[Lula] Resurrecting old systems... cd-rom drive lifetimes

[Peter Benjamin]

At 02:33 AM 1/29/2007, you wrote:
> but the cd-rom drive had read errors

Or the CD did.  Clean the CD?

>halfway through installation.  I disassembled it to
>see if it was dust, but the lens looked clean.
>I tried blowing it off anyway with canned air,
>but that didn't change much.

I read the world's best CDROM repair FAQ, all 32 pages.
I stored a copy on a computer, and have upgraded twice,
so can not find it.  Google had too many hits.

Here is what I recall.

The lens is mounted on a fine spring tray, and the 
rapid air can break, bend, twist, tweak, these
fine springs.  So, if you must spray air, then
hold the lens steady with one finger.  Oh, these
springs are so fine, even that may break them.

So, what should one do?

Use a fine brush.  If that does not work, then use
a soft lint free cloth with water on it, and lightly
touch the wet cloth to the lens.  Work back and forth.
Dry with a dry corner of the cloth.  Use soap, a super
small amount, like 1 drop per cup of water.  Repeat.

What the brush gets off is hair, and dust and other
particles.

What the soap and water gets off is grease.  Grease you say?

Well, that is what the CDROM Repair FAQ said.  It even said
where it comes from.  Off the bottom of the CDROM.  You
touch that bottom with fingers, putting grease on it, and
that grease must go somewhere.  All over the inside of
your laser device.  50X rotation will do wonders for
moving grease to the edge of the CD where it "drops" off,
and splatters at high speed ...

Once the lens get slightly greasy, the focus goes off,
and the speed control goes off, and errors start happening.

My 200 disc CD Jukebox went this way.

The first cleaning fixed it for about 50 CDs.
The second cleaning for about 20.
Then I stopped using it.  Sigh.