Reliability of Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives?

J

Jim Adney

Guest
In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of
them did so with very little actual use in that time. The third one
was on my daughter's PC, so there is a chance that she drove it do
death, but I don't know that for sure. I don't think so, because I
don't think she actually went thru that many blank CDs. I believe
althgether we used less than 75 blank CDs on all three writers.

They all seem to fail in about the same way, they suddenly have a hard
time recognizing blank disks, and then they stop being able to read
written disks (even commercial stamped ones.) They continue to be
recognized by the system, which believes they are working just fine.

Is this a trend that anyone else has noticed? Does anyone have any
hints on repair possiblilities? I wonder if the lubrication on the
spindles or the trays could dry out and make tracking bad enough that
they could not sync up. If so, this might be something that could be
easily fixed.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------
 
Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote:
In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of
Click to expand...
Do you, your daughter, or anyone else in the house smoke very heavily?
 
"Ian Stirling" <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:Fe89c.24506$h44.3198377@stones.force9.net...
Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote:
In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of

Do you, your daughter, or anyone else in the house smoke very heavily?
Click to expand...
I doubt that had anything to do with it. Yamaha's units run
very (and needlessly) hot and often fail within a year of their
warranty period, if not prematurely.

Rick
 
Rick <me@privacy.net> wrote:
"Ian Stirling" <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:Fe89c.24506$h44.3198377@stones.force9.net...
Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote:
In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of

Do you, your daughter, or anyone else in the house smoke very heavily?

I doubt that had anything to do with it. Yamaha's units run
very (and needlessly) hot and often fail within a year of their
warranty period, if not prematurely.
Click to expand...
Oops, I forgot about that.
The one I had was quite reliable - after I moved it so that a case
fan blew on the underside.
 
The drive has to be mounted where it can be kept cool. If the drive is not
being properly cooled down, or the users are smoking near the computer, or a
lot of CD's are being burned in, will cause the CDR drives to wear faster.

The laser is what usually fails first in these. After failure, they are not
considered serviceable. Considering the low cost of a CDR drive these days,
it would not be worth to try to service. Just replace it when it wears out.

I found some makes to last longer than others. I am presently now trying out
the Goldstar, Pioneer, and Panasonic drives. I have not reached any
conclusion as of yet, to which ones will last longer. They were all not
very expensive to begin with. When they fail, they will be replaced again.

--

Greetings,

Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG
=========================================
WebPage http://www.zoom-one.com
Electronics http://www.zoom-one.com/electron.htm
=========================================


"Jim Adney" <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote in message
news:041a605idpk5iatpdl78afmr6jjlin82lh@4ax.com...
In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of
them did so with very little actual use in that time. The third one
was on my daughter's PC, so there is a chance that she drove it do
death, but I don't know that for sure. I don't think so, because I
don't think she actually went thru that many blank CDs. I believe
althgether we used less than 75 blank CDs on all three writers.

They all seem to fail in about the same way, they suddenly have a hard
time recognizing blank disks, and then they stop being able to read
written disks (even commercial stamped ones.) They continue to be
recognized by the system, which believes they are working just fine.

Is this a trend that anyone else has noticed? Does anyone have any
hints on repair possiblilities? I wonder if the lubrication on the
spindles or the trays could dry out and make tracking bad enough that
they could not sync up. If so, this might be something that could be
easily fixed.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------
 
Ian Stirling wrote:
Rick <me@privacy.net> wrote:

"Ian Stirling" <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:Fe89c.24506$h44.3198377@stones.force9.net...

Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote:

In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of

Do you, your daughter, or anyone else in the house smoke very heavily?

I doubt that had anything to do with it. Yamaha's units run
very (and needlessly) hot and often fail within a year of their
warranty period, if not prematurely.


Oops, I forgot about that.
The one I had was quite reliable - after I moved it so that a case
fan blew on the underside.

I had a Memorex (relabeled yamaha IDE) that died in less than a year
Click to expand...
with very minimal use. Same story. Windows would recognize the drive,
but it would not read a disk.

Bob



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On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:24:53 GMT Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk>
wrote:

Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote:
In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of

Do you, your daughter, or anyone else in the house smoke very heavily?
Click to expand...
No, no one here smokes.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------
 
On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 00:39:32 -0800 "Rick" <me@privacy.net> wrote:

"Ian Stirling" <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:Fe89c.24506$h44.3198377@stones.force9.net...
Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote:
In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of

Do you, your daughter, or anyone else in the house smoke very heavily?

I doubt that had anything to do with it. Yamaha's units run
very (and needlessly) hot and often fail within a year of their
warranty period, if not prematurely.
Click to expand...
I think this may be the problem. In all cases the CD-RW has been
sandwiched between a CD and a DAT drive, all SCSI. The DAT drive is
used only for backups, so that is never on when the CD-RW is in use,
but the CD and the CD-RW are often used simultaneously.

If heat is the problem and if Yamaha CD-RWs run excessively hot, who
can recommend a different brand that comes in a SCSI flavor and runs
cooler?

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------
 
"Jim Adney" <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote in message news:4tkc6018deuns5berge3o55fqtvg0ptign@4ax.com...
On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:24:53 GMT Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk
wrote:

Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote:
In the past 2-3 years I have had 3 different Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives.
They have been models 8424S, 8424S, and 8824S. The first one was a
Yamaha refirb while the second and third were ebay used purchases.

All of them have failed within less than a year, but at least 2 of

Do you, your daughter, or anyone else in the house smoke very heavily?

No, no one here smokes.
Click to expand...
Plextor still has one, the PX-W4012TS:
http://www.plextor.com/english/products/product_cdrw_drives.html
It's ridiculously expensive though, > $200.

Really the long-term solution is to move to an IDE interface.
In DMA mode these drives don't use much more CPU time
than SCSI, and are *much* less expensive. SATA drives
are now starting to make an appearance also.

Rick
 
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