![]() But prolonged use can crack the disk or internally damage a PC. Fortunately, most fast drives can sustain speeds required to fracture the discs, often because reading errors cause them to slow. Sony product manuals warn that cracked, scratched and poor-quality discs may damage the drive or the disk. CD drives at 40x, 48x and even 52x will continue to operate safely, have good readability, low vibration and noise." "However, the report didn't mention that by using undamaged precision-manufactured media. "At about 40x (speed), CDs may become unstable due to the structure of the plastic media, scratches on the disk surface (and) weight or friction of the ink used to print the label," Kerr says. Sony has beefed up the technical specification to cater for higher speeds and limits the speeds of its drives unless high-quality media is used. Gordon Kerr, Sony Australia's optical storage product manager, says although the Japanese maker and co-inventor of the compact disk format sold 300,000 CD-ROM drives in Australia in the past year, no incidents such as those in the Swedish report were reported. Although many such devices have the slower, older mechanisms, faster drives that could cause injury will filter through over the next year as costs fall. At 52x CD-ROM speeds (27,500rpm) disks shatter in a "rain of plastic particles", shooting out long, sharp, knife-like shrapnel at half the speed of sound: "The result was a pile of shimmering plastic chips," he says.ĬD and DVD mechanisms are found in many computer and consumer electronics devices in homes, cars, and offices. In lab tests at Atlas Copco Controls, spinning optical disks at top speeds - up to 30,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) - resulted in severe damage to the ceiling and the protective metal sleeve that encased the test spindle. Stadje found that today's high-speed 52x CD-ROM and 16x DVD drives stress the delicate plastic-and-metal disks they read. "What happens now is that the door just breaks and comes flying, along with parts of the disk." "Shatter protection should be built into the drives, especially to protect the front door (of the disk drive)," he says. ![]() The fact some drive makers have introduced speed limits on their drives indicates to Stadje that there is truth in his claims. "All new machines today are delivered with 48-56x drives, and as soon as the industrialised world has been updated with the latest hardware, disks are going to start blowing."Īlthough Stadje has no statistics that many people are being hurt, he had his first indication last week that consumers are suffering when he received an e-mail from a man who had a plastic splinter embedded in his skin, drawing blood. ![]() "I think it's a matter of time only before we see disks shattered everywhere," says Swedish researcher Jorgen Stadje, who conducted the study. At revolutions of about 200 metres per second, today's state-of-the-art lead-foot drives approach the speed of sound - 340 metres per second through air at room temperature - subjecting the spinning disc to a force 1500 times that of gravity, researchers have found. If you thought it could damage your PC - or even your person - would you go slow?Ĭonsumers like to buy the latest, swiftest devices, but research from Sweden and the experiences of Australian PC users show that speed can inconvenience and possibly kill. Take a moment to consider that next CD or DVD-ROM drive upgrade. ![]()
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