it simply won't
read the disk thats inserted. sometimes it even sounds like the disk
isn't spinning up at all.
you put a cd in, the light on the front flashes for a second, and then
it stops. nothing happens.
but then other times, it works better than any drive I've had in the
past.

I assume this could be a variety of problems, such as dirty laser, bad
tray, misalignments.. but I figure I'd ask here first, before I go
playing with things, like I said in my post about my monitor.. I'm no
technician.

Once, it seemed to have completely stopped working. so I took it
apart, thinking "well, I can't do any further damage to it." and I
didn't see anything visibly wrong, so without touching a thing, I put
it back together. it worked again. but then after about a week or so,
it started acting up again.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Try a firmware upgrade, one LG drive I had acted funny and the upgrade
cured it. If that doesn't help, replace it.

i had the same prob with my LG
i updated the firmware, now it reads
anything.

"kronflux" wrote in message
...
hey, I've got what appears to be the following, according to windows:
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4082B

basically, its a dvd+rw drive.

anyway, the problem I'm having is that every so often, it simply won't
read the disk thats inserted. sometimes it even sounds like the disk
isn't spinning up at all.
you put a cd in, the light on the front flashes for a second, and then
it stops. nothing happens.
but then other times, it works better than any drive I've had in the
past.

I assume this could be a variety of problems, such as dirty laser, bad
tray, misalignments.. but I figure I'd ask here first, before I go
playing with things, like I said in my post about my monitor.. I'm no
technician.

Once, it seemed to have completely stopped working. so I took it
apart, thinking "well, I can't do any further damage to it." and I
didn't see anything visibly wrong, so without touching a thing, I put
it back together. it worked again. but then after about a week or so,
it started acting up again.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.