Measuring the lifespan of a burner
 

I have a second-handed iMac G4 from about 2002. I'm quite certain the previous owner didn't do much with the machine's optical drive during the time she owned it, but I have been burning CDs somewhat consistently since I gained possession of it about two and a half years ago. It's become my go-to machine to just burn CDs.

I've recently come across a skipping issue with a couple of discs (Taiwanese Verbatim CD-Rs) during playback. The issue seems to be with the drive, as the blank discs have never been a problem (even with Verbatim's reputation, I still always check each one visually before burning) nor is there an issue with the source (pressed retail) CDs.

So I'm therefore wondering why a young burner (maybe a few hundred discs old) would be having this issue. Could it be the straight age of the burner (ca 2002)?

The CD/DVD drives included in iMacs and even G3/G4/G5 towers were terrible. The iMac/tower G4 and G5 had the slotted Pioneer OEM DVD burners, and the fail rate was awful. It was the Apple slot bezel (dust gets in) and possibly OEM nature of the drives (rejects?) that caused it.

I don't know of a single Mac user from that generation that did not buy an external Pioneer USB2 or Firewire/400 DVD burner. At least one guy I knew ended up ripping the G4 apart, and manually replacing the junky little OEM DVR-A04 with a much beefier Pioneer non-OEM DVR-105. And in most cases, the new external DVD burner outlasted their G4/G5 towers -- there was overheating, which caused various internal failures; i.e. hard drives, RAM, graphics cards, etc.

From a technical point, not all DVD drives (readers, burners, players, recorders) use the same method to read CDs. Remember that the CD needs 780nm laser to read/write, while DVD is 650nm. At 650nm, CD returns almost nothing. This may simply be yet another drives that does terrible at CD read/write. The LG burners in laptops are pretty miserable about CD-R, but pressed CD-ROM can be okay.

So this one isn't really age related. It's just "crap drive" related.

Pioneer is usually good. The early OEMs were exceptions, however -- not that 103/104 era drives were all that wonderful to begin with. In a nutshell, welcome to 2001-2002 DVD burning. I can't say I miss it.

What year did you start to burn DVDs? :)

Thanks KP!

I'm not sure I understand the part about the nms (780 vs. 650). Could you elaborate?

I started burning DVDs around 2005 and CDs around 2000. I'm sure I haven't done near the number you guys have, but I've burned hundreds of discs over the last ten years. This recent problem is my first issue, CD or DVD, ever. Burn failure was previously foreign to me. :D

Regarding burner age, could you clear up any misconception I may have? Generally speaking - not just in my case here - should the age be determined strictly by the number of burns and not the physical age of the drive? Or should actual age be a consideration? I'd like to think that an unused drive/laser would remain in mint condition indefinitely if it wasn't used.

I tend to take exceptionally good care of my hardware and think of a computer as old when it just won't physically cut the mustard anymore (and NOT when I can't support the latest version of iTunes or Firefox, like so many others). Thanks!

Also, if the computer is in use but the drive itself isn't, does that contribute to its age? Is the drive considered "on," even when not handling a disc? Thanks!

nm = nanometers = the size of the laser
I actually have a number of diagrams of laser size/intensity, but lack the ability to pull those out right now. The larger 780nm CD laser is wider around, and a bit weaker in intensity. The 650nm DVD laser is narrow and a bit stronger, albeit unable to read many CD-R due to absorption factors. Blu-ray is even smaller, at 405nm.

Much of that info is probably far too techie for you, however.
Possibly entirely unnecessary for the conversation -- it's more of a trivia exercise for the layman.

In general, age is measured in thousands of hours of use. For example, 2,000 hours is a common point where drives are rated to start to fail. Some are rated even higher. But ratings and actuality don't always meet, so you can see cheaply manufacturer laser assemblies burn out in several hundred hours.

Environment is another issue, as the optics of the laser lens are coated like any camera would be -- to help reduce light in certain spectrums/spectra (i.e., UV light). These can tarnish over time, and are tied directly to the quality of the coating and the environment. For example, cigarette smoke causes major damage to optics -- "lung cancer" for lenses. But even inherent moisture or grit in the air can saturate the lens and damage it over time.

The problem with optical media is not the media itself, as is often over-studied. The real problem in 100 years is not going to be whether we can read the discs, but if we can even find a player that is capable of reading the discs. I'm reminded of audio cylinders, for which many seem to exist, but so few players are operational. Or for the video lover, U-matic, D1 or Betamax players. S-VHS and VHS VCRs are rapidly approaching the same level of obscurity, with most of the available equipment found in poor condition.

Thanks Admin, but what I'm really trying to understand is how the hours should be calculated. Is it 2,000 hours of the drive actually being used (reading or burning a disc) or 2,000 hours of the computer simply being on?

My Mac Pro makes a totally different sound when you pop a disc in; there's no doubt the optical drive has been geared up and is being used. Yet when the drive isn't in use, it makes no sound at all. Thanks!

Edit: Also, how might one think of the age of a completely unused drive (i.e. still in manufacturer shrinkwrap, not yet installed, etc). Does it remain in mint/perfect condition indefinitely, or will it "go bad" if it isn't used eventually (like how never driving your car is bad).

Hour ratings are based on time drive is in use -- not computer.
Unused drives can still be affected by environment. Even shrinkwrap is not impermeable to the elements.

Not driving a car is due to chemical reactions, not physical ones. (i.e., oil, gas, grease, tire rubber)
DVD drives have no such chemistry. (Well, I guess there is SOME grease in DVD drives, but that won't go dry for a decade minimum, I'd bet. If anything, it would sludge up due to mixing with dirt/moisture, which is again an issue of environment.)

Awesome, thanks Admin! :)