Dear NG,

I´d like to ask a few questions about CD-RW drives. I better however
start with a short story of how mine became out of order.

The tray was not coming out completely so I decided to repair it...
unfortunately I wasn´t at a very good mood, I however managed to make
the tray come out properly by doing a bit of lubrication (with vegetable
oil.. I know it wasn´t the best lubricant but I wasn´t thinking then).
Then after sometime this problem repeated, so I did something which I
don´t exactly remember but somehow the tray got stuck in the drive and
could not come out anymore. I used a little force and managed to pry it
out. But then I felt something was broken and that it wasn´t able to
read CDs anymore.

After disassembling the drive, I realized that the optical drive had a
black plastic cover that sorounds the laser diode (or laser light
source, whatever that is), and it was broken and I in fact found that
broken piece. I then glued it back. ... but well ... it cant read CDs
anymore. I wonder if its already hopeless to make this CD drive work (I
can of course buy a new one, but I´d also love to learn and experiment
with the mechanism of this one. It will be a good punishment for me and
give me a lesson not to damage a gadget more than it is already damaged).

Also, I found a website that has everything about CD-repairs and
apparently it was an extract from sci.electronics.repair. But
unfortunately I am unable to recall this site. If anyone knows it, I´d
be glad if he could share it with me.

Many thanks.

Sincerely,
Jose Capco

Jose Capco writes:

Dear NG,

I´d like to ask a few questions about CD-RW drives. I better however
start with a short story of how mine became out of order.

The tray was not coming out completely so I decided to repair
it... unfortunately I wasn´t at a very good mood, I however managed to
make the tray come out properly by doing a bit of lubrication (with
vegetable oil.. I know it wasn´t the best lubricant but I wasn´t
thinking then). Then after sometime this problem repeated, so I did
something which I don´t exactly remember but somehow the tray got
stuck in the drive and could not come out anymore. I used a little
force and managed to pry it out. But then I felt something was broken
and that it wasn´t able to read CDs anymore.

After disassembling the drive, I realized that the optical drive had a
black plastic cover that sorounds the laser diode (or laser light
source, whatever that is), and it was broken and I in fact found that
broken piece. I then glued it back. ... but well ... it cant read
CDs anymore. I wonder if its already hopeless to make this CD drive
work (I can of course buy a new one, but I´d also love to learn and
experiment with the mechanism of this one. It will be a good
punishment for me and give me a lesson not to damage a gadget more
than it is already damaged).

Also, I found a website that has everything about CD-repairs and
apparently it was an extract from sci.electronics.repair. But
unfortunately I am unable to recall this site. If anyone knows it, I´d
be glad if he could share it with me.

If the black piece is just the cover over the optical pickup, that's
irrelevant and the drive would work without it. However, the fact that
it is broken suggests that there may indeed be other more serious problems
caused when you forced the tray out.

If you want to learn, go to the CD repair guide at the sites below.

But probably best to just buy a new one for now.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Mirror: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Note: These links are hopefully temporary until we can sort out the excessive
traffic on Repairfaq.org.

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header is ignored.
To contact me, please use the feedback form on the S.E.R FAQ Web sites.

Jose Capco wrote:


Also, I found a website that has everything about CD-repairs and
apparently it was an extract from sci.electronics.repair. But
unfortunately I am unable to recall this site. If anyone knows it, I´d
be glad if he could share it with me.


http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/
---
Ing. Remberto Gomez-Meda
http://ingemeda.tripod.com/
INGE - Ingenieria Electronica.
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico.

Maybe the piece got caught by the tray and in forcing the tray to move, it
changed the laser alignment.

WT

"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
Jose Capco writes:

Dear NG,

I´d like to ask a few questions about CD-RW drives. I better however
start with a short story of how mine became out of order.

The tray was not coming out completely so I decided to repair
it... unfortunately I wasn´t at a very good mood, I however managed to
make the tray come out properly by doing a bit of lubrication (with
vegetable oil.. I know it wasn´t the best lubricant but I wasn´t
thinking then). Then after sometime this problem repeated, so I did
something which I don´t exactly remember but somehow the tray got
stuck in the drive and could not come out anymore. I used a little
force and managed to pry it out. But then I felt something was broken
and that it wasn´t able to read CDs anymore.

After disassembling the drive, I realized that the optical drive had a
black plastic cover that sorounds the laser diode (or laser light
source, whatever that is), and it was broken and I in fact found that
broken piece. I then glued it back. ... but well ... it cant read
CDs anymore. I wonder if its already hopeless to make this CD drive
work (I can of course buy a new one, but I´d also love to learn and
experiment with the mechanism of this one. It will be a good
punishment for me and give me a lesson not to damage a gadget more
than it is already damaged).

Also, I found a website that has everything about CD-repairs and
apparently it was an extract from sci.electronics.repair. But
unfortunately I am unable to recall this site. If anyone knows it, I´d
be glad if he could share it with me.

If the black piece is just the cover over the optical pickup, that's
irrelevant and the drive would work without it. However, the fact that
it is broken suggests that there may indeed be other more serious problems
caused when you forced the tray out.

If you want to learn, go to the CD repair guide at the sites below.

But probably best to just buy a new one for now.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Mirror:
http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ:
http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites:
http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Note: These links are hopefully temporary until we can sort out the
excessive
traffic on Repairfaq.org.

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header is
ignored.
To contact me, please use the feedback form on the S.E.R FAQ Web sites.