diagnosing CD-RW/DVD drive problem

[dcouzin]

I have the standard CD-RW/DVD drive in my 2378 FVU T42, Hitachi-LG model GCC-4242N
Some days it works perfectly. Other days it balks: the motor strains and hesitates, without reaching speed.
I'm sure it's not a software problem, since it happened also after installing my spare HDD cloned months ago.
I don't have access to a spare CD drive, or a spare T42.
How can I determine whether it's the drive or the T42 itself malfunctioning?
Thanks.

[rkawakami]

Try downloading DVDInfoPro. It can (somewhat) determine your drive's capabilities in reading various disk formats and run a check to see if each sector on your disk(s) can be read correctly. I say "somewhat" only because it appears that it misses some formats even when the firmware has been upgraded. Run several known good disks in the drive. If they all seem to have problems, then you could try PC Doctor for DOS for the T42. That program will bypass any Windows dependencies and check your CDRW/DVD drive in a similar manner that DVDInfoPro does; it verifies that it can read each sector on a disk, in addition to checking the controller.

[dcouzin]

rkawakami, the problem is grosser than that. It's not a matter of formats or sectors. The drive hardly goes. It does rotate the disk, but not at the expected high rpm's. It can't run any CDs or DVDs, including my PC Doctor for DOS CD. So I downloaded PC Doctor for DOS on five floppies, and that PC Doctor failed the drive (which wouldn't run sufficiently for the test).

The motor revs and slows, revs and slows, making whiney little sounds instead of the expected whir. It did this 10 days ago too, and then worked perfectly for a week. What is it?

[rkawakami]

Try cleaning the lens of the laser pickup using a foam-tipped swab (best) or cotton-tipped, if that is all that is available. Use a tiny bit of isopropyl alcohol on the tip. It may be that the laser is having a hard time detecting the disk and that it is trying to spin the disk at various speeds (in addition to focusing the laser beam) in an attempt to read the disk(s). If that doesn't work, then it looks like you're going to need a new drive.

P.S. Don't put too much pressure on top of the lens assembly; just enough to brush off any dirt/dust that might be there.

[dcouzin]

Thanks rkawakami, it makes sense that the motor behaved as it did due to a failure to read the disk, which might be due to a failure to focus. I'd already cleaned the lens. Indeed this drive has required cleaning of the lens too often, and I don't use it except for data disks, and I keep them clean (and I'm in the optics profession).

Today Lenovo said they'd replace the drive. Three year extended warranty is great for an aging T42. In the past year mine has needed a system board, a screen and a CD drive.