CD Exploading.

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drunkbum222

New Member
Now I for one didn't think it was possible at a normal drive speed but yesterday it happened. I was at my friends house playing games when we all just suddenly hear a loud pop. At first I thought his memory just arched or something because he started to lag severely before it went to his desktop, but I knew it couldn't have been that.
He restarted his computer and everything ran fine, He then went back to playing Starcraft, but it couldn't detect the CD in the drive. So he opens it up and to my surprise the CD was shattered into several pieces.
He has a normal CD drive with a normal CD, so I didn't think this could happen. What would cause a drive to reach such intense RPM speeds that it would shatter a CD.

P.S. There was nothing wrong with the cd.
 
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PC eye

banned
Nothing wrong? How about a disk that got brittle! That would explain it being found in pieces especially if the disk got cold from being outside depending on your location was heated too fast when placed in the drive. If no other disks have problems in the same drive that would be the likely cause there.

The lazer lens would have then acted like a microwave when warming a cold disk. Or some flaw in the disk's material was revealed. That just turned out to be the final straw if nothing is found wrong with the drive itself.
 
lovely?

lovely?

Active Member
happened to me awhile back, its too bad that manufacturers cant simply make a stronger product, if we have to watch how cold it was right before sticking it in the drive then scew cd's, im going to flash drives they dont explode
 
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PC eye

banned
If you are in a regoin that sees frigid temps from winter weather and carry disks with you or leave them on a car seat they get cold fast. After a period of time the material will get flexed back and forth from cold to room temp to cold again. That will make any vinyl or plastic type material brittle.

The same in some sense would be seen if leaving a cd in car during warm weather too. It's just a matter of physical science there. For those that drive leaving even their audio cds in the car with sunlight bearing down on them know that one! It's sad to see it happen but being smart can save a few headaches.
 
sniperchang

sniperchang

New Member
Hey did this appear on mythbusters?

Season 1 Episode 2

According to wikipedia, it was "plausible" in the actual episode, but was called "busted" in future episodes. Maybe we should demand a myth revisit!
 
Trizoy

Trizoy

VIP Member
Anything spun above 50,000RPMs can be destroyed. This included steel bearings, cds.. engines.. I know its high, but wanted to point it out..

a 48x speed drive will go to 24000RPM's
 
codeman0013

codeman0013

Active Member
Mythbusters went back and tested it again and decided after further review it wasnt possible under their conditions but they did admint that under the right cercomstances it could happen aka in what pc-eye is saying...
 
The_Other_One

The_Other_One

VIP Member
I got this computer from someone. The drive worked fine, but I kept getting pieces out of it. The owner told me a disk had exploded in there a while back. Well eventually the drive quit ejecting so I took it apart to clean it out. I'm not exactly sure of the speeds here, but I suspect it's only a 32x or something around that. It's from an older P4 1.4GHz Gateway computer.

CDRW_Broke.jpg
 
Platinum

Platinum

New Member
PC eye said:
The lazer lens would have then acted like a microwave when warming a cold disk.
Click to expand...

Speaking of microwaves and CD's... anyone ever stick a CD in a microwave for about 10 seconds? You hafta actually turn the microwave on though, don't just stick the CD in there for 10 seconds and expect something to happen. =D

I know that's not what you meant by microwave but it just made me think of it.
 
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PC eye

banned
Platinum said:
Speaking of microwaves and CD's... anyone ever stick a CD in a microwave for about 10 seconds? You hafta actually turn the microwave on though, don't just stick the CD in there for 10 seconds and expect something to happen. =D

I know that's not what you meant by microwave but it just made me think of it.
Click to expand...

What I was referring to there was the drastic change in temperature going from warm(room temp) to ice cold(outside) back to room temps again repeatedly. That stresses the actual material in the disk itself.

The microwave video there shows the reflection and refraction of the micro waves off of the disk while looking somewhat conductive electrically. I don't think you would want to make a habit of that however. :eek: :p

The fasted optical drives seen over the years were the 56X models made by only a few brands like Artec(cheapo crappo). When those first came out I tried one by that brand to see the drive itself fly apart inside! Cheap!!! crap
 
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PC eye

banned
The Artec brand was simply tried out then due to 56x speed over the typical 52x seen on cd roms and 52x24x52 later 52x32x52 cd writers to see what difference would be seen with the faster read time. The drive crapped out in just about a day or so. That brand isn't even seen in the same retail stores that originally sold them like Staples or CompUSA!
 
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SirKenin

banned
Bad clamping mechanisms will do that. The CD actually doesn't spin properly. The only other time they do that is if there's little defects which eventually get worse until the disk shatters. That's all. It's not exactly common, but yeah, it's most definitely possible.

That's why they can't reproduce it in the mythbusters episodes.
 
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SirKenin

banned
By the way, the reason that they get shredded (and it's *only* due to either faulty clamping mechanisms or faults in the disk itself) is because of the centrifugal force. The thing spins so fast that any defect in the drive or disk will shatter it in the right conditions.
 
Platinum

Platinum

New Member
PC eye said:
What I was referring to there was the drastic change in temperature going from warm(room temp) to ice cold(outside) back to room temps again repeatedly. That stresses the actual material in the disk itself.

The microwave video there shows the reflection and refraction of the micro waves off of the disk while looking somewhat conductive electrically. I don't think you would want to make a habit of that however. :eek: :p

The fasted optical drives seen over the years were the 56X models made by only a few brands like Artec(cheapo crappo). When those first came out I tried one by that brand to see the drive itself fly apart inside! Cheap!!! crap
Click to expand...

No I know what you meant, but you mentioned microwaves so it made me think of it. In my dorm we'd take blank cd's and do it. It starts to smell after about 3 though... it's awesome though.
 
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PC eye

banned
The best way to really illustrate what most likely happened to the disk drunkbum222 was talking about there was to see what happened when cold then weather repeats itself and you see a water main break from the expansion and contraction. The disk being carried around exposed to rapid temp changes became fragile when stresses developed in the disk's material. Once the lens in the drive heated the disk... kapuuu eeee...
 
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SirKenin

banned
Platinum said:
No I know what you meant, but you mentioned microwaves so it made me think of it. In my dorm we'd take blank cd's and do it. It starts to smell after about 3 though... it's awesome though.
Click to expand...


Haha. The "heat" from a laser will have absolutely no impact. The disk spins too fast for that to be a factor. Microwaves and lasers are two completely different things.
 
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PC eye

banned
Optical disks are read by reflection of the light on the disk at a high rate of speed. The reflection off of the disk is then read and converted into data bits loaded into tam. Microwave ovens use radio waves there.

The problem seen with the disk flying apart was seen while spinning fast and having stress fractures in the material itself from "exposure to the elements" in that sense. That's where temperature changes were the one thing you didn't want to see with the software disk effected. With prices seeing from $20 up as high as $70-$80 for games you want to protect the disks themselves.
 
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SirKenin

banned
hehe. Temp changes don't do it either. My disks stand testament to that, as they're going through drastic temperature changes daily, even hourly the last week. As I carry inventory with me all the time, some disks even endure sub zero temperatures for days upon days at a time, just to be taken into the site, thrown into the drive and away you go.

Defects can be either manufacturing defects or a bad clamping mechanism. That's all. Radio waves, light, little aliens, the CD gnomes, the gremlins, the weather fairies and toaster ovens really don't have anything to do with it. :)
 
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