CD Gone Bad -- Anyone Experience This Before?

Tom Olson · Post by **Tom Olson** » 3 Oct 2007 6:11 pm

I don't know if this belongs in the "computers" section or here. I figured more people read this section, so I put it here.

I have a CD that I've owned for about 6 years or so. It's always seemed to play fine in my CD deck, my computer, and my car CD player.

It is not a well-recognized label. The CD is "Muleskinner -- A Potpourri Of Bluegrass Jam" and it's on the Sierra label. I bought it through the mail, either directly from the label, or through Elderly Music -- I don't remember which.

Anyhow, I haven't played this CD in months, maybe even a year. It's been stored in my office where I keep all of my other CD's -- no excessive temperatures or humidity.

I pulled this CD out the other day, and put it in my CD deck (or whatever you call the CD player that is a separate component of a stereo system) and it wouldn't play. The CD deck kept spinning it, then spitting it out. No sound, not even recognizing the CD.

Then -- here's the weird part -- I tried to play it on my computer using 2 different media players and it made each of these media players crash each time I tried to play the CD.

Here's another weird thing. My other CD's seem to play fine in the computer, but the CD deck of my stereo system seems to be totally fried -- it won't play any CD now.

I don't know if it's just a coicidence that my CD deck decided to break down, or whether this Muleskinner CD did something to it.

It definitely seems like there's something wrong with the CD because the computer just won't play it and when I try to play it, the media players crash.

Anyone experience this before, or have any input? Thanks.

Geoff Barnes · Post by **Geoff Barnes** » 3 Oct 2007 6:22 pm

CDs have a definite shelf life.
The silver can oxidise over time.... I dicovered this to my detriment when I opened a case of masters I had commited to CD back in the 90s when I thought they would last for ever...

Apparently the life expectancy on a CD is between 5-15 years depending on storage method used.
You can buy Cds for archiving material that use 24k gold instead of the silver. These are rated at around 100 years apparently (I won't be here to prove that theory correct, sadly)...naturally they are slightly more expensive.

I have had some luck in reviving dead media by using a "copy CD/DVD" command in Nero...might be worth a shot?

Dave Harmonson · Post by **Dave Harmonson** » 3 Oct 2007 6:49 pm

Tom, I don't know how to help you with the CD, but just thought I'd mention that is one of my favorite records of all time. One of the last things that Clarence White did. I loved the way they mixed in some electric guitar, pedal steel and drums and still had a real roots sounds. Hope you can get the bugs out of your system.

scott murray · Post by **scott murray** » 3 Oct 2007 7:04 pm

that is a great album.

Sierra does actually offer some of their discs pressed in gold, but I don't think Muleskinner is one of them.

I bought the Muleskinner DVD about a year ago. It has held up fine so far, but I was a little surprised at the low-budget look of the DVD. There are no chapter marks for the songs, and the title menu is the generic kind that you would find on a home DVD recorder.

still, this label has done a lot of good keeping the music of Clarence White, Gram Parsons, Gene Clark and others available. you might want to drop John Delgatto a line. he runs the label, and seems like a good guy: mailorder@sierra-records.com

www.sierrarecords.net

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 4 Oct 2007 11:44 pm

my copy via of the same Sierra title is over a decade old and just fine, and my CD player is 18 years old.

have to say.. this is a weird one.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 5 Oct 2007 2:41 am

not uncommon..if you can get it to play in your PC try to BURN a copy , been there dun this..... the copy should play in your car if it's a reasonable quality CD disk

This sounds kinda illegal, maybe it is, when we buy NEW CD's here at home, and if we really like them, we BURN a copy and carry that one around in the Cars, leaving the original intact in the rack.

and lately..

Our Cars CD players play MP3's too, I put sometimes 4 CD's on one CD disk in MP3 format and carry those with me...a 700 MB CD can have perhaps 200 songs on it in MP3 format.

welcome to 2007 !

To take it a step further, I also use a little 1 gig $35 MP3 player, I change the programs on that all the time thru USB. On my ext HD , I have several different play lists of MP3's or CD's, I delete the files on the MP3 player and copy over a new file set to the MP3 player from the HD. presto..all new music in 15 seconds,

Really welcome to 2007 !

tp

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 5 Oct 2007 6:10 am

I've found that burning a music CD at the slowest possible speed helps insure that it will play in most players. I've got several old HP burners that record at 4x and 8x, and they make playable CD's. My 52X burner is good for data files but none of it's music CD's play worth a **** in the truck CD player even when recorded at 12X.

Robert Leaman · Post by **Robert Leaman** » 5 Oct 2007 6:33 am

In my opinion, Plextor drives are top-of-the line burners. However, as Ray said, anything burnt at greater 4X will probably not play in some players. I use use Nero to burn CD's at not greater than 4X only because experience taught me this is necessary. Nero has an option that adds various speeds to CD drives. CDR discs are somewhat notorious for losing data but Iolo Systems has software called Search & Recover that does a good job on old CD's.

My opinions are usually ignored on the forum so feel free to ignore this as well.

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 5 Oct 2007 8:33 am

Bob, you mean you're not using our "favorite" by Roxio?

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 5 Oct 2007 8:48 am

Ron Page wrote:Bob, you mean you're not using our "favorite" by Roxio?

Uh oh.... I just got a new Dell PC with Vista Business and Roxio as the default CD/DVD burner app. Should I get Nero instead?

PS - I get it.. I checked Roxio and it won't burn CDs at any slower speed than 48x. That's insane, I never burn audio CDs faster than 4x or 8x (if I'm in a hurry).

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 5 Oct 2007 2:26 pm

When I record my own music, I always save data versions of the tunes on CD (wave files). I do this because I have the sneaking suspicion that most CD-Rs are designed more to store data, not music.

I burn audio CDs at the slowest possible speed my software will allow (8x on Nero Express). Good quality CD-Rs turn out okay, but cheap CD-Rs won't play in some machines. I have two CD drives in my computer, one for recording and one for playback. The playback drive is hypersensitive to poor quality CDs, so I quit buying the cheap stuff.

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 5 Oct 2007 3:27 pm

I burned 300 copies of our band CD, at 54X, and have had only 3 that I know of that wouldn't play for people. Go figure!

Website · Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 5 Oct 2007 3:31 pm

I have a copy of the MP3 collection "Waikiki Is Good Enough For Me" that was created back in 2001. It's unreadable now, unfortunately.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 9 Oct 2007 5:27 pm

Try playing your "unreadable" CD in an older computer, with an older drive. I don't know why older equipment seems more "forgiving" (for lack of a better word), but I've found that to be the case several times.

I can't explain the sudden failure of your deck, but your computer crashing is probably the result of media player program problems - defective drivers, or something like that.

Tom Zielinski · Post by **Tom Zielinski** » 10 Oct 2007 6:37 am

Man, you guys have me all worried now. I have well over 2000 cds. Many are out of print or rare jazz and blues burned from vinyl. I have 2 or 3 play in the background during the day and have never had them die. Maybe they will all do it at once!

I have noticed that older CDs are less flimsy. Many are black or gold. Newer CDs that are green are said to contain arsenic. There is a real good article at "CDfreaks", I can't link it from this computer, that gives a bit of insight to the CD/DVD longevity question.