My Asus drive doesn't want to backup anymore

[olupome]

Hi guys,

I have a Libredrive-enabled Asus BW-16D1HT drive that I have been using for 3 years to rip blu-ray and UHD discs without any problem. The other day, I bought a new blu-ray box, and I wanted to do a full backup. I started ripping it, and suddenly my drive fails to process any disc. MakeMkv gives the following cryptic debug messages:

DEBUG: Code 2 at %P}?J-e]Ol/i|71$j_S/"HB:29393447
DEBUG: Code 0 at RI6ix%K#9rr'^TnC70`:29396345
DEBUG: Code 0 at M/^jIGN](l-/'v|q9ByP:29397426

Just to be sure, I tried to do a backup of a disc that was working the day before and it also failed, so it's not a disc-related issue. I was able to extract the content of my disc with ddrescue, but I still have to start the ripping process with MakeMkv to get the encryption part working, but it fails even before that.

For some reason, doing a regular rip (extracting the tracks as mkv files) works, it's only the backup operation that fails.

Does anyone have any idea of what's happening ? (I'm using the latest MakeMkv v1.18.2)

[dcoke22]

Does power cycling the drive help?

[olupome]

Unfortunately not, I tried it numerous times, and days apart, it still fails.

[dcoke22]

I presume you can hear the disc spin when you insert a disc and close the tray? If other things are working, the disc must be spinning.

It might help to try to clean the lasers on your drive (with isopropyl alcohol and a q-tip, dry with a microfiber, don't let it air dry, do it twice) but doing it on a desktop drive like yours means taking the drive apart to gain access to the laser assembly.

[Coopervid]

A CD cleaning disc does this w/o taking the drive apart.

[dcoke22]

I don't have much experience with cleaning discs like that. In theory I agree.

I've only seen Billycar11 suggest the Q-tip and isopropyl alcohol method.

Both of you have way more hands-on experience with optical drives than me. To my friends, I'm the weirdo with 5 optical drives in 2025 but that's small potatoes compared to some on this forum.

[Coopervid]

I don't have much experience with cleaning discs like that. In theory I agree.

I've only seen Billycar11 suggest the Q-tip and isopropyl alcohol method.

Both of you have way more hands-on experience with optical drives than me. To my friends, I'm the weirdo with 5 optical drives in 2025 but that's small potatoes compared to some on this forum.

I firstly came across these cleaning discs when my music CD player refused to read the CDs. So my cleaning disc is very old. A CD cleaning disc because the CD structures are really big compared to BD and UHD. And while the lasers are co-positioned even a dirty laser lens for BD and UHD will be cleaned even if the drive doesn't recognize these discs anymore. And BTW- I have also 5 5,25" drives plus 2 slim one. And a couple of old DVD drives in storage.

[Billycar11]

I don't have much experience with cleaning discs like that. In theory I agree.

I've only seen Billycar11 suggest the Q-tip and isopropyl alcohol method.

Both of you have way more hands-on experience with optical drives than me. To my friends, I'm the weirdo with 5 optical drives in 2025 but that's small potatoes compared to some on this forum.

I firstly came across these cleaning discs when my music CD player refused to read the CDs. So my cleaning disc is very old. A CD cleaning disc because the CD structures are really big compared to BD and UHD. And while the lasers are co-positioned even a dirty laser lens for BD and UHD will be cleaned even if the drive doesn't recognize these discs anymore. And BTW- I have also 5 5,25" drives plus 2 slim one. And a couple of old DVD drives in storage.

Don't worry I can't hook all my 1655 pioneers at once lol

A cleaning disc is meh to me seen it not work many times I have delt with many warranty returns and repairs of all of these drives

Some drives come back with vape/smoke goo allover the lasers or hard water residue from humidifiers and oily residue from fragrance plug ins

And cleaning the laser fixes them after they ran a cleaning disc many times a few tried cleaning it them selves too and put it back together wrong and didn't do a good job cleaning the lasers

And it another story trying to convince people this is not a drive warranty issue it's a environmental operating condition issue

So do cleaning discs work sure maybe for dust but for most of the lasers cleanliness problems I see it would not fix it

But I also don't like plastic brushes on a plastic lens