CD and DVD drive reliability

2004-05-07 14:06:30

I would like to have this be a sticky post/survey. Let's see how the drives last, not just how they do out of the box. Please include readers and burners. Unfortunately, the number of choices I could give are severely limited.

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #1 – 2004-05-07 14:35:57

Some stupid questions.

Why can I only select one maker? Why not multiple choice?

Why include makers who don't make any of their own drives (memorex, tdk currently)? If a Memorex failed, it could have been LiteOn, BTC, Nec, etc...

What will the figures tell?

The sellers who make/sell most drives will probably have greatest number of failed drives...

regards,
halcyon

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #2 – 2004-05-07 14:54:59

6 drives failing on me in 6 years ...

Two Cyberdrive 24x CD-ROM (built-in OEM drives in my PII-266 - brand new, failed after 3 months each)
One LiteOn 24x CD-ROM (failed after a year)
One LiteOn 36x CD-ROM (built-in OEM drive in my former PC at work - failed after 3 months without even using it just from powering on/off the PC)
One Plextor PX40TSi (showed random read failures after 2 years - since I bought it second-hand, I cannot determine how long it has been in use before but I gave this drive a lot of stress with EAC)
One Yamaha 6416S CDRW (failed after 2 years and about 500 burned CD's)

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #3 – 2004-05-07 15:52:18

My TEAC writer and reader, failed after 6 Years. I think thats a quite long time.

Another reason why this survey wont tell anything: the question is just IF a drive failed - but not after how many years - and as we all know: EVERY drive will fail someday.

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #4 – 2004-05-07 16:01:36

ALL of my former drive failed:

*mitsumi reader
*panasonic reader
*jvc writer
*philips writer
*pioneer reader
*panasonic reader
*panasonic writer

... and the list will of course grow

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #5 – 2004-05-07 16:11:34

Dude. You forgot HP. Think there are more people than me who've had one of those die on us.

Mine was a HP 9100i 8x CD-burner.

Also had an Acer 50x gone quite wrong. Started behaving wierdly.

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #6 – 2004-05-07 16:30:07

As I mentioned above, I would love to have included more manufacturers. The Forum coughed at my long list . If a moderator knows how we can let a person cast more than one vote that would be great.
It would also help to know how long the drive ran before failure.

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #7 – 2004-05-07 16:32:24

As to the concern about a brand being a relabled OEM unit, I do know know if they are built on the exact same specs. It seems quite unlikely based on my experience with other products.

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #8 – 2004-05-08 02:53:57

Never had a drive die:

32x HP OEM cdrom still works ~5 years old
12x LG 8120B over 3000 burns
12x Hitatchi GD7500 dvdrom used as reader for EAC before I got:
52x LiteOn 52327s (2nd rev)

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #9 – 2004-05-08 03:07:05

I still have my first burner. An HP 9200e SCSI burner. 8x.  I've had an Opto-Rite DD0203 fail on me (it was DOA really) and I have a Plextor 24x that's still working fine.

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #10 – 2004-05-08 17:45:25

Had a Toshiba DVD drive that started acting up 2 years into its usage, it would sometimes not copy files from a data disc completely and cause Win98 to crash, however I dearly miss it for its audio extraction capabilities. It completely died (tray would auto-eject and not stay in) after 4 years of very hard usage which was countless hours of listening to audio CD's, uncountable reinstalls of Win98 and all software, and the ripping of 2000 plus cds.

I don't expect too many drives to last that long if heavily used, especially with all the heat buildup that goes with numerous hours of audio extraction.

I think it's important to look at what the manufacturer's place on the packaging or from other info such as "MTBF ("Expected Time Before Failure")":
JLMS XJ-HD166 DVD DRIVE - MTBF ("Expected Time Before Failure"):
70,000 Power On Hours with 20% Duty (20% Duty is 14,000 Hours)

TEAC DV-W58E 8X DVD+RW DRIVE - MTBF ("Expected Time Before Failure"):
60,000 Power On Hours or more with 10% duty (10% Duty is 6000 hours)

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #11 – 2004-05-08 18:55:57

My Yamaha CRW-F1E stopped being able to burn CDs after a year and a half. So far that's the only failure I've run into, but sadly it was on the best drive I've ever had.

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #12 – 2004-05-09 07:25:47

At least the following I can remember:

2 x Ricoh CD-R/DVD combo
3 x Yamaha CD-R
1 x HP CD-R
1 x Plextor CD-R
1 x Hitachi DVD-ROM
1 x Pioneer DVD-ROM

Not all failed in an obvious way. Some just started acting up and wouldn't work properly. For example Yamaha's/Ricoh's would refuse to burn on anything except TY media (while some drives failed totally in the end). Can't remember models, too long time ago.

regards,
halcyon

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #13 – 2004-05-09 09:18:20

Ricoh 12x CD-R: died after 1 year, 1 month.
Afreey 12x DVD-ROM: died after 18 months.
Pioneer DVD-116 DVD-ROM: died after 8 months.
Lite-on 16x CD-ROM: eject stopped working after 18 months.

NEC 32x SCSI CD-ROM: working after 4 years.
Panasonic 4x SCSI CD-R: working after 5 years.
Plextor 12x CD-R: working after 2 years.
Aopen 32x CD-R: working after 2 years.

Brand loyalty, what's that?? 

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #14 – 2004-05-18 17:34:34

I would still like to see more votes and feedback on this thread. I would appreciate it if a moderator could help to make the results more useful and make it sticky.

DAE seems to be a regular question, so it seems like a sticky drive thread would be a good idea.

CD and DVD drive reliability

Reply #15 – 2004-05-18 18:16:51

A Pioneer DVR-A03 b0rked after 2 years, a Plextor 708 was behaving strangely from beginning, failed after some months (Plextor replaced it within 3 work-days).