How to Clean a Trayless CD-drive? (DVD, laptop, hard drive, flash)

[asubram3]

I have a Dell laptop with a "trayless" CD/DVD drive, the kind that ejects the CD without a tray coming out. Now I tried to play a movie DVD yesterday which resulted in strange noises coming from the computer, but nothing else. The DVD would not play. I had to press the eject button multiple times to eject the disk. Then I noticed that the front of the DVD (with the movie name written) had peeling plastic . Now the DVD drive will only respond to any disk with difficulty. It keeps emitting noises and revs any disk randomly. I wonder if any of the peeled plastic is stuck inside causing difficulty in reading.

Any ideas on how to clean the disk drive or remove the issues? Thanks in advance!

[Bo]

Compressed air, plus gravity.

Look for an opening in the drive, other than the disc slot. Spray one of those compressed air cans into that opening while the disc slot opening is pointed down at the ground. Best bet is to do this outside, in good weather, to minimize the indoor mess.

If the issue were just dust in the drive, you wouldn't need the assist from gravity. It sounds like you've got debris in there larger than dust. Gravity will make it easier for larger pieces to escape.

[kazyn]

From what it sounds, a piece of plastic is either blocking the head from moving or blocking the lens. If it's making a lot of weird noises, the head probably got stuck and the little motor is clutching out or something.

I don't know if compressed air's gonna do the trick...it might need to be serviced internally (aka take it apart) or replaced completely (not even sure if that's a thing with these types of drives).

Maybe now would be a good time to invest in one of these:
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG USB 2.0 Slim External DVD Writer Model SE-208AB/TSBS

[Pruzhany]

Not really much you can do. There is no real way to get trash out of a toaster DVD drive. Just go onto Ebay and purchase an external for $23 (8X DVD). BTW the DVD disc is most likely bootleg.

[plwhit]

The OP reminds me of an idiot many years ago that put a label on the disk pack instead of the container and spun the platters up.....


To the OP: take a flashlight and shine it into the throat of the drive, maybe you could verify your idea of part of the label peeled off...

PS, next time you burn a movie to a DVD write on it DON'T put a label on it....

[asubram3]

Originally Posted by NeilVA

Not really much you can do. There is no real way to get trash out of a toaster DVD drive. Just go onto Ebay and purchase an external for $23 (8X DVD). BTW the DVD disc is most likely bootleg.

Originally Posted by plwhit

The OP reminds me of an idiot many years ago that put a label on the disk pack instead of the container and spun the platters up.....


To the OP: take a flashlight and shine it into the throat of the drive, maybe you could verify your idea of part of the label peeled off...

PS, next time you burn a movie to a DVD write on it DON'T put a label on it....

Come on, it was a DVD from NETFLIX!!!

[Pruzhany]

Come on, it was a DVD from NETFLIX!!!

With the millions of DVD's in their system. They is a strong possibility that a bootleg DVD was returned by a customer. Do you really think that there a DVD inspector that checks every DVD that comes back? They only check them when a complaint is issued by a user. I've been a longtime user of Netflix and I've had numerous DVD's arrive from them heavily scratched, gouged, with cracks in them and wrong DVD in the envelope sleeve. As to the DVD drive, it will be a waste of money to take to a repair shop since the labor alone will exceed the price of an external drive.

FWIW about ten years ago when computers were built better and more expensive a few manufacturers had switches in the bottom so the user could eject the drive. I had the Sony that allowed me to this so a second hard drive could be hot swapped with it.

[asubram3]

I tried to clean the drive with a cloth wrapped around a credit card and alcohol, and it now seems to be working better. Fingers crossed...

[Tek_Freek]

Necessity is the Mother of Invention...