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[Layser]

Hello, had this problem before (Actually the 5th drive i've gone through in 2 years...). Basically, the drive doesn't see anything in it, and will start to run up and makes a grinding noise, then runs down.

Last time I had this issue was about 5 months ago and I just swapped the DVD drive and it's been fine until now. I swapped the MB's over so I believe this must be an issue with the firmware of the drive, i've got no problem with just getting another drive but seeing as it's done exactly the same thing again I was wondering if anyone had any idea what is causing this problem?

I've tried a quick rubber band fix to no effect, other than it seems to stop the grinding noise on startup. I only play origionals but if say a firmware hack would include an update but not risk getting banned from live then I've got no problem with that.

Thanks for the time, and I hope someone can enlighten me a little on to what this problem exactly is.

[woody21_1]

the laser is in need of replacement, i have seen this a few times, benq always goes this way and mine started it the other day but you can get a little more life out of it.

clean the lens and try it out, if you still have no joy with that try a pot tweak to increase the laser power.
to do the pot tweak remove the top cover of the drive, looking at the laser from the back of the drive you will see 2 little screws, these are the pots, you need to adjust the one on the left (still looking from the back) anticlockwise a fraction and i mean a fraction not 1/4 turn a fraction., and should use a multimeter to test the resistance of the pot before and after however when i did mine the other day i did it by eye and just a fraction anticlockwise and its working ok now but its only a temporary fix and will need a new laser soon.

if you do the pot tweak read up on it first, theres no guide for benq but there is for samsungs and that tells you more about adjustment, just be gentle with the pots as they are fragile, use the right size screwdriver as well to avoid damaging it.

my benq has played up for a couple of weeks, giving open tray more and more often untill it just wouldnt work, i found it prefered backups to originals when it got like this and i couldnt get it to see any retail dvds even though they are clean and unscratched.

This post has been edited by woody21_1: Jan 3 2009, 05:00 PM

[Layser]

Ok I cleaned the laser and amazingly it actually worked! Seriously, I never thought to do that, the noise it makes made me think it was a serious hardware failure. It was so simple and it actually worked.

Thank you very much for a quick response and saving me some money!

[woody21_1]

QUOTE(Layser @ Jan 3 2009, 04:54 PM)

Ok I cleaned the laser and amazingly it actually worked! Seriously, I never thought to do that, the noise it makes made me think it was a serious hardware failure. It was so simple and it actually worked.

Thank you very much for a quick response and saving me some money!

youre very welcome, glad its working for you....

you may get away with cleaning it 2 or 3 times and get a good few months out of it, then a pot tweak will be needed to get the last bit of life out.
if you still have the old benq drives that failed on you maybe thay will live again too.
lasers are cheap on ebay at about £12 delivered, i got one and fitted it in a friends benq and worked for a good 6 months but the console died of rrod before the laser wore out.