Is there anyway to keep them from sticking? And how is a DVD drive different from a DVD ram drive? I keep a paper clip on hand for when they stick to put in the hole.

The Difference between a DVD & DVD-R just means that DVD is a Professional disc from a movie store or movie company & DVD-R ( Writeable ) are discs you can buy so you can burn you own information from your computer to the Blank DVD-R ( only if you have a DVD-Ram drive & software on your computer that is Capable of burning DVD’s. as far as the sticking problem of the Drive that is due to a worn drive belt ( on older drives) that opens the tray when you push the eject button. The rubber tray drive belt get dirty or stretches out after time and then slips on the pulley that opens the tray. On newer drive that are Direct Drive ( Gear Driven Only) the grease on the gears mixed with dirt or dust hardens and jams the gear that opens the tray. Both examples can be fixed by cleaning gears or belt replacement or just replace the drive itself they are not that expensive anymore. I hope this helped you out.

DJ Donnie Vee

It did help me out. This Memorex brand drive was the first one I noticed as labled as ram in Windows even though I had writables before. It just gets frustrating that a good drive sticks when all it is a loose belt but I agree it is the disposable age. I take it that one could clean the drive much like one would clean a vcr belt. I take it that 'ram' would mean something different than ramdom access memory in this case sense it is used in the lower case than 'RAM'. I have noticed less sticking with older models of cd-roms and dvd-roms but that could be attributed to that weren't opened and closed as much. Hmm, 'ram', I should have figured that one out but didn't put the two ideas together. I have cleaned mice and vcrs with rubbing alcohol and might try that with the drives since I do have a large collection of old ones. Chances of finding a supplier of just belts might be a problem. Yup, makes more since just to get a newer one.

Here is the supplier I use to use for belts when i was repairing VCR's ....... PROJECTOR RECORDER BELT CORP. ( Their web site is www.prbline.com and i'm pretty sure the belt that will work for you on your CD or DVD drive is Part# SCA-2.3

P.S. If you have any Electronic Parts Distributors near you they will probably handle this brand of belts also.


DJ Donnie Vee

Thanks for the information. I have computer repair man in town who has helped me in town but an electronic parts supplier is actually different. I live in a rural area and the input that I am getting from a lot of folks in town is that don't want to invest big bucks even though he does good service. I actually think I have found a new type of market where these peple buy an old computer at a yard sale or auction and just want it fixed but don't want to dump the old computer to buy a new computer. Where a more experience computer operator or a tech would see replace could be cheaper than repair. When I forst was taking classes in computer we had a class in schematics. The college was giving ghe old computers to the teacher of the schematics class and was actually soldiering on the motherboards and fixing them. But even he would enventually would tell us that there comes a time when a part was easier and more cost effective to replace.