I've had good luck w/ LiteON brand. Used Sony and Pioneer and have had them fail on me. Other people have used Sony w/ out problems tho. Also MadDog DVD Burner is still going strong in my P4 I built 4-5 years ago.

My old Pioneer DVR-110D seems reluctant to burn CDs faster than 10X these days. I assume it is on the way out. I had a slightly younger LiteON but the tray became recalcitrant, so I replaced it. The optics were still fine, however.

fwiw, over the years, the component that has failed most frequently on my computers has been CD/DVD drives, followed by power supplies. Everything else (including hard drives) has been pretty darn reliable.

...Jerry

I have only had one power supply fail. It was on my 386 box! (I was able to fix it by replacing the diodes.)

I had a 1.5 TB Seagate drive generate a SMART event recently, after about 12 months, indicating that it was on the way out. Prior to that I had a WD disk fail about 8 or 9 years ago, possibly due to over heating. (I now use extra fans for cooling.)

Apart from my Pioneer which may be on the way out I have had one other optical drive give up the ghost many years ago.

Oh, and one motherboard and one video card too.

Computers, disks, etc. are often replaced after about 3 years for something better, so you might never have a failure. Computers are quite reliable really.

The laser diodes in DVD burners have a relatively limited life. It isn't that older DVD burners were necessarily "built better", the faster the rated writing speed, the stronger the laser and the shorter the life. Due to the increased speed and laser power, current DVD burner diodes last an average of about 2 years. They're kind of like disposable lighters, use them up, throw them away. Fortunately, DVD burners are less expensive than a spindle of 100 DVDs.

I've only ever had one die. I get at least a thousand or so burns out of them I'd think. My latest was bought a few months ago so I could burn 2 discs at once but before that was Feb 08 and that one still works reliably.

EDIT: you've posted several posts about hardware & software failures it seems, I'd look in to the environment you're using your equipment in. My parents computer had a short life because they kept it next to a wood stove, after that they lasted much longer.

"The laser diodes in DVD burners have a relatively limited life."

The laser diode in my old CD player (1991) started to fade about 3 years ago. I got the diode replaced because they don't make CD players like that anymore. (They don't make quality standalone CD players anymore, period!) It has lots of buttons to do all the common things easily. Nowadays you have to use a DVD player or a boom box without the convenience.

Whoah, wasn't expecting this many responses - lol. But it all confirms my thoughts -- though again, I rarely burn anything. But even "just" playing DVDs still employs the diode, so use is use, I guess. Like disposible lighters - great analogy, though a comment on modern disposible-everything too...

- you wrote:

"EDIT: you've posted several posts about hardware & software failures it seems, I'd look in to the environment you're using your equipment in. My parents computer had a short life because they kept it next to a wood stove, after that they lasted much longer."

Not really. My computer systems last around 5-6 years or so, which is pretty good all things considered. The mobo or processor on my faithful but aging Pentium D 2.8 Ghz just died back in May, that's all.

As far as environment, I take better care of my computer than myself. I built a large wooden cabinet monster case with printer compartment as well as a 7" power fan that sucks heat out whereby a full throttle render for 12 hours straight keeps the CPU at 50C; at normal idle or as I am writing this, it's about 27C, medium load hovers around 30-32C. And that's not counting the six 60mm fans for the compartment for the hard drives...

That said, yes, I have been making inquiries about hard drives lately since I need to get a new one in due course and wanted to explore SSD, SSD hybrid, RAID. But for now, I switched out a drive, have my emergency OS one on it and decided I'm fine with what I have.

And as Bob/Farss has pointed out over the years, I do tend to overthink/overworry about stuff at times. The lure and changes in technology can be a bit hypnotizing in a temptation sort of way... "Should I get the "new and better" or just stick with what I have?" dilemmas.

Since I did move to a 64-bit system, some things had to be changed on the software side. But hardware-wise, I'm OK. Apart from the DVD burner, that is :o)

Do you have any idea how many discs you burned on the DVD drive? Could be you reached a life limit pretty quickly because you've burned a lot.

Got any older computers sitting around in the house?

If so, pull the burner out of it and if it still works install it. Most motherboards still have at least one single ATA connector on them.

Examine it first internally and you will surely notice that it was built better.

John

"Do you have any idea how many discs you burned on the DVD drive? Could be you reached a life limit pretty quickly because you've burned a lot."

Maybe about 3 total burns in 2 years. No, I'm not kidding.
And play, maybe about 1 movie on DVD per 10 days.
(Again, not kidding :o)

Oh, OK, so there is the occasional software install too.

One could say I just got a bad batch on this last burner.
But the lifespan of the previous of different brand was almost identical.

As to older ones, I have a few piling up in my closet but none work - either mechanically or interface-wise.
So why am I still keeping them?
I haven't a clue.

First, I'll say that I have had very limited success with this, but at times lint & dust obscure the light source on a CD/DVD drive. They make a special cleaner disk for this: http://www.staples.com/Staples-CD-Drive-Cleaner/product_786397.

Again, my experience is that it only sometimes helped a failing drive, but at $10.00 it might be worth a gamble.

...Jerry

+1 for LiteON. Good stuff. I think their guts are made by LG, which is also very good.

I agree too, optical drives are by far the most often replaced component here. I probably replace at least two a year.

Kinda funny, if you look in our "dead equipment" storage room at work there's a wall full of old PCs stacked up, and every one has a 5.25" hole in the front where the CD drive has been taken out to replace a dead drive in a newer computer.

Reply by: Soniclight, Date: 9/24/2011 2:26:46 AM
>Like disposible lighters

>As to older ones, I have a few piling up in my closet but none work - either mechanically or interface-wise.
So why am I still keeping them?

Recycle them, I gut the innards and use them for storage shelves behind the 5.25" PC covers. Use them to store OEM / drivers / softwares / backup discs small manuals notes etc. I like doing this when I build / fix PCs especially for friends because they/I are/am always loosing their/my install disks! ):

Byron K,

Recyle them. Ha, that's subconsciously probably the reason I did save them for do save up various electronics, gut them from their cases down to metal and circuit boards. We have an electronic pickup day once a year or so at our building...

The other reason is I tend to save computer parts in the "just may come in handy" kind of way. Which they do, but only about 0.5% of what I save.

In short, I have a compartmentalized streak of being a pack rat :o)

Amendegw and Chienworks,

As to this particular DVD burner-player, I don't think it can be saved in any way -- motor issue, no light on boot. Dead IMO. Lite-On replacement: I may consider that for I think that maybe one of the ones that lasted the longest was one of those.

Is there a hard drive mounted right against the burner? I would look at possible over heating issues from inside the case or from outside it. Is the drive on it's side?

Then maybe look at the power supply. Maybe try plugging a new drive into a different leg. Or try replacing the power supply altogether. I use Antec Earthwatts power supplies and don't usually see PSU related problems from those.

However, I've never traced a bad DVD burner back to a PSU. Most of the time it's heat or dust.

PixelStuff,

No overheating or proximity issues -- as stated above, I built a separate compartment for my drives with 6x 60mm fans and the DVD burner is lowest -- near the two ventilation intake ports, so to speak. My drive bay is very well ventilated -- maybe cool enough to make them catch a mild cold :o)

As to system, brand new that I built it in May of this year and I have more power than my system really needs: got oversold on a 650 watts power supply but even at full tilt render with monitors and speakers on, it hovers at around 375 watts usage according to real-time read out panel of my APC battery backup/surge protection tower. This includes the monster 7" ventilation fan I have going at all times when computer is on.

Nah, it's just the modern "disposable syndrome" mentioned before by others and myself: stuff just doesn't last very long these days. Everyone seems to more or less agree on the +/- 2 years - which is what has been my personal average too.

I'm not buying the "two year" thing. If that were true every video game console since the PS1 would be dead about every two years, it doesn't happen. My wife's laptop DVD drive would be dead and it's three years old. The tree I've had in the past 5 years would be all dead, but they never died.

I'm still saying it's something that's in your environment or your machine (PSU I'd expect).

We're talking about DVD burners, not readers. High-power laser diodes DO have a limited lifespan whether you choose to "buy it" or not.

Up until 2010, I was burning 200-300+ DVDs per year on two burners installed in the same machine.

Two years is about right before they die a slow death, but not much longer than that.

The DVD burner I'm replacing - see the "SATA" thread - has gone well for five or six years, and rather than stopping working, it has lately been doing strange things like burning an audio CD with 12 tracks, but tracks 8 onwards were all silent.
With my limited knowledge I deduced that as discs burn from the centre outwards, there may be some issue with limited travel of heads, but whether this is true or not, I've had fair use from it ....and it's made me check every track before delivering.

Some of the ones that die lately reek havoc on the boot and everything else. Had a SATA LG Bluray that did that.
JJK