Greetings. I have had dust problems with a couple of different Pioneer burners DVR104 and DVR-105. I have a fairly dusty home environment and after a couple of months of use on either drive, I started to get dust shadows on recorded media. The symptoms are skipping and glitches on video discs. The problem has been documented by someone else: http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/DVD/DVD-dust.html It rarely occurs with DVD-RW media, but it happens a lot on DVD-R particularly at the perimeter of the disc, which is probably where the dust is thrown as it spins. I have found a couple of media brands that seem resistant to it, and it occurs only occasionally, and a couple others that occur with greater frequency. To avoid the problem, I've blown out the drive with compressed air, vacuumed the computer and blown off the eject tray and inspected every disc before recording, but I still get problems that I can easily see on the media that cause corresponding glitches in several brands of standalone DVD Players, but all these discs "pass" verification on the PC. I even took the DVDR-104 out of the computer, disassembled the shroud and used an entire can of compressed air to clean it off. Put it back in the computer and more dust shadows. Even tried recording at minimum 1x speed. Now, I have to ask if there is a brand of DVD recorders that doesn't have an integral fan like my Pioneers do, and maybe even one that is sealed to prevent the PC's internal fans from using the load tray as an intake vent? Thanks!
Dust can be a major problem, as you've described! It may be worth your while to purchase a different case for your PC. I'm sure there are still cases available which include a dust filter positioned at the front of the case (with a fan behind it to suck air in). Really though, any case that has a fan at the front will greatly reduce your 'using the load tray as an intake vent'. In a very dusty environment, you should use one of those little handheld vacuums once every couple of months to clean around your CPU, northbridge chip (if it has a cooling fan), memory and PSU. Judicious use of a damp (not wet, and with your PC off) cloth around both the inside and outside of your machine will also help. I doubt that changing your DVD burner will help in any way. Just out of curiosity, are you using grade A Ritek media?_X_X_X_X_X_[small]-- Anyone seen my bitch?[/small]
I know replying to own posts is bad, but... I've just followed the link you supplied in your post. It looks like the guy was not using good media. Grade A media will not be contaminated by dust in any way (before you use it). Try yourself a few Clonedisc Ritek discs from http://www.dvd-and-media.com/
Thanks for your reply. I don't know about "GRADE-A" but I have seen the problem with Verbatim discs in both drives. Fuji and Memorex DVD-R seemed fine. I have not tried the Clonediscs. I haven't seen them (in the US) yet. I have taken every reasonable precaution with dust, and a few unreasonable ones. Cleaning the area can release new dust, so it may be counterproductive, but I've stripped the PC and the drive down and blasted it clean outdoors. Thanks! Regards, Matt
Thanks for asking, but sadly, it did not. That was back when I owned only the '104 and I bought a '105 that worked very well for about 3 months, and then the dust caught up with it, too. Maybe I can put one of those vacuum cleaner HEPA filters in front of the intake port? It would probably just pull more air through the front slots of the DVD then. For some goofball reason that's right opposite the CD ROM drives in the VAIO PCV-RX desktops Side View ___________ |CDROM-----| <---- holes for air inlet |DVDROM---| |HD-------------| |---PWRSPLY ===== plug & fan outlet |FLOPPY-----| |------------------| |------------------| |------------------| |I/O--------------| -------------------
heres a couple of pics! i got one in the door now for my sata150ata drives (real hotties!) thx....._X_X_X_X_X_[small]XP 1700 TBred [o/c 2004mhz = 12X167/33 = FSB-334mhz] A7V8X SATA150/RAID 2x80 gig [Bios 1012] HERCULES 3D PROPHET [9700 Pro] XMS Corsair Platinum pc3500 2x512 1024 meg ENERMAX PSU 550watts [/small]
Nice rig Rotary! Metwo, you could probs cut dust down by instaling dust filters on the fan inputs which will dramatically cut your dust intake. It worked for me lol!
hi all thx! its slightly changed now the pics suck as they come from me web cam, i must get some new ones! i got an extra drives and there are 8 fans! its like heathrow airport, cant let the cat go by it he gets stuck to the front LOL..... Thx...
hi all yes modder/overclocker but not so much now! i used to have water cooling with an ehiem kit/innovatek with in line flow meter, the fan at the front the 120mm was on the water rad all water gear fitted inside he case! also i had it all relayed so from the 12v psu it turned on my 240v pump so the kids could blow me system! if they only turned the computer on, LOL... and on the back i have taken 2 psu's apart and used the fittings to lower the power cable amounts to have one cable in only and the pc is now the extension cable!... Crazy but fun!!! Thx...
._X_X_X_X_X_[small]XP 1700 TBred [o/c 2004mhz = 12X167/33 = FSB-334mhz] A7V8X SATA150/RAID 2x80 gig [Bios 1012] HERCULES 3D PROPHET [9700 Pro] XMS Corsair Platinum pc3500 2x512 1024 meg ENERMAX PSU 550watts [/small]
I'm thinking of watercooling, but are also thinking of using peliters. Get down below where it is all nice 'n' cool lol.
Now, I have to ask if there is a brand of DVD recorders that doesn't have an integral fan like my Pioneers do, I have an LG 4040B, no fan. Like it so far and it likes Ritek G03's.
Thank you for the suggestion on a fanless drive. I am thinking that I may get a firewire external and just keep it zipped in a bag when it's not being used. I have tried several brands of DVD-R media and still get dust shadows, some more than others At the suggestion of another poster here, I tried some different media to see if it might be a problem, but no joy. Fuji and TDK are the most recent "brand name" disks I tried. Fuji still has the physical shadows, but seems to be the most resistant to skipping. Memorex was good, too, but it is hard to find good pricing on those. DVD-RW disks have the least shadowing. I don't know if they burn at a different laser power? I also picked up a small hepa-filter air cleaner and I will try using that behind the computer to tame the dust bunnies. Thanks!
