www.makemkv.com

I have a LG drive that seems to have issues at times. It will rip well and then completely stop functioning until a restart of windows. And then work for a fair bit. It is a WH14NS40. This seems to be the case for my other drives that I converted to be external (same models). I have reflashed firmware. It is almost a timeout issue or something with windows or the devices stop communicating with windows. I turn off the power of the external ones and power back on and they work again. Not sure why this particular model of drive has issues. I have purchased them all at separate times and have two different computers running the 4 total drives.

Is this indicative of failing drives?

One thing I may do is buy a bluray disc that cleans the laser eye.

Sadly that's just how LG and Asus drives are when they run into a hard to read disc they do weird stuff and need a reboot to snap out of it.

Those cleaning discs are junk if you want to clean the laser open the drive it's only 4 screws and 3 clips to do it.

It the only UHD drives I recommend now are pioneer if you want one with old fw see below