CDRW lifespan?

[5cupa]

does anyone know roughly how long a CDRW lazers are supposed to last for?

[Bindibadgi]

year or 2?

My 16/10/40 liteon lasted a year but my 2/2/24 creative is still going and i bought that in.. 99/2000.

[blue..matt]

ive got a Mitsumi 4X speed from 5 years or so back

used fairly often aswell

[unrealrocks]

I know they don't last very long and the higher burn speeds mean shorter lifespan ... my 12x Philips lasted around 2 years and was used very often, prob burned total around 140-160 CDs!

[5cupa]

ok another quick question might sound kinda dumb but does a cdrw/DVD combo drive use the same lazer to perform all tasks?

[dawson]

My old 8x Ricoh CDRW has wrote about 600 CDs easily... 5 years old, and going strong too!

[Russ]

i got a rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishey 1 in 10/01 still works fine

[unrealrocks]

Originally posted by Scupa
ok another quick question might sound kinda dumb but does a cdrw/DVD combo drive use the same lazer to perform all tasks?

It uses the same lens although different lasers AFAIK!

[Mr Meltdown]

You tried cleaning the laser head? (unless you mean an actual laser unit failure?)

Cheers,

MM

[Trickle]

Its probably the same as most things.

We bought 2 identical LG (goldstar) 16x CD rom drives in 1996/97. 1 still works today and the other broke after 13 months and had 'issues' after about 6-7.

[Gubs]

Originally posted by Bindibadgi
My 16/10/40 liteon lasted a year but my 2/2/24 creative is still going and i bought that in.. 99/2000.

Same story here really. My old Sony 8/4/32 is still going strong, while my Aopen 16/10/32 died after two years (though it was heavily used) - so I've gone back to Sony for the 52/24/52 replacement which, judging by this thread, will probably die before Christmas

I don't know much about CD/DVD technology so someone might correct me, but looking at it from a physical point of view, the same laser is probably used to perform all tasks on CDs, because the pit density is going to be the same, so a consistent wavelength is needed. DVDs have a higher pit density so you need a laser with a shorter wavelength. I believe you'd also need a different lens to be able to accurately read the kind of densities that DVDs have, although I was never much good at optics so I couldn't tell you whether this is actually necessary or not. Rip apart a dead combo drive and tell us

[bledd]

my liteon 52x24x52 has done over 400cd's ish, no sign of failing yet

if it did break, they're super cheap to replace anyway, kinda expecting it to go soon, since its only a liteon -if it was a plextor, i'd expect it never to break , my 8x4x32 has been going strong sicne i had it (bloomin ages ago) -now runs fine in my bro's mate's pc

[Enverex]

There seems to be some confusion. Are you asking how long Re-Writable discs themselves last? Or how long the drives last?

As RW Discs are supposed to be good for a few hundred full re-uses, but drives should last years and years unless they aren't clogged with crap, in which case you just need to clean it.

NS

[5cupa]

NightShade737 the drives themselves m8

[bledd]

i'd say ~3years average (less if you're unlucky)