What are the odds my Samsung Burner is trashing my DVDs?

[ti1706]

I've a cheap Samsung optical drive. It's about 5 years old by this point, but it's used (normally) once a month.

Lately, I've gotten into watching a nightly film from my small DVD collection. One particular DVD I bought used from a bookstore and watched it twice, no problems. I just watched it again and now it freezes while the drive makes that unmistakeable "scratched disc" ticking sound.

The EXACT same thing has happened with two other DVDS (also bought used from the same place). None of my 4 other DVDs (that I've watched multiple times) have done this... yet.

My question for the tech-savvy is this:
Is my drive scratching my discs?
OR
Were the 3 discs already scratched and my drive was just lucky in playing them the first two times?

The drive has never been cleaned (I didn't think you were supposed to). It is (seemingly) sitting level.

 

[digitaldoc]

The drive did not scratch the discs. Samsung ODD's are just not that stable, and you were lucky they played the previous times.

No need to clean your ODD- rarely is the issue, but they do make cleaning discs if you wish to try this.

http://www.amazon.com/Allsop-ProLens-Cleaner-Players-23321/dp/B00000J1QM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1432354631&sr=8-2&keywords=optical+cleaning+disc

 

[ti1706]

Alrighty, then. Guess I'll put my paranoia away for now.

Thanks for your help.


... out of curiosity, does "stable" in that context mean the drives just don't hold the laser in the same place long enough to scratch it?

 

[digitaldoc]

The laser does not contact the disc, so it cannot scratch it. The scratches come from outside the drive.

By stable, I mean that they are neither good players or writers. I used a Samsung ODD for almost 2 years, and it struggled to play DVD movies from original discs. When I swapped the drive for my current LiteOn, all the issues totally went away.