Spastic drive

[Upendra09]

i have a 9 year old computer with the folowing specs

1.2ghz celeron
512megs of SDRAM
40 gig HDD
dvd drive from Maxtor
and a CD writer from philips
250Watt PSU

so i walk in to my room one day and i see the CDdrive opening and closing by itself, it opens and closes or opens halfway and retracts halfway etc.

so i was wondering if it was a virus but i haven't downloaded anything or opened any malicious emails

i have yet to do a AV scan though

eventually i opened the case and pulled the power connector from the dive

so my theory is there is something wrong with the PSU, causing it to send random pulses of electricity to the drive, causing it to open and close randomly, considering the PSU is 9 years old i think this is a very probable problem

so is there anything i can do short of building a new comp cuz i don't have the money for that quite yet, it maybe a few more months before i can arrange the parts.

i would really appreciate a fast response

and if any other info is required, feel free to ask

 

[MrLinux]

Seen it (or very similar) before, but as I find your subject line BIG TIME Offensive I have no intention of answering.

 

[Upendra09]

what do you mean? i wasn't trying to offend anyone.....

 

[Upendra09]

anyways

does anybody else have a solution to this problem?

 

[Guest]

The comment from Mr Linux relates to what in the West is known as political correctness. To call a disabled person spastic is rendered offensive while "differently abled" is accepted even though it is medically a nonsense.

Until the 1980's the leading UK charity concerned with the welfare of disabled people was actually called the Spastics Society and presumably they were comfortable with that until political correctness ruled it offensive.

Probably, none of the terms makes any practical difference to the person affected but the politically correct term makes some people feel better about their own feelings.

I think Mr Linux shows cultural insensitivity in applying Western conceptions to persons of another culture such as yourself -- and saying that makes me feel better about myself.

As for the drive -- the mechanism is jamming so that when the drawer tries to close it ejects again. Replace unless you are good at DIY.

 

[Upendra09]

ok thanks for the answer.

i wasn't using the term i a derogatory manner, it was simply an adjective to mean in short spasms......which is exactly what the drive was doing, opening and closing in short spasms

i didn't do anything wrong obviously Mr.Linux thinks he is great by implying it to be derogatory

anyway thanks for the answer fihart

 

[Upendra09]

and fihart,

i never used the drive, maybe once or twice but not in the past year

so how can it randomly jam? i din't touch it at all... it was fine at one point in time but i walk in 3 hours later and it is opening and closing

 

[Guest]

If you have dismantled any common desktop type CD or DVD drive you'll see that the drawer mechanism is linked to a mechanism that lowers and raises the laser carriage and drive spindle module so that the disc is located onto the drive spindle from the drawer. The raising and lowering depends on a component which slides across, drive by a cog and belt system. If a fault develops in those mechanisms -- lubricant dries out, belt gets contaminated by lubricant (whatever) the result is the drawer cannot complete its travel and usually ejects.

Of course it is possible that a chip has failed but most of the systems I've described depend upon physical switches to activate the drawer or sense it has completed its travel.

In my experience apart from examining the drive mechanism to make sure foreign objects or slipping belts are not causing the problem the best you can do is some careful lubrication.

 

[Upendra09]

interesting

thanks for the response fihart

 

[Upendra09]

Best answer selected by Upendra09.

 

[aford10]

The comment from Mr Linux relates to what in the West is known as political correctness.

There is a big political correctness movement here in the US. However, it seems to be running out of control. You can't say much of anything anymore, without offending someone. What was PC (politically correct) yesterday, may not be today. Don't worry Upendra, the term 'spastic' isn't offensive.

 

[JustSomeJoe]

I'm with MrL on this.
I have a friend who is Spastic, she describes herself as such and it isn't in any way offensive; but when someone uses the word to describe something faulty "Spastic Drive" it becomes offensive, political correctness has nothing to do with it, it's question of context.

 

[aford10]

Spastic is a term to describe hyperactivity. That can directly relate to the actions of the CD drive. If anything, it should be offensive to call a person that, not describing the actions of a mechanical object.

 

[Guest]

The point as he has explained is that the original poster used the literal term spastic -- as in spasmodic (check an authoritative dictionary such as the Oxford).

He presumably does not have English as a first language and would not have the experience of school age kids using spastic as a term of abuse.

His perfectly innocent (as I see it) use of the word was jumped upon in a kneejerk reaction and in a manner which did not seem appropriate to this forum.

Thus the intervention of not one but two Moderators.