How many times can a DVD drive be opened and closed?

[Boomwebsearch]

How many times can a DVD drive be opened and closed electronically before breaking or not functioning anymore?

[79wjd]

35,472 times.

[TetraSky]

The number of time a disc drive can be opened closed, depends on the material and build quality of said disc drive.
But in general, enough to last a lifetime.

 

That said, why would you be using a disc drive often enough that you'd wonder about this in the first place?

[Alariel]

No idea, but I've been moving the same bloody drive from one PC to the next for ages now and it's still working fine, so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say a lot.

[Boomwebsearch]

2 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

why would you be using a disc drive often enough that you'd wonder about this in the first place?

The reason that I asked this question is that I have a refurbished desktop computer which has a DVD drive which is not working and I am wondering if it is due to it being opened and closed too many times. The DVD drive worked for a few days then is not opening anymore for some reason. Although the drive must have been damaged in some other way. I am most likely going to have to replace the DVD drive because I need it sometimes when installing software or watching movies.

[ARikozuM]

Until it breaks or goes on strike. 

[Godlygamer23]

6 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

The reason that I asked this question is that I have a refurbished desktop computer which has a DVD drive which is not working and I am wondering if it is due to it being opened and closed too many times. The DVD drive worked for a few days then is not opening anymore for some reason. Although the drive must have been damaged in some other way. I am most likely going to have to replace the DVD drive because I need it sometimes when installing software or watching movies.

When it was still functioning, did you hear any strange noises that would indicate failure?

[Leonard]

12 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

The reason that I asked this question is that I have a refurbished desktop computer which has a DVD drive which is not working and I am wondering if it is due to it being opened and closed too many times. The DVD drive worked for a few days then is not opening anymore for some reason. Although the drive must have been damaged in some other way. I am most likely going to have to replace the DVD drive because I need it sometimes when installing software or watching movies.

This could be mechanism failure, the gears and or rubber bands they use to open the draw of the drive could also be the system board of the drive, and not laser failure.

 

There is a small hole on most older disk drives that allow you to stick a paper clip or pin in the hole to pries the closing latch which will allow the tray to open, have you done this? 

[Ashe]

if you can do that its probably an issue with one of the small rubberbands driving it. 
they tend to either snap or pop off. 

its a pretty simple fix.

[Boomwebsearch]

9 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

When it was still functioning, did you hear any strange noises that would indicate failure?

When it was still functioning I did not notice any odd sounds that would indicate failure. The issue which I have is that the drive is not opening anymore.

[Boomwebsearch]

5 minutes ago, Leonard said:

There is a small hole on most older disk drives that allow you to stick a paper clip or pin in the hole to pries the closing latch which will allow the tray to open, have you done this? 

This DVD drive can be described as fairly new and there is, unfortunately, no small hole which would allow for me to open this DVD drive.

[Leonard]

9 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

This DVD drive can be described as fairly new and there is, unfortunately, no small hole which would allow for me to open this DVD drive.

Nothing like this right?.....do you know the drive serial or model?

[YedZed]

Sounds like the kind of thing linus might spend 9 months testing by actually opening and closing the drive a billion times...  

[it_dont_work]

untill the belt breaks, or gear teeth chip off.

[Arika]

it will last until it's time to spend another $10 on a new one

[PETRGangKing]

Until it loses its job to all the digital storage solutions coming here illegally. #BuildTheFirewall

[PlayStation 2]

It all depends on the quality of the drive. There's no set number. You have DVD drives nearing the 2 decade mark that work fine and you can have a brand new drive or something that's barely a year old failing.

[Boomwebsearch]

I discovered the issue earlier today in the morning. The issue was that the physical cables connecting the drive to the power supply had worn out. After replacing the cable/s the drive is now functioning as normal although I am not entirely sure why the connectors had worn out. I think that it probably got worn out due to age although there is really no way to know for sure. Thanks to everyone who posted and contributed to solving my problem. I hope that this drive will continue work in the future.