Give Up the Ghost

[BlackListedB]

When a tech problem becomes so obscure or so large, you are faced with the option of replacing and discarding, how do you tackle it? I become somewhat attached to my gear, I take in old gear to run through tests and put back into use, as a hobby and a bit of the Geeky nature I have. Right now, the impetus for this thread is a DVD RW drive I hoped would last some time, however, it's Pioneer branded PC IDE, and my experience is such that if I never use Pioneer PC drives again, I can be happy. This one was MADE in 2006, and it's stopped reading DVDs and CDs. Much less record anything. The price of DVD recorders is now about $30 to $50USD, however, I hate spending money you don't have to. A laptop DVD Recorder costs more like $50 to $100 range, and BluRay Recording for PC is about $180 on up.

Still pretty expensive getting new tech, any way you slice it. At the moment I'm thinking a cleaning or even Firmware flash if possible could help save the drive, but I may also just sell it AS IS for someone else to tackle refurbishing it. One thing I know is I can't find the will to actually throw a drive like this in the trash. I've seen good working stuff just tossed out for the garbage man, and I know it's working because I will test something out that looks good.

I don't bother with the glut of old TVS people are casting out though, in favor of LCD. It's just too much bother and you know TVs can be a complicated mess to repair!

I did find this link related to my item;

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/654833-drive-problems-pioneer-dvd-rw.html

I opted not to specifically post about that model or just DVD drives, but allow you to comment on premature problems of your own, I'm sure you wondered what some repair professional might say, or refer to Google to see if someone's in the same boat you happen to be in!??