cleaning a drive

[nordic bro]

Hi -

I had some bad copies mixed in with a couple good ones
and think part of my problem might be the drive needing a
cleaning. I have one of those Philips CD/DVD disc cleaners
but found an old post on Usenet where the guy said he
carefully swabs inside the drive for the best cleaning.

I have a Liteon 411 and 166 and took the bottom off the
411. There's a PC board that snaps in but other than that I
don't see an easy way to get to the top of the mechanism.
Anyone here (or elsewhere) know how to take these drives
apart to get at the top of the mechanism? Anyone know if
those CD/DVD cleaning disks are good enough? Would it
be a bad idea to blow compressed air in from the tray (I
have a regulator and moisture trap but don't know how
much force is too much of if it would even do any good).

Mike

[Ian]

I'm wary of those cleaners, because some can leave residue and really mess up your drive. I'd try compressed air and see if that works. Otherwise, it might be time to get a new drive.

[pranav81]

You should first open the tray using a straightened paper pin.The you can remove the bezel that surrounds the tray.After that it's easy as hell to remove the top cover and clean the drive,oil it and do whatever you please.


::Pranav::

[nordic bro]

OK- I opened the tray, popped off the bezel (Lite-on 411) and
see no way to get at anything, i.e., I'm missing the "easy as
hell" part The top/sides are one piece and if I pull the
bottom off it looks like I'd have to do a total disassembly to
get at the topside (which I really didn't want to do). I want to
get at the laser/lens and dab alcohol on it. Am I missing
something?

Mike

[pranav81]

Okay,so you popped up the bezel.Next put the drive upside down.Then slowly lift out the bottom plate.Once you have done that,invert the drive and then you can lift the top part easily and have access to the drives lens assembly.Mind you,you can only remove the bottom plate if you have removed the front bezel around the tray.

Hope that helps.


::Pranav::

[yuki chan]

From what I can see the compressed air will be the best solution to clean the drive

Ian is correct about the cleaning CD’s

They cause damage to the drive in a few ways:

1) the brush on them can scratch the lenses if dust has attached to it
2) pieces of the brush can come off and attach to the lens or get stuck in the plastic protective piece around the assembly
3) the cleaning discs are not made for high rotation speed drive and in a computer drive may case the brush to come off completely


Also the cleaning discs are usually cd’s (the drive will go to full rotational speed not helping the matter)