bdr-ud04 - repair intermittent failure?

[micael456]

Morning, bit of a long shot I know, but since I missed out on asmcom's latest store open window I have a small pile of 4k discs stacking up, so I wondered if maybe repairing my drive was a possibility.

Some backstory; I have a Pioneer UDR-04 which was in one of the verbatim enclosures. It was manufactured in May 2024, so not the oldest drive. It worked well for a while, then late November time it started to randomly skip on disks; it would make the clicking sound that it makes when doing the initial seek, and just never get to the nice spinning sound / find the disk. Initially it worked for CD/DVDs, but then even that stopped.

At first I thought that was just the end of the drive, but then occasionally it would work again with blurays, and plugging it into a different system worked. So I then started to suspect USB/driver issues. This worked fine for a short while, until it stopped working on the second PC, but would work on the laptop.

Anyway, long tale short, I suspect the drive components are actually fine, but I'm not sure where the fault could lie, or if there's a realistic (and economic) prospect in fixing it. Given that when it works it works flawlessly, I suspect power delivery or usb related. I was wondering if some of you fine folks might have come across this before, and have some pointers or documentation you could point me at?

Thanks in advance.

[Coopervid]

Morning, bit of a long shot I know, but since I missed out on asmcom's latest store open window I have a small pile of 4k discs stacking up, so I wondered if maybe repairing my drive was a possibility.

Some backstory; I have a Pioneer UDR-04 which was in one of the verbatim enclosures. It was manufactured in May 2024, so not the oldest drive. It worked well for a while, then late November time it started to randomly skip on disks; it would make the clicking sound that it makes when doing the initial seek, and just never get to the nice spinning sound / find the disk. Initially it worked for CD/DVDs, but then even that stopped.

At first I thought that was just the end of the drive, but then occasionally it would work again with blurays, and plugging it into a different system worked. So I then started to suspect USB/driver issues. This worked fine for a short while, until it stopped working on the second PC, but would work on the laptop.

Anyway, long tale short, I suspect the drive components are actually fine, but I'm not sure where the fault could lie, or if there's a realistic (and economic) prospect in fixing it. Given that when it works it works flawlessly, I suspect power delivery or usb related. I was wondering if some of you fine folks might have come across this before, and have some pointers or documentation you could point me at?

Thanks in advance.

The enclosure of these Verbatim UD04 is very power hungry. So some USB3 ports might not provide enough. Use the rear port of a desktop PC or a powered USB hub. If all of this fails you can either exchange the enclosure or use the internal drive on a powered USB->SATA adapter. I believe you will also need a SATA-> miniSATA adapter.

[micael456]

Thanks coopervid. I should have said; I've already shucked the enclosure and I had it on a powered usb3 hub- though will connect directly to the back and see if that's any more stable. Appreciate the response.

[micael456]

That seems to have been a bit more stable, I managed to get a few discs ripped before it choked again on Onward. I think that might just be that disk though. Hopefully this will last that little bit longer after all. Thanks!

[heisenberg]

It might be a good idea to grab a USB power meter for troubleshooting. It'll help you check if your PC's USB port can deliver enough current (about 1.25A max is what you need for the Verbatim enclosures, based on my tests). The same goes for USB hubs.

Keep in mind that USB 3.0/3.1 Type-A-connectors only deliver up to 0.9A according to the USB specs, which just isn't enough in this case. While most host devices can deliver a bit more than 0.9A, you can't rely on it since it's beyond the specification. Only USB 3.x Type-C ports and USB 3.2 ports can give enough current (up to 1.5A or 3A, respectively). This is why the enclosure uses a USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector, btw.

[Coopervid]

It might be a good idea to grab a USB power meter for troubleshooting. It'll help you check if your PC's USB port can deliver enough current (about 1.25A max is what you need for the Verbatim enclosures, based on my tests). The same goes for USB hubs.

Keep in mind that USB 3.0/3.1 Type-A-connectors only deliver up to 0.9A according to the USB specs, which just isn't enough in this case. While most host devices can deliver a bit more than 0.9A, you can't rely on it since it's beyond the specification. Only USB 3.x Type-C ports and USB 3.2 ports can give enough current (up to 1.5A or 3A, respectively). This is why the enclosure uses a USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector, btw.

The 1.25A is based on 5V, right? You didn't mention it since newer USB connections can also increase the voltage.

[heisenberg]

It might be a good idea to grab a USB power meter for troubleshooting. It'll help you check if your PC's USB port can deliver enough current (about 1.25A max is what you need for the Verbatim enclosures, based on my tests). The same goes for USB hubs.

Keep in mind that USB 3.0/3.1 Type-A-connectors only deliver up to 0.9A according to the USB specs, which just isn't enough in this case. While most host devices can deliver a bit more than 0.9A, you can't rely on it since it's beyond the specification. Only USB 3.x Type-C ports and USB 3.2 ports can give enough current (up to 1.5A or 3A, respectively). This is why the enclosure uses a USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector, btw.

The 1.25A is based on 5V, right? You didn't mention it since newer USB connections can also increase the voltage.

Yeah, it's based on 5V. As you pointed out, it's the USB-PD (Power Delivery) protocol that enables voltages exceeding 5V. However, this is primarily utilized in chargers or power banks, rather than the USB ports on a PC/Mac.