Fazeshift wrote on 2026-03-04, 15:56:

For drives with failed gears - can you list the drive brands and model?

I have a 20-30 IDE drives in a box, and perhaps one of those would be a good example to investigate.

At least one Lite-On DVD-ROM with severe yellowing on the front bezel, it was cooking in an attic warehouse for a while, and at least one MSI CR-52 CD-RW, again with severe yellowing but kept in better conditions. Both from early 2000s. Both had heavy use for years. To verify the models I'd have to dig deep into my storage area. Neither was originally owned by me, acquired much later. And I remember at least one Compaq OEM from circa 1996.

to rejuvinate rubber, spray it with silicone spray if its not dried out to the point its cracked, for the gears servisol super 10 for cleaning/lubrication, as for the magnet thing thats a bad idea, if you demagnitize you will end up with disc slippage, i would strongly advise against doing this.

its more likely the circular rubber pad on the spindle going gammy and sticking to the disc with the magnet, hence why it only happens when theres no disc inside, some silicon spray will help here, also magnets will demagnetize over time so check its still good and actually a magnet and not a magnetized metal disc, in which case you should re-magnetize.

last thing to check is the motor that ejects the tray as they will struggle as they wear with age and dust cloggage, if it struggles to eject with the top of the drive off (either not at all or slowly), its either motor or mechanism or more likely both.

also bear in mind some drives are just shit from new (the types that dont have a tray) i used to fix a lot of new lcds with built in dvd drives that would jam up for no reason trapping the disc inside, not much you can do to fix shit design.