can itunes damage my CD drive?

[UnforgettableLemon]

If I've ripped a large number of songs to my computer from my CDs, is there a chance I've permanently damaged my cd/dvd drive? I have a new notebook, replacing a drive would be really pricey.

 

[UberBeaver]

Does the drive seem broken? Mine locks up at times, but a reboot always works.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Not so much broken, just sort of slows down. Tried playing a DVD, and it's pretty much snail-paced, too.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Actually, a restart seems to have helped. The first time I was trying to rip a CD, and it completely spazzed. I couldn't even do a proper shutdown. Maybe that's what it needed. Cleaning it didn't help. but another restart seems to have done the trick. I've probably ripped between 4-5,000 songs with this one, but I know people who do a lot more than even that. And this computer is less than a month old, so it couldn't be that bad already.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Warranty?

 

[Liesje]

If the DVDs are skippy, check for a firmware update. That's usually been what's needed, in my experience.

If the drive is defective and the comp is less than a month old, there's no reason you'd have to pay to repair it.

 

[JessicaAnn]

I am by no means a computer expert, but if you are saving the songs to your hard drive, it may be the entire laptop that is slow because so much of your memory is being sucked up by the music.

That happened to my computer ... everything slowed down to a snails pace. But when I moved all of the music to an external hard drive my computer was much happier.

 

[Liesje]

I am by no means a computer expert, but if you are saving the songs to your hard drive, it may be the entire laptop that is slow because so much of your memory is being sucked up by the music.

That happened to my computer ... everything slowed down to a snails pace. But when I moved all of the music to an external hard drive my computer was much happier.

Typically, the hard drive will not slow down unless there's physical damage to it. Cache and RAM are the two other forms of memory that get slow, but files aren't saved on them. I suppose if you have gazillions of files in a single folder and very little RAM (or the RAM and/or cache are already being used), it could slow down when explorer is loading the window.

 

[ntalwar]

Not so much broken, just sort of slows down. Tried playing a DVD, and it's pretty much snail-paced, too.

You might have had some other Windows processes competing for the CPU. If it happens again, go to task manager (crtl-alt-del), and sort the processes by cpu and see if anything looks high.

Also check the free space on the hard drive. Windows can get slow as it decreases because it pages to it depending on how much RAM you have.

 

[drewhiggins]

Nope. Maybe you don't have enough system RAM and that's why it is slow.

Right click My Computer, Properties and see it should say 'xxx MB of RAM'. If it's less than 512 that could be your issue, though checking your CPU type could be another issue as could your video card.