CD-ROM will lose the speed as it get older?

External Since: Nov 05, 2003 Posts: 14

Hi

is that true CD-ROM will lose the speed as it get older?

Well mine CD-ROM is Star Data 68X max, about 4 years old now, I noticed that
my CD-ROM is getting slower when read the CDs I revealed the test speed like
Nero CD speed and it said that my CD-ROM run overall 8x ?????

I suppose 68X speed no?! when i bought i feel that 68X speed is not true?

i hope to hear from anyone of you will answer me

thanks

ps) i have other CD-ROM Lite-On Combo 48X CD / DVD - the speed average is
21x - 34x which noticed way faster than my Star Data 68X max.

External Since: Nov 13, 2003 Posts: 112

On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 08:14:35 GMT, "Wesley" <no.RemoveThis@email.com> wrote::

>Hi
>
>is that true CD-ROM will lose the speed as it get older?
>
>Well mine CD-ROM is Star Data 68X max, about 4 years old now, I noticed that
>my CD-ROM is getting slower when read the CDs I revealed the test speed like
>Nero CD speed and it said that my CD-ROM run overall 8x ?????
>
>I suppose 68X speed no?! when i bought i feel that 68X speed is not true?
>
>i hope to hear from anyone of you will answer me
>
>thanks
>
>ps) i have other CD-ROM Lite-On Combo 48X CD / DVD - the speed average is
>21x - 34x which noticed way faster than my Star Data 68X max.
>

The discs themselves, will collect new scratches as you use them, and
this will cause the drives to compensate with error correction. Among
the error control techniques for reading is to throttle down the speed
or re-read a bad patch, if bitwise error correction doesn't work. In
that respect, the yes, a CDROM will lose speed as it gets older.

If you're talking about the drives, the lens will accumulate dirt, and
environmental crap over time, and this will up the error rate on
reads. Read the previous paragraph and you'll see why this is a
problem. Using a lense cleaning kit, or taking it apart and cleaning
the lens *carefully* with isopropyl alcohol may help.

Keep in mind that no drive will actually perform at its rated speed,
and no-name drives like your Star-Data drive have more BS in their
specs than most. Further, depending on the quality of the error
correction alorithms used in the firmware, the speed may slow down
even further if it hits any problems.

All of this assumes that the drives are functioning properly
otherwise, the same media for your measurements since (all else being
equal) pressed CDs are easier for drives to read than CDRs or CDRWs.

----------------------------------------
Thanks,
MCheu