Mat****a CW-7503 8x SCSI CD burner.

When a blank disc is inserted, the busy LED comes on and the drive makes
odd rattling sounds while it thinks about the disc. It has done this
since new, but originally the busy LED and rattling lasted 10-15
seconds. Over time it has gradually increased to the point the drive now
takes 10-15 minutes (!) to accept a blank disc. I've tried most brands
of media with no change in symptoms. The drive accepts non-blank media
(pressed or burned) within 15 seconds, i.e. the problem is specific to
blank discs. Once it finally accepts the blank (it always does
eventually), there are no issues during the burning process and the
burned discs work just fine.

I opened the drive and found a piece of thin, clear plastic under the
laser head assembly (covering the ribbon cable attachment point) had
warped and was catching on a protrusion moulded into the frame, which
prevented the head from travelling to the outer edge of the disc. I
unscrewed the plastic, turned it over, replaced it, then confirmed the
head was now able to travel smoothly between the bump-stops at either
extreme. While I was there, I cleaned the lens, head rails, and worm
gear with 99% isopropyl alcohol on a Q-tip, and lightly re-lubed the
rails and gear with white lithium grease.

All this made absolutely no difference to the drive's behavior - which
is not surprising since the blank media information is stored on the
inner edge of the disc, whereas the problem I corrected prevented the
laser from reaching the outer edge - so should only have manifested when
reading or writing full discs. The head definitely was, and still is,
able to travel smoothly to the inner bump-stop.

Any and all suggestions appreciated...

TIA

Sunny

This is a longshot, but:

I had an older SCSI drive once which would not burn a CD after a while.
Updating the firmware solved the problem. My theory was the optical
components drift out of spec with age, and the newer firmware corrected for
that. Or maybe it was just media compatability. 8-)

So see if there is newer firmware.

Once burned, it reads the burned discs fine? I think that ll it does when
you insert it is to read the ATIP...

I would think that something is wearing out in the drive. It may be that
with use, that something became out of calibration, or there is something
that is failing.

In this case I would seriously consider replacing the drive. The newer
drives are also improved. Their reliability is better, and they are a lot
faster working than the ones from a few years ago.

--

Jerry G.
======


"Sunny" wrote in message
. ..
Mat****a CW-7503 8x SCSI CD burner.

When a blank disc is inserted, the busy LED comes on and the drive makes
odd rattling sounds while it thinks about the disc. It has done this since
new, but originally the busy LED and rattling lasted 10-15 seconds. Over
time it has gradually increased to the point the drive now takes 10-15
minutes (!) to accept a blank disc. I've tried most brands of media with
no change in symptoms. The drive accepts non-blank media (pressed or
burned) within 15 seconds, i.e. the problem is specific to blank discs.
Once it finally accepts the blank (it always does eventually), there are
no issues during the burning process and the burned discs work just fine.

I opened the drive and found a piece of thin, clear plastic under the
laser head assembly (covering the ribbon cable attachment point) had
warped and was catching on a protrusion moulded into the frame, which
prevented the head from travelling to the outer edge of the disc. I
unscrewed the plastic, turned it over, replaced it, then confirmed the
head was now able to travel smoothly between the bump-stops at either
extreme. While I was there, I cleaned the lens, head rails, and worm gear
with 99% isopropyl alcohol on a Q-tip, and lightly re-lubed the rails and
gear with white lithium grease.

All this made absolutely no difference to the drive's behavior - which is
not surprising since the blank media information is stored on the inner
edge of the disc, whereas the problem I corrected prevented the laser from
reaching the outer edge - so should only have manifested when reading or
writing full discs. The head definitely was, and still is, able to travel
smoothly to the inner bump-stop.

Any and all suggestions appreciated...

TIA

Sunny

"Sunny" wrote in message
. ..
Mat****a CW-7503 8x SCSI CD burner.

When a blank disc is inserted, the busy LED comes on and the drive makes
odd rattling sounds while it thinks about the disc. It has done this since
new, but originally the busy LED and rattling lasted 10-15 seconds. Over
time it has gradually increased to the point the drive now takes 10-15
minutes (!) to accept a blank disc. I've tried most brands of media with
no change in symptoms. The drive accepts non-blank media (pressed or
burned) within 15 seconds, i.e. the problem is specific to blank discs.
Once it finally accepts the blank (it always does eventually), there are
no issues during the burning process and the burned discs work just fine.

I opened the drive and found a piece of thin, clear plastic under the
laser head assembly (covering the ribbon cable attachment point) had
warped and was catching on a protrusion moulded into the frame, which
prevented the head from travelling to the outer edge of the disc. I
unscrewed the plastic, turned it over, replaced it, then confirmed the
head was now able to travel smoothly between the bump-stops at either
extreme. While I was there, I cleaned the lens, head rails, and worm gear
with 99% isopropyl alcohol on a Q-tip, and lightly re-lubed the rails and
gear with white lithium grease.

All this made absolutely no difference to the drive's behavior - which is
not surprising since the blank media information is stored on the inner
edge of the disc, whereas the problem I corrected prevented the laser from
reaching the outer edge - so should only have manifested when reading or
writing full discs. The head definitely was, and still is, able to travel
smoothly to the inner bump-stop.

Any and all suggestions appreciated...

TIA

Sunny

I think you've done about all you can. Time to replace the drive.

Mark Z.

Phillip Remaker wrote:
This is a longshot, but:

I had an older SCSI drive once which would not burn a CD after a while.
Updating the firmware solved the problem. My theory was the optical
components drift out of spec with age, and the newer firmware corrected for
that. Or maybe it was just media compatability. 8-)

So see if there is newer firmware.

There was, and I installed it. No change :-(

Once burned, it reads the burned discs fine?

Yes, it accepts any disc *other* than a blank in 15 seconds or less, and
reads them without a problem.

I think that ll it does when you insert it is to read the ATIP...

I'd forgotten the acronym, so I said "blank media information", but yes,
I believe it reads the ATIP and calibrates itself accordingly. This
appears to be the problem area.

Thanks for your input.

you can get a good burner these days for ~ $50. Sounds like time to replace.

"Sunny" wrote in message
. ..
Mat****a CW-7503 8x SCSI CD burner.

When a blank disc is inserted, the busy LED comes on and the drive makes
odd rattling sounds while it thinks about the disc. It has done this
since new, but originally the busy LED and rattling lasted 10-15
seconds. Over time it has gradually increased to the point the drive now
takes 10-15 minutes (!) to accept a blank disc. I've tried most brands
of media with no change in symptoms. The drive accepts non-blank media
(pressed or burned) within 15 seconds, i.e. the problem is specific to
blank discs. Once it finally accepts the blank (it always does
eventually), there are no issues during the burning process and the
burned discs work just fine.

I opened the drive and found a piece of thin, clear plastic under the
laser head assembly (covering the ribbon cable attachment point) had
warped and was catching on a protrusion moulded into the frame, which
prevented the head from travelling to the outer edge of the disc. I
unscrewed the plastic, turned it over, replaced it, then confirmed the
head was now able to travel smoothly between the bump-stops at either
extreme. While I was there, I cleaned the lens, head rails, and worm
gear with 99% isopropyl alcohol on a Q-tip, and lightly re-lubed the
rails and gear with white lithium grease.

All this made absolutely no difference to the drive's behavior - which
is not surprising since the blank media information is stored on the
inner edge of the disc, whereas the problem I corrected prevented the
laser from reaching the outer edge - so should only have manifested when
reading or writing full discs. The head definitely was, and still is,
able to travel smoothly to the inner bump-stop.

Any and all suggestions appreciated...

TIA

Sunny


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"Mike Kennedy" wrote in message
ink.net...
| you can get a good burner these days for ~ $50. Sounds like time to
replace.

You should be able to get a good DVD burner for that - or less.

N

NSM wrote:
"Mike Kennedy" wrote in message
ink.net...
| you can get a good burner these days for ~ $50. Sounds like time to
replace.

You should be able to get a good DVD burner for that - or less.

N

Yes, thanks - I understand my options, but I have good reasons for
preferring repair if possible.

Good SCSI CD-R drives are not cheap, and SCSI DVD-R drives don't seem to
be available at any price.

I purchased an IDE DVD-R a couple of months ago, but after many
frustrating hours gave up on getting it to work properly in my system -
one IDE device in an otherwise all-SCSI workstation was not a happy
combination. The IDE DVD-R works fine in my other half's IDE-only system.

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 18:32:49 -0500, Sunny wrote:


Yes, thanks - I understand my options, but I have good reasons for
preferring repair if possible.

Good SCSI CD-R drives are not cheap, and SCSI DVD-R drives don't seem to
be available at any price.

I purchased an IDE DVD-R a couple of months ago, but after many
frustrating hours gave up on getting it to work properly in my system -
one IDE device in an otherwise all-SCSI workstation was not a happy
combination. The IDE DVD-R works fine in my other half's IDE-only system.

IDE should work fine for DVD recording as long as you have UDMA.

If you're using Windows, make sure DMA mode is enabled for the DVD-R
drive. It's usually set to PIO only by default. This will result in
HEAVY CPU usage and buffer under runs. The setting is in the device
manager under either the drive's properties, or the IDE channel's
properties depending on the version of Windows.
Andy Cuffe

If you're using Windows, make sure DMA mode is enabled for the DVD-R
drive. It's usually set to PIO only by default. This will result in
HEAVY CPU usage and buffer under runs.

Don't forget, use an 80 conductor UDMA cable instead of a standard 40 conductor
IDE cable, especially if the drive is expected to run higher than UDMA33 (and
even then, you'd still want a UDMA cable). - Reinhart

On 22 Nov 2004 04:16:51 GMT, LASERandDVDfan wrote:
If you're using Windows, make sure DMA mode is enabled for the DVD-R
drive. It's usually set to PIO only by default. This will result in
HEAVY CPU usage and buffer under runs.

Don't forget, use an 80 conductor UDMA cable instead of a standard 40 conductor
IDE cable, especially if the drive is expected to run higher than UDMA33 (and
even then, you'd still want a UDMA cable). - Reinhart

udma33 requires the same 40 conductor cable and drives that are faster than that
are rare. 80 conductor cables are only required for udma5 or udma 6 (100, 133)