LG BU40N scratching discs all of a sudden

[vilebloodzeke]

So I've been ripping some blu-rays and 4k blu-rays the last few days and today the drive is scratching my discs. It has created a ring about an inch away from the disc hole on the last 3 discs I've tried to rip. I tried opening The 40-Year Old Virgin 4K in MakeMKV and it didn't work. It just ejected the disc. Then I tried the blu-ray version and it read it but it was scratched. I just assumed maybe the discs were already like that. Later in the day I went to try to open Evangelion 3.0+1.0 4K in MakeMKV and it didn't work either and it is now scratched as well. I'm afraid to try and rip anything now. Anyone else had this issue?

[SamSpeexy]

Is the drive hooked up only to the USB port? Or does it have external power?

These drives can scratch discs if they aren't receiving stable power input.

Asmcom did a nice writeup about the issue.
https://shop.uhdfriendlydrives.co.uk

[vilebloodzeke]

It has a USB cable with another USB coming off of it.

IMG_0419.jpeg (3.59 MiB) Viewed 1118 times

[Woodstock]

This is a "dual power" USB cable, intended to be plugged into two separate USB power sources to get enough current to run the drive at full speed.

A given USB port will provide up to 4.5 watts of power, most of the time. USB 3 can provide more, if it's actually provisioned that way. This drive probably needs at least 8 watts to go full speed.