What is wrong with optical drives these days?

As some of you may know, I recently had an experience where both of my
DVD burners burnt out at the exact same time. These two older burners
were attached to the same IDE cable & channel, so I'm blaming their
physically common attachment point for the problem. Prior to their
failure, one of them was issuing sporadic but continuous error messages
in the Windows event logs, namely Event ID 11, "The driver detected a
controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePortX" several times in a row.

So I replaced both of those old DVD drives with a new Blu-Ray burner
optical drive. Now I'm receiving the same sort of sporadic error
messages from the new drive, Event ID 11: "The driver detected a
controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort2."

Now, the new drive isn't attached to the same IDE controller as the old
drives were. In fact, the new one isn't even connected to an IDE
controller at all, it's actually attached to a very different plug-in
PCI-e SATA board. The standard driver just happens to see it as an IDE
controller. Despite this major difference, the same sort of problem is
cropping up.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote:

As some of you may know, I recently had an experience where both of my DVD burners burnt out at the exact same time.
These two older burners were attached to the same IDE cable & channel, so I'm blaming their physically common
attachment point for the problem.

I cant see how that is even possible physically with a real burn out.

Prior to their failure, one of them was issuing sporadic but continuous error messages in the Windows event logs,
namely Event ID 11, "The driver
detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePortX" several times in a row.

So I replaced both of those old DVD drives with a new Blu-Ray burner optical drive. Now I'm receiving the same sort of
sporadic error messages from the new drive, Event ID 11: "The driver detected a controller error on
\Device\Ide\IdePort2."

So the real problem is actually something
common to them all like the power supply etc.

Now, the new drive isn't attached to the same IDE controller as the old drives were. In fact, the new one isn't even
connected to an IDE controller at all, it's actually attached to a very different plug-in PCI-e SATA board. The
standard driver just happens to see it as an IDE controller. Despite this major difference, the same sort of problem
is cropping up.

Presumably the power supply is the problem.

Certainly the best thing to try now.

Yousuf Khan wrote:
As some of you may know, I recently had an experience where both of my
DVD burners burnt out at the exact same time. These two older burners
were attached to the same IDE cable & channel, so I'm blaming their
physically common attachment point for the problem. Prior to their
failure, one of them was issuing sporadic but continuous error messages
in the Windows event logs, namely Event ID 11, "The driver detected a
controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePortX" several times in a row.

So I replaced both of those old DVD drives with a new Blu-Ray burner
optical drive. Now I'm receiving the same sort of sporadic error
messages from the new drive, Event ID 11: "The driver detected a
controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort2."

Now, the new drive isn't attached to the same IDE controller as the old
drives were. In fact, the new one isn't even connected to an IDE
controller at all, it's actually attached to a very different plug-in
PCI-e SATA board. The standard driver just happens to see it as an IDE
controller. Despite this major difference, the same sort of problem is
cropping up.

Yousuf Khan

Maybe a faulty chipset or memory problem?

Arno

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On 16/03/2012 2:29 AM, Rod Speed wrote:
Presumably the power supply is the problem.

Certainly the best thing to try now.

It's a possibility. It's a relatively recent 700W unit, that's probably
less than 5 years old right now. And I would've expected maybe to see
some similar messages from the hard drives in the system, but always
seems to be just the optical drives.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Presumably the power supply is the problem.

Certainly the best thing to try now.

It's a possibility. It's a relatively recent 700W unit, that's probably less than 5 years old right now. And I
would've expected maybe to see some similar messages from the hard drives in the
system, but always seems to be just the optical drives.

Yebbut I cant see anything else that would be a problem
with a whole series of optical drives, particularly with that
blue ray drive on a SATA controller with an adapter.

I just dont buy arno's chipset or ram possibility with the blue ray
drive on the sata controller tho the chipset is marginally possible.

Its much more likely to be the power supply and much easier to try swapping that.

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:32:45 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:

On 16/03/2012 2:29 AM, Rod Speed wrote:
Presumably the power supply is the problem.

Certainly the best thing to try now.

It's a possibility. It's a relatively recent 700W unit, that's probably
less than 5 years old right now. And I would've expected maybe to see
some similar messages from the hard drives in the system, but always
seems to be just the optical drives.

Five years old is a good time to open PS up and check for bulging caps,
replace bulging caps or the PS if so. It's common to find too few caps
fitted for PS rating, thus they overheat (due to high ripple current),
and the magic goo leaks out.

Grant.

Yousuf Khan

On 3/16/2012 5:54 PM PT, Grant typed:

Five years old is a good time to open PS up and check for bulging caps,
replace bulging caps or the PS if so. It's common to find too few caps
fitted for PS rating, thus they overheat (due to high ripple current),
and the magic goo leaks out.

Even with good PSU brands like SeaSonic?
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Ant wrote
Grant wrote

Five years old is a good time to open PS up and check for bulging caps, replace bulging caps or the PS if so. It's
common to find too few caps fitted for PS rating, thus they overheat (due to high ripple current), and the magic goo
leaks out.

Even with good PSU brands like SeaSonic?

Not with the best brands unless you see symptoms that could be due ot the power supply.

In the last episode of ,
Ant said:

On 3/16/2012 5:54 PM PT, Grant typed:

Five years old is a good time to open PS up and check for bulging caps,
replace bulging caps or the PS if so. It's common to find too few caps
fitted for PS rating, thus they overheat (due to high ripple current),
and the magic goo leaks out.

Even with good PSU brands like SeaSonic?

Sure. Lots of manufacturers have gotten caught with bad caps in their
supply chain from time to time.

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On 3/17/2012 2:15 PM PT, DevilsPGD typed:

Five years old is a good time to open PS up and check for bulging caps,
replace bulging caps or the PS if so. It's common to find too few caps
fitted for PS rating, thus they overheat (due to high ripple current),
and the magic goo leaks out.

Even with good PSU brands like SeaSonic?

Sure. Lots of manufacturers have gotten caught with bad caps in their
supply chain from time to time.

Why are we still using caps? Are we going to use them forever?
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