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Lately the discs that I've burned to take to karaoke shows are having some slight graphic errors. Is there a way to tell if the drive is about ready to buy the farm? I just bought a new CDG and was trying to rip the tracks to put them on my computer. It's not a disc with any copy protection. I was using CDRWIN to rip the audio tracks only because it was one of those Pocket Songs discs without any graphics. It ripped tracks 1-4 with no trouble before giving me an error message for track 5. After this happened, I started to rip the tracks one at a time instead of all at once and was succesful ripping the remaing tracks, including track 5 that gave the original error message. Do CDRW drives die gradually or are they like light bulbs in that they either work or they don't. Could it just be a dirty laser? After creating the graphics files for the Pocket Songs tracks, I burned them to a CDR and had some bad spots in the graphics. I burned another CD on a different drive with the exact same bin files and the disc came out without errors. Has anyone else had similar experiences with their burners?

Do you smoke? In a smoke environment the optics get a nicotine film on the laser eye. This causes a gradual degradation of sound quality that isnt even noticed by the operator. I have replaced disc players with a laptop at shows and the quality was back. When I was using cd's I cleaned the optics once a month. Commercial jukebox optics are more rugged and easy to clean but these can be cleaned if extreme care is used . Alcohol pads can be used but DO NOT apply pressure on the eye. Wipe it gently with several wipes until it looks clear. The traverse rods that the assembly rides on can be cleaned then a very light film of white grease is applied.

Pixelation in he graphics are not normally caused by a dirty eye but can be caused by other mechanical parts or misalignment of the optic assembly. Sometimes a furball or foreign object can be causing a jam. You would be surprised by what I have found in jukeboxes.

Pixelation in the graphics is usually from a scratch on the cd. With a few rips and they are always at the same point it is the cd, which can be cleaned from the inside across the cd to the outer edge.

When burning cd's that will be played on other drives burn at 1X speed to get a deeper burn.

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Bruce, try the new version of CDGRip from Invicion (Maker of Compuhost). It is free and this new version is really rock solid when it comes to rip discs to the Computer. It's worth a shot.

http://www.karaokeware.com/CDGRip.html

Not a smoky environment but there does seem to be quite a bit of dust on some of the computer components so maybe some dust got into the CDRW device and got on the lens? Thanks for the help. I'll try to blow out the dust with a can of compressed air.

Thanks for the link. I'll try that software the next time I have to rip a disc but this particular issue seems to be with the CDRW drive itself and not the software. I used the same software(CDRWIN) with an external Plextor drive and the disc came out perfect. When I tried to burn the disc with the internal Yamaha burner, I had some small graphic errors. I have used this Yamaha drive many times in the past and it worked perfectly. That is why I'm wondering if the drive is just worn out or is it just dirty? I used one of those disc cleaners so I'll see what happens when I try it again.

One of the ways I test stuff out is to put another drive on. I take off the side, unhook the cdrom, and then hook up temporarily another drive - hanging from the side!

Then boot the computer up. Retry the burning process.

Obviously if you get different results, then maybe the drive is either wearing out, or at the very least, needs to be cleaned.

DO NOT USE the cd cleaning disc sets. Get some cleaning pads and cleaning alcohol and clean the laser lense... AFTER blowing the pc out with a can of air!

This is good maintenance for the whole PC... dust and particles can affect how the pc works if they're hanging on memory or the motherboard... make certain the powersupply intake and outblow areas are clear of greasy dust!

As I stated, I did burn the same files on an external burner and attained much better results. After using the laser cleaner, I burned the same files again with the internal Yamaha and the results were a little better but not as good as with the external Plextor drive. I'm assuming that the drive is still good but just needs a better cleaning than the disc cleaner can provide. I don't think that I can SEE the laser lens so I wouldn't know where to apply the cleaning pad. Would I have to open up the CDRW drive to gain access to the lens?

yep.