Hi All,

I wanted to know if anyone have had this problem of the A:M disc beginning to crack at the disc's center after use. I've worked with A:M for a few years and I have always had a problem with the discs cracking at the center, which eventually increases and reaches into the main disc.

I work with two computers (desktop and laptop), so I need to take the disc in and out. I used many CD-Rom/ DVD discs and I never had it begin to crack as easily as the A:M disc.

Thanks in Advance,

Can't say I have, even my V8 disc is still going strong.

All my discs are still without cracks, but if you're placing it in a laptop drive many times it's no surprise to me. Those snapping points aren't very friendly to any CD...

Never happened to me. Sounds like a defective CD drive or possibly how you handle the disk. Sometimes I find that certain CD cases are so tight around the center that you almost have to bend the disk to get it out.

You say all of your AM CDs have done this? You've used AM for a few years so is that 3 AM disks that have done this? 2 disks? 1 disk? Can you tell us EXACTLY how many disks have cracked to the point as being unusable?

Have you used them all on the same computer/s over those years or have you changed your system?

Can you remember how soon they start to crack? When you take the disk out of either drive do you have to "pry it loose"? Does it take an effort to remove it? If it does and you do this over and over and over... it could start to crack at the center. I had a laptop PC and my iBook is the same. The disk "snaps" into place in the tray. Sometimes I have to pull it up by the edge quite forcefully before it snaps loose.

The type of disks that are mass produced aren't like the CD's we buy to burn on our computers. Those massed produced suckers are quite a bit different. I can assume that there would be some defective disks in any large production run but the odds of you getting 2 or 3 in a row over several years from the same company (Hash) seems... astronomical.

That is what makes me think this problem is the drive or some other external factor... or... you could just have really really bad luck.

I'm not an expert on CD production... these are just my thoughts based on what I know about the process. It is an expensive set up process so cutting corners at the end of it (bad disk pressing) hardly seems worth any savings.

-vern

I believe this going to my third disc. I had A:M 2005, which I had to send away to be replaced. My first disc (A:M disc 2003) was still usable even though the damage was reaching into the first few tracks of the CD. I believe it's the laptops.

I used the the A:M 2007 for a while now. Just the other day I noticed the damage on the CD center.


I believe a lower quality CD is used. I've popped out software CDs in and out of my laptop, which didn't show any physical damage yet.

*****I wonder if the hash company would ever offer a deal when you order two A:M discs for people using more than one computer

I've never had the cd crack....perhaps it's your cd drive. Hash were pondering the bringing in of non-cd based software protection, but it's on ice now. Maybe using a dongle would be handier than taking out a cd for you? I believe Hash offer one.

Both of my machines are slot-loading, so I don't have to attach the disc to a tray. I would suspect that the it's the act of removing it (the disc bending as you pull it from the catch in the center that is slowly weakening it.)

Beyond the worry of having to replace the disc, I would be concerned for your disc drive. Damaged discs have been known to shatter in high speed drives, destroying the disc *and* the drive.

I know the laptop CD drives are a problem. I'm not sure if it happens with the Desktop CD-Drives. I currently have my HP pavilion, which is about 4 years old by now (I believe- Planning on getting a custom desktop soon.) I haven't had my disc weakening in the hard drive. I think when I started to pop it the laptop, but I had a technique of taking it out really gently. I think it got worn down.

Cheers,

You see... that is where it gets confusing... there is no such thing as a "lower quality CD" when doing mass production from a glass master. There is no "CD". Each disk is created from injection molding. It isn't like they have boxes of "blanks" that are ordered from someplace. Each CD is "created" along with the replication.

For the AM disks to be defective as you describe wouldn't involve a few defective disks... it would mean whoever is producing them has a defective process. I have no idea how many disks Hash has made each year for a new version but I assume it is enough that would require some kind of quality control. I can't image with the expense involved in the process Hash would use "Joe's Discount CD Replication". If the manufacturing of the AM disks by Hash was inherently "defective" there would be BUNCHES AND BUNCHES of "bad disks" as you describe.

My cousin is a singer/songwriter who sells his own CDs on his own label. He is NOT wealthy or hugely succesful but he DOES NOT skimp on ANYTHING including the replication yet he still is able to produce an entire album including high quality CD replication for between $10,000 to $20,000. This is everything; studio time, backup musicians, glass mastering... the whole thing.

I have a feeling that you probably don't swap out other disks as often as the AM disk. If you did you would probably find those start to crack as well.

I think this is a result of pulling the disk in and out of "tight" tray slots over a long period of time and the nature of plastic CDs in general. You probably should consider buying the dongle version of AM (no CD required) or just buying two licenses. Many people have this and are thrilled with it. Considering that you are obviously putting a lot more stress on these disks than most people it would be worth any extra expense.

-vern

I've had the same problem with 4 other discs on my last 3 desktops.

my A:M v9 disc had a tiny crack.

my Starsige Tribes disc had a crack. Until one day while it was spinning up the disc for it's copy protection and the disc shattered inside the reader.. It blew the front face off my drive and shot it along with a handful of nasty sharp pices of shrapnel across my room.

my Neverwinter nights play cd, that crack grew until it almost reached the foil on the disc at which point i got some of that liquid model cement and coverend the crack (both sides) with it . The crack didn't get any bigger for the next 2 years.

and the last disc was a font manager but the crack got into the foil during installation and the disc couldnt be read anymore so I trashed it.

If you poke around there are a lot of other people who have had this happen too. I thing the general consensus is that its just a result of some glitch in the manufacturing process that causes the disc not to be able to withstnd the stress of being spun up.

This guy took the scientific approach and broke a ton of cds, and his basic result is
"At about 52x, i.e. 27,500 rpm, most manufacturer's CDs blew up in a rain of plastic particles, leaving their marks on the premises. The result was a pile of shimmering plastic chips."

I think I'm better off getting a usb dongle then. If I'm taking my work on the go, then I can't risk taking my disc back and forth.

Is there a CD -Drive model that is CD/DVD friendly for problems like this anyway?

Sorry for the blabbing...

There's a free app here that can help you set the speed for your cd/dvd drive if you want to increase your cd lifespan. You have to install an ASPI driver first. You have to read the readme file.

cdromtool

Thanks for the app. It works great! My Toshiba TabletPC CD/DVD-drive doesn't spin/ vibrate insanely anymore!!




If you go to their main site, they have another version where you don't have to install the ASPI. It's called the SPTI version for Win NT/XP/2000
CD-ROM Tools

Cheers,