What are some signs of optical drive failure? Is mine failing?

[compaudio1]

Hi. I am beginning to experience inaccurate rips. Every other CD, or so, I import into iTunes are playing back with noticeable skips & quarks (distortion?). This begin to occur after updating iTunes to 9.0.3, from previous 9.0.2. It might all be a coincidence. I'm wondering if my optical drive is beginning to fail? I have an internal Matshita DVD-R UJ-825 in my iBook G4. The CDs I'm importing are in new & good condition. I'm able to re-rip them & get a good rip, eventually. I've noticed that I'll have a bad rip if the importing speed is below 5X (more like 1X - 3X). A good rip will occur more in the 7X & above range (usually it's more like 9X - 12X when it's working properly). Thanks for any confirmations on if the drive is beginning to fail or if there's any other suggestions (dirty drive?, etc) in advance.

 

[Guest WATERLOGIC]

a cd cleaninig disc (the ones with little brushes) .

If you smoke a lot or your enviroment tends to be dusty this happens on regular basis.

If this does not help, the laser lens has to be cleaned - but this has to be done really carefully . Google a bit how this is done.

 

WL