Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:41:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Richard Mahlerwein <mahlerrd@yahoo.com> To: FreeBSD-Stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: What happened to DVD writing? Message-ID: <747770.524.qm@web51007.mail.re2.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <5f67a8c40909201812l4a364cb5y46dffbf3ff6b0d49@mail.gmail.com>
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>From: Zaphod Beeblebrox <zbeeble@gmail.com> >Subject: Re: What happened to DVD writing? >To: mahlerrd@yahoo.com >Cc: stable@freebsd.org >Date: Sunday, September 20, 2009, 9:12 PM > >On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 4:35 PM, Richard Mahlerwein <mahlerrd@yahoo.com>wr= ote: > >> >> I have had several exhibit behavior even more odd. >> >> The most unusual was this particular CD writer... It read both DVDs and = CDs >> but would write neither (it had worked fine the week before).=A0 I took = it out >> of the drive bay and hooked it to another PC to test and it worked fine >> there.=A0 I put it back in the original PC and it failed.=A0 I was swapp= ing >> things around on that PC (assuming bad cable, bad power, etc) and had it >> sitting loose on the desk and found that it now worked again.=A0 Put it = back >> in the drive cage and it again would not write, though reading was fine. >> Anyway, I finally figured out that even slight pressure in on the sides >> where it mounts would make it fail to burn CDs.=A0 The cage itself exert= ed a >> bit of pressure and that was enough to make it fail at any attempt to bu= rn a >> CD. >> > >This is not necessarily odd.=A0 The CD burner is one of the highest draw b= its >in your system... save possibly your CPU and/or graphics card (depending o= n >what they are).=A0 I have found that various DVD drives have been very >sensitive to power supply voltages and fail to burn properly when they're >marginal.=A0 Your description here seems to point in that direction.=A0 If= it >works in computer B, try using B's power supply for A --- or maybe B has >other lighter draws. >Power supplies can also degrade over time --- especially if you have some >cheap capacitors in there. >I find the DVD drive is often the canary for spotting power supply problem= s. Sorry, the kids woke up from naps and I sent without realizing I hadn't qui= te finished. Yes, you are completely correct.=A0 There was another story where it was a = power supply that was inadequate (should have been, but it was aged and see= med to just run out of steam earlier than it used to).=A0=20 Anyway, the point I intended to make and forgot to was that in this case I'= d confirm that the DVD drive itself is OK by popping it into another PC, if= one is available.=A0 If it fails in a different known-OK PC it is likely t= o be a hardware problem.=A0 If it works OK there, try a different power cab= le on your existing PC, or try swapping out the power supply if you can.=A0= You could also try just disconnecting any other power-hungry yet unneeded = items temporarily (like additional CD/DVD readers/writers or that old 6x 9G= B drive SCSI2 RAID array :), if you have any. =0A=0A=0A
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