Cd Writer Shutting Down?

[imported_The__One]

Hi all,

I have a Philips CDRW800 CD Writer, and the drive is "shutting down" unexpectedly and randomly, for example, I was just burning Mafia (3 CD's), and I burned the first 2 just fine, but when I got to the 3d, at 96%, the drive just shut down (lights went off, CD stopped spinning), and, of couse Nero gave me an error msg ... and the problem isn't what I'm burning, it's the drive itself...does anyone have any idea on how to fix this??

Tks

[Kid1A]

Check the connection between your drive and the comp, could be a faulty lead, or dust on the connections

[Prozac]

I had a similar problem on an old drive.... It was caused by overheating.

[imported_The__One]

Check the connection between your drive and the comp, could be a faulty lead, or dust on the connections

Yeah, I had already checked that, the connections are fine

I had a similar problem on an old drive.... It was caused by overheating.

Yes, that seems to be exactly it...how did U solve U'r problem, if you solved it at all??

[Z]

the connections are fine. what you need to do is turn off the computer and let it sit for about 20 minutes or so. i think this would let it cool down. i did this on my aunt's computer and then it didnt even show in the My Computer window! we took it in and by the time we got there it worked. let it cool down with the computer OFF. it should work after that. im thinking the drive wont even open either? this should work.

[imported_The__One]

Yeah, letting it cool down for 'bout 10-29 mins got it working again, but isn't there a way for it not to heat up so mutch?? I mean, I don't want to loose sporadic CD's just because the writer got too hot and decided to shut down..

[amphoteric88]

you could always install another case fan or two. one to draw cool air in and another to expel hot air. or try running your comp with a side panel off, though this may get a bit noisy.

[imported_The__One]

Yeah, that's what I'm doing now...running the comp without a side panel and it seems top be helping (hasen't overheated yet) But I also wrote to Philips to see if there was any less noisy fix B)

[amphoteric88]

a case fan pulling in cold air and an exhaust fan getting hot air out should fix this problem
what is the rest of your spec, and what cooling gear do you have just now?

[imported_The__One]

The writer is on a P2 300Mhz with 300MB RAM (not my main comp) and I have no clue as to what cooling system I'm using, since I didn't build this comp, I bought it from HP back in 97, but ther's a heat sink (sp?) on top of the processor, and a rather large intake fan, wich blows air on the heat sink. Ther's no exaust fan, exept the one on the font.

But I was hoping to sovle this problem without having to resort to adding fans, since the writer should work fine without the fans, right? I've used several other writers on this comp and on other computers and never had this problem....