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Weird noises from DVD drive

Avatar Eric Jervis
Whilst ripping a DVD to my hard drive, which incidentally took about eight hours rather than the less than one hour claimed by MacDVDRipperPro, the drive emitted clicking noises reminiscent of a train journey in days of yore; i.e. "clickCLICK, clickCLICK, clickCLICK, ad infinitum. The resulting file on my hard drive is of superb quality though. I am reluctant to repeat the experiment in case the clicking noises are the precursor of total destruction of the DVD drive. I've noticed the odd double click before, so is the endless clicking this time the result of the software being a bit dodgy or a degenerative illness of the machine?
When the time came to eject the disc it would not do so until I pressed the door on the G5, when it reluctantly moved down a bit until I helped it with my finger. It seems to be OK now, but I was wondering if I could aerosol a bit of silicon spray in that area without doing any damage.

Re: Weird noises from DVD drive

Avatar Euan Williams
Eric, if you have done the same sort of job previously, heard no clicks or the click repetitions come with increasing frequency, and you know how long it took back then, it may well be a sign of a drive on the way out. If that IS the case the clicks would be the drive trying to re-read data. Other things being equal, the eight hours time might just be a very long video, plus processing. You'll have to research average ripping times per Gb of data to check.

Whatever you do, don't ever use an aerosol to lubricate the Eject mechanism. The stuff will get everywhere. Think in terms of dipping the eye of a small needle into a small droplet puddle of the lubricant. The eye will pick up a quantity of the silicone and the needle will let you place it accurately. Stick the needle into a cork for easier handling, and practise first. WD40 might be a choice. Small bearing, small needle; smaller bearing, smaller needle. Above all, keep it well away from any possibility of cross contamination with the disc or the read/write laser.

Meantime start saving. Good luck.

Re: Weird noises from DVD drive

Avatar Mick Burrell
Sorry to hear that Eric but at least being a Power Mac the drive will be easy and relatively inexpensive to replace should you need to.

Re: Weird noises from DVD drive

Avatar Eric Jervis
Thank you ,Euan; I haven't done the same job before, and the drive now works perfectly. The problem seems to be related to the software, which is perhaps conflicting with Burn, which I now intend to uninstall. The DVD is 7.3 GB, because it contains a lot of 'extras', or as I think of them, crap.
Point taken with respect to the aerosol; I thought that silicon would be a better choice than WD 40 as so much of the mechanism seems to be plastic.
Thank you for the sympathy, Mick, but it will be free to replace as I've still got a very expensive one in the G4.
I'll let you all know.

Re: Weird noises from DVD drive

Avatar Euan Williams
Eric: thanks for important issue re. plastics.
Apparently polycarbonate and clear polystyrene plastic are the no-nos, far better to be better safe than sorry.
Thanks for this important heads up - as our American cousins would say.

Re: Weird noises from DVD drive

Avatar Eric Jervis
Euan, just browsed through to your post of Feb 17th; where I encountered a thing known as 'clicker failure': jolly interesting.

Re: Weird noises from DVD drive

Avatar Eric Jervis
Wow! WOW!!!!!!!!
Uninstalled Burn and just plucked up the courage to try again.
No clicking whatsoever, so my drive is perfect, and it took just fifteen minutes to rip 7.3 GB. I couldn't believe it at first but I've just given the file the once over in DVD Player and it seems to be excellent.
Mac DVDRipperPro is a serious piece of kit, and if my next three free rips are as good as this one I shall definitely be buying it.
Should I encounter any problems I shall of course let you all know.

Re: Weird noises from DVD drive

Avatar Eric Jervis
Have a look at this Roy, you never know!
My G5 is clicking again on start up and I'm pretty sure its a software conflict again.
 
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