DVD Drives only for use with DVD?

[jnugentjr]

Has anyone discovered that DVD drives stop being able to play DVDs well after a relatively short while if you also use your DVD as your primary drive for installs and stuff?

I have been troubleshooting poor playback for a few days now (messing with bios settings, drivers, OSs, etc.) in a fit of frustration I finally took my comp to the place where I bought the parts for it and was emarrassed to have to pay a tech to look at it. He couldn't find anything wrong and asked me if I used it as my primary drive. I said yes and he said that DVD-ROM was not really meant to be used as your primary drive. He told me that it destroys the drive over time and that DVD playback is seriously diminished as this occurs.

Can anyone confirm this? My experience with DVD-ROM drives (using them as a primary drive) is that they are very short lived. Perhaps this is why.

Thanks,

John

[UncasMS]

i have one dvd drive which works for 24 month now (pioneer 103) and another one working for 6 month (lg 8120b).

i'm more than pleased with both of them and cannot report any problems so far.

[jnugentjr]

Do you use it as yor primary drive for installing?

I seem to go through drives fast.

What speed are your drives? Perhaps it is upgrading in speed?

John

[UncasMS]

6x, 32x






12x, 40x