My drive stopped ripping, should I toss it?

[anthonysneed]

I have an Archgon Ultra Slim Optical Drive UHD. I had flashed it a few months back and it was ripping things fine. Then one day it started giving me failures when ripping (DVD's even) yet still can play DVD's through the Mac's built in DVD player.

Part of me wants to toss it but at the same time I'm wondering if I reflash it something will correct itself?

[AffSeda]

Could it be dust/dirt?

[anthonysneed]

How could dust/dirt affect solely ripping and not playing?

[Woodstock]

"Playing" software tolerates minor errors. "Ripping" software does not.

Anything that affects the focus capabilities of the laser assembly will compromise reading.

[anthonysneed]

Woah, I totally did not know that, thank you both for explaining.

Should I just blow into it? Canned air?

[AffSeda]

Soft cloth or one of those fancy lens-cleaning discs are probably safest. I'm worried about smashing something with the force of a hurricane air.*

*I still do it all the time, but if I break my drives that's my own stupidity so I'm unwilling to recommend it to others.