How to repair your defunct Optical Drive or. This will save 95 % of the ODDs.

[itsakjt]

How to clean the lens of your optical drive. This will save 95 % of the ODDs.

Here's an article I am writing that will tell you how to repair your optical drive or DVD player that is having problem in reading media or even recognizing discs.
1. Remove the cables. Take the drive out.
2. Remove the screws. Break any seal the screws have.

3.Open the metal cover and you will see the whole mechanism and circuitry.

4.You will have to open the tray to remove the top lid and have access to the lens. Push this white lever as shown.

5.The tray will partially come out. Pull it to remove it completely. Take out the outside decorator too on the perimeter of the tray.

6.Now you are free to remove the top lid. Remove it and you will have access to the motor and lens.

7.Clean the lens using a lint free cloth e.g. spectacle or lens cleaning cloth or use an earbud. Wipe it very softly over it so it does not get scratched. Dont touch it.

8.Close the top lid. Insert the outside decorator and the tray. Close the bottom lid. Replace all the screws.
9.Reconnect it with the PC. Test it and see the magic.
10.Enjoy

 

[W1zzard]

i just drop it in the dishwasher with tray out

 

[laszlo]

when the laser is dead than rip

 

[dorsetknob]

So Sandblasting dont work wondered where i was going wrong (snigger)

 

[de.das.dude]

W1zz did you troll your own forum LOL?

mostly its the lazer that dies. or loses its power.

BTW @op, you should be studying for your sems instead of this

 

[W1zzard]

W1zz did you troll your own forum LOL?

no. dishwasher works on almost everything. i have personally washed: keyboard, mouse, motherboard, (small) pc case, optical drive, floppy drive

and everything was clean and still worked. in the case of floppy and optical drive it was "repaired"

 

[Deleted member 24505]

So in the back of your pc repair shop, you would just have a bank of dishwashers

 

[AsRock]

All so when doing this you should clean the lens rails as they get dirty and mess the lens travel which all so makes for big reading issue's. I would take the lens off before washing it in anyway like that as often as not they make the lenses out of plastic these days and not glass.

 

[de.das.dude]

true. the way described in this thread will definitely scratch the lens as they are made of plastic and not glass.

and as asrock said the lens rail and all other moving parts should be cleaned too.


or just toss it into the dishwasher like W1zz lol

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

no. dishwasher works on almost everything. i have personally washed: keyboard, mouse, motherboard, (small) pc case, optical drive, floppy drive

and everything was clean and still worked. in the case of floppy and optical drive it was "repaired"

Did the case have a fan? I have a case that belonged to a smoker with a massive fan built into the side panel. It'd be impossible to clean with a blower with how tared up it is, wondering if the dishwasher would work or if it'd mess up the fan.

 

[btarunr]

Or you could just use a lens-cleaning disc.

 

[Sasqui]

no. dishwasher works on almost everything. i have personally washed: keyboard, mouse, motherboard, (small) pc case, optical drive, floppy drive

and everything was clean and still worked. in the case of floppy and optical drive it was "repaired"

I washed a motherboard, long ago. Put in the oven @ 150 F for a few hours after wiping down... and it worked.

What dish detergent? I use Cascade, it's strong stuff.

 

[digibucc]

the problem is in the potential soaking. just don't let them get wet spots, and don't let them get plugged in while still wet. it's not that water kills electronics, it's that water+electricity kills electronics.

 

[W1zzard]

Did the case have a fan? I have a case that belonged to a smoker with a massive fan built into the side panel. It'd be impossible to clean with a blower with how tared up it is, wondering if the dishwasher would work or if it'd mess up the fan.

should work fine, give it PLENTY of time to dry out the fans

 

[scaminatrix]

Did the case have a fan? I have a case that belonged to a smoker with a massive fan built into the side panel. It'd be impossible to clean with a blower with how tared up it is, wondering if the dishwasher would work or if it'd mess up the fan.

Just use a cable tie to keep the fins in place. If the fins start spinning, you'll lose the cleaning effect when the water hits them if you know what I mean.

 

[W1zzard]

Just use a cable tie to keep the fins in place. If the fins start spinning, you'll lose the cleaning effect when the water hits them if you know what I mean.

i doubt the water in a dishwasher will make the fans spinning. anyone got a waterproof camera with lighting? or willing to cut up his dishwasher and put in a plexi window ?

 

[OneMoar]

lol ????? OR http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00000J1QK/?tag=tec06d-20
tbh: I have never needed to clean a laser ...

 

[newtekie1]

no. dishwasher works on almost everything. i have personally washed: keyboard, mouse, motherboard, (small) pc case, optical drive, floppy drive

and everything was clean and still worked. in the case of floppy and optical drive it was "repaired"

 

[de.das.dude]

i love that guys commentary.

 

[Jstn7477]

By the time my optical drives "die" they are usually quite outdated compared to the brand new ones. I have a whole stack of various CD-ROM, CD burners and DVD-ROM drives that are basically useless because they can't burn DVDs, read them at 24x or in the case of CD drives, even read them. Plus, they are all IDE so it's easy for me to get a $20 SATA burner on the egg.

Nice guide, but probably not worth the effort in many cases.

 

[itsakjt]

@de.das.dude-No it will not get scratched. As I said wipe it very softly and use lint free cloth or earbud. You have to be very gentle. I repaired numerous ODDs this way and even laptop ones.
@All-If the laser gets weak, there's a little trick too. In the flex PCB of the lens driver(the mechanism that holds the lens), you will see a number of variable resistors. Decrease them slightly and test it until it "just works". After you get that spot, decrease it again by a very very small amount to just keep the space of it till it gets weak again. :-D
And yes, you can lubricate the mechanism on your own

 

[de.das.dude]

khub fine scratch holey you wont understand toh.

 

[itsakjt]

Even I have tested mobos, mobile phone PCBs in water, cleaning them to perfection with soap and toothbrush and finally drying them to perfection using heater and blowing by vacuum cleaner at high speed to eject the water out of the small gaps :-D And most of them worked except my Nokia N73.

 

[itsakjt]

de.das.dude-Yeah thats right but it can save the drive to work for another 6 months. For my case, it was 1.5 years :-D

 

[scaminatrix]

i doubt the water in a dishwasher will make the fans spinning. anyone got a waterproof camera with lighting? or willing to cut up his dishwasher and put in a plexi window ?

Depends how you have the fan I suppose. In every dishwasher I've seen, the water comes from underneath and if you have the fan straight above, then the water would make the fans spin, as if it was air blowing upwards and not water.
Please don't make me resort to one of my terrible paintbrush diagrams

Oh, I have a waterproof camera but no dishwasher