Is this true about cd-rom drives?

General Forums Tech
1

i found this on a site i was surfing and was wondering if it really works does anyone know?

Modify Your CD-ROM to Watch DVD Movies

There are two types of CD-ROM drives we can mod:
24x to 40x
40x or higher
Drives slower than 24x are too old to be modded.
24x to 40x CD ROMs

Laser Head Adjustments:
The track pitch of CDs is 1.6 microns, and the track pitch of DVDs is only 0.8 microns. The minimum

length of track pits of CDs is 0.843mm, and the minimum length of track pits of DVDs is 0.293mm.

That’s why DVD discs can store much more data in the size of a CD.
Pinpointing this situation, we need to adjust the laser head so it can read discs with smaller track

pitchs and shorter track pits. Open up the CD-ROM drive, do you see a lens on the rail? That’s the

laser head. On the side of the laser head, there’s a screw you can adjust.
This is the key of this mod.
This screw can adjust the size of the laser beam that lands on the disc. Referring to the above, after

adjusting, the laser beam should be less than 0.293mm, to suit the needs of DVD discs. So turn that

screw 2-3 times. I got this number through trial and error. Mark with a pencil, in case you forget how

many times you turned that screw.

Speed adjustments:
DVD-ROM drives can play DVD movies smoothly at 4x speed. If we’re modding a 32x CD-ROM drive, the

rotation speed is obviously too high, increasing heat, and shortening the life of the drive.
So we need to decrease the speed of it.
Most people know that power supplies can provide 5V (red wire) and 12V (yellow wire) electricity

output for Molex connectors. Find the Molex connector you’ll plug into the modded CD-ROM drive, cut

the yellow wire or insulate it with tape, so only 5V of electricity is transferred to the CD-ROM

drive. The speed of the drive is now 32 * 5/17 = 9.41x and can now fulfill our requirements.

40x or higher CD ROMs
When 40x CD-ROM drives are released, most manufacturers are already producing DVD-ROM drives. To lower

cost, they use the same core as DVD-ROM drives with DVD functions disabled. What we need to do here is

to re-enable the DVD function.
Open up the CD-ROM, behind the circuit board, look for a jumper that says DVD JUMP. Find a jumper to

connect this jumper. Thin metal wire also works fine.
OK, so the DVD function is unlocked, but we still need to decrease the speed. Use the instructions

above on how to decrase the speed of the drive.

Notes:
Modded drives cannot be detected in POST, that means you cannot use it in DOS. But once you get into

Windows, the drive works fine.
Modded drives have no region code problems.
Modded drives MIGHT NOT read DVD9 discs,

that’s why I said you can watch most retail DVDs in the beginning

2

oh for god’s sake a dual layer DVD±RW sells for under $60. Who’d even open a CDROM these days. Undo 4 screws, toss in garbage.

3

Amen!!

4

well the question was can it be done not should i do it! i like you i would just buy a new one but i was just wondering if it can be done since i do not know if it can! but thanks for the bullshit dipshit. god you airheads have nothing better to do or is it just that you see the punisher and feel you need to talk shit! try some good comments like yes or no i don’t think it can and here is why! so does anyone know?

5

No. Oh and you’re a cheap assbag.

6

yes it works, that is not a new trick either. it was really the cat’s meow when dvd drives were three to five hundred dollars. tell ya another one. you can just cut the twelve volt wire off the molex and put the drive in the freezer for about ten or fifteen minutes, take it out-plug it in, walla dvd drive till it warms up, you will get maybee a third of yer movie then back in the freezer. the freezer trick also works for reviving failed hard drive’s, omly works a couple of times with them though, it will allow you to retrieve yer data anyways.

7

cool thanks for the info chrisj, now i know a new (old) cool trick thanks. :smiley:

8

OK the hard drive thing does not work well, as you turn the hard drive cold THEN to hot causes Condensation inside the hard drive.

9

try to pay attention, its for getting data off an already dead drive, and it does work.

10

Uh, huh

11

Ok ChrisJ, when I first read about freezing a hard drive I immediately laughed it off. The I got to thinking, freezing makes metal contract, and the heads may stop banging the plates…
so yesterday I got a clacking drive with the guy’s oh so important files. Took it out an put it in the work fridge’s freezer compartment (in a bag).
Today, plugged it into a system and after the diskcheck ran I recovered 1.2 GB of the guy’s files! The rest were FUBAR, but I actually got some.
Nice tip! :smiley:

12

exellent dude! yeah it all depends on what type of failure it was, glad it helped. you can try it again , put it back in the freezer and try for the rest unless they are just corrupted. cold metal shrinks :smile:

13

Very true, HOWEVER this also works for ram, I just fixed a laptop by verifying that the ram was defective, only locked up when the ram started getting warm.

14

http://joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyimages/910.gif?

15

When XP booted it “fixed” the files and tables. Not much left that ain’t already got.
Besides, I’m in cheapville. No matter how many more hours I put into saving the files, he ain’t gonna pay. I could rescue all his tax data for a decade and only get chewed on for charging him.
It was more an excersize to satisfy my own curiosity. Rescued 90% of his photos back to 2001 (including his daughters wedding), 75% of his tax files. He’ll shit if I ding him $50 for that.

16

yeah everyone learns the hard way about backing up their pics. i charge $40 per hour, 30 for friends, free for family only but i have done the odd free-bee charity type thing for a few handicapped folks that have no ability to pay, if they had to pay it would have stayed broken so i will do those for free. if they are healthy and employed they pay the rate, no excuses. glad that recovery went well, make him pay damn it he should be grateful to you, not cheap. tell him you know a guy that would have charged him $150 for that same job, so $120 for you is a bargain, either that or sell his pics back to him for a dollar each. :smiley:

17

Sell him his daughters old MSN transcripts for $300.00 :smiley:
Hell sell them to her new husband for $500