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General discussion (archive)Why do disk drives have so much power?(43 posts)(43 posts)
(43 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted September 15, 2013
It has always been a peculiarity to me over the years how disks that are scratched or otherwise a bit 'IFFY' can absolutely disable your computer with such overwhelming ease and depending on the circumstances, you sometimes can do nothing except press the reset button.

Doesn't matter whichever OS i have had or system, the disk drive still has absolute power to disable the computer.

The reason i am asking this question today, is because last night my TV CD player did not like a movie disk i put in and totally froze. I pressed eject but it would not, so i switched it off and the off message appeared on the display but it did not turn off! And no the disk was not a pirated copy, but it was a bit old.

So my question is this... Why the hell can a computer/player be so fixated on an iffy disk that it won't accept any further commands from the user?????

I mean, why do we need viruses? If you want to crash computers, all you have to do is sneak into a store and scratch a few disks!!!

At the start of any war, whoever has a spy near a vital computer, will win,,,, doesn't matter how powerful all your fire walls are, all they have to do is shove a crappy disk in the drive and down she goes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it is ridiculous.
Posted September 15, 2013
low rated
avatar
mystikmind2000: It has always been a peculiarity to me over the years how disks that are scratched or otherwise a bit 'IFFY' can absolutely disable your computer with such overwhelming ease and depending on the circumstances, you sometimes can do nothing except press the reset button.

Doesn't matter whichever OS i have had or system, the disk drive still has absolute power to disable the computer.

The reason i am asking this question today, is because last night my TV CD player did not like a movie disk i put in and totally froze. I pressed eject but it would not, so i switched it off and the off message appeared on the display but it did not turn off! And no the disk was not a pirated copy, but it was a bit old.

So my question is this... Why the hell can a computer/player be so fixated on an iffy disk that it won't accept any further commands from the user?????

I mean, why do we need viruses? If you want to crash computers, all you have to do is sneak into a store and scratch a few disks!!!

At the start of any war, whoever has a spy near a vital computer, will win,,,, doesn't matter how powerful all your firewalls are, all they have to do is shove a crappy disk in the drive and down she goes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it is ridiculous.
-1 For poor grammar and spelling.
-1 Punctuation abuse
-1 Failure to grasp basic computing.

Oh, wait, I can only -1 once. In that case, I choose the third reasons because it vexes me the most.

I honestly can't recall the last time I put a CD-ROM into my computer.
Posted September 15, 2013
-1 Grammer and spelling are not one of my top priorities in life, oh but i know it should be because of how absolutely important it is

-1 as above

-1 yea, its ridiculous to ask a question based on lack of understanding

+10 for giving such good opportunity for expressing sarcasm, thanks!
Posted September 15, 2013
avatar
mystikmind2000: -1 Grammer and spelling are not one of my top priorities in life, oh but i know it should be because of how absolutely important it is

-1 as above

-1 yea, its ridiculous to ask a question based on lack of understanding

+10 for giving such good opportunity for expressing sarcasm, thanks!
A misplaced comma is one thing, but your post is pretty much unintelligible. I've known Australians and they generally speak English.

The point is that if you want a response that answers your question, you should show sufficient respect to us to give us something to work with. You posted English words, but I don't know what they mean because the grammar is all bollocksed up.
Posted September 16, 2013
I've had that happen a few times, too, and had to unplug the player from the electrical outlet and then reconnect it to get the player to reset. It is irritating. You'd think the player would auto-eject the disk if there was a problem reading the disk rather than just freezing.

As to the other comments in this thread: Ignore 'em. It's not worth arguing or getting irritated over. Nitpickers gonna nitpick. I found your post intelligible enough. :)
Posted September 16, 2013
avatar
mystikmind2000: -1 Grammer and spelling are not one of my top priorities in life, oh but i know it should be because of how absolutely important it is

-1 as above

-1 yea, its ridiculous to ask a question based on lack of understanding

+10 for giving such good opportunity for expressing sarcasm, thanks!
avatar
hedwards: A misplaced comma is one thing, but your post is pretty much unintelligible. I've known Australians and they generally speak English.

The point is that if you want a response that answers your question, you should show sufficient respect to us to give us something to work with. You posted English words, but I don't know what they mean because the grammar is all bollocksed up.
I have seen allot of posts that don't make sense in my time, usually i just ask what they mean rather than insulting them.
Posted September 16, 2013
avatar
mystikmind2000: It has always been a peculiarity to me over the years how disks that are scratched or otherwise a bit 'IFFY' can absolutely disable your computer with such overwhelming ease and depending on the circumstances, you sometimes can do nothing except press the reset button.

Doesn't matter whichever OS i have had or system, the disk drive still has absolute power to disable the computer.

The reason i am asking this question today, is because last night my TV CD player did not like a movie disk i put in and totally froze. I pressed eject but it would not, so i switched it off and the off message appeared on the display but it did not turn off! And no the disk was not a pirated copy, but it was a bit old.

So my question is this... Why the hell can a computer/player be so fixated on an iffy disk that it won't accept any further commands from the user?????

I mean, why do we need viruses? If you want to crash computers, all you have to do is sneak into a store and scratch a few disks!!!

At the start of any war, whoever has a spy near a vital computer, will win,,,, doesn't matter how powerful all your fire walls are, all they have to do is shove a crappy disk in the drive and down she goes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it is ridiculous.
Consider how many RPMs a CD spins at. From wikipedia:

As of 2004, the fastest transfer rate commonly available is about 52× or 10,400 rpm and 7.62 MiB/s. Higher spin speeds are limited by the strength of the polycarbonate plastic of which the discs are made. At 52×, the linear velocity of the outermost part of the disk is around 65 m/s.

Scratches change the balance of a disc. After all, you've removed some material from it, and even a milligram of material can cause enough imblanace when you're spinning at 10,000+ RPM. Imagine a wobbly disc smacking into the delicate internals of a computer at 65 meters a second, and you can see why that has priority over other operations currently running.

I'd also note that there's a difference between a TV OS (which are not notable for their robustness or user-friendliness) and an actual computer OS. I'm relatively certain you can't crash a real computer with a wobbly CD. If you can, that OS has other problems. :P

And all considered, to the rest of you, every one of you started out without much knowledge of computers and OSes. How about you assume that mystikmind2000 is, perhaps, uninformed instead of treating him with hostility from the very first comment? I'd like to believe that civility is a touchstone here in the forums at GOG.com, and you've been pretty farking rude.

If mystikmind2000 has a history of posting aggressive and trollish things, I could understand your behavior (although still not approve), but he seems to be a victim of random drive-by dickishness. Be better, people, or else it will be your fault if the forums become a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Posted September 16, 2013
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SeduceMePlz: I've had that happen a few times, too, and had to unplug the player from the electrical outlet and then reconnect it to get the player to reset. It is irritating. You'd think the player would auto-eject the disk if there was a problem reading the disk rather than just freezing.

As to the other comments in this thread: Ignore 'em. It's not worth arguing or getting irritated over. Nitpickers gonna nitpick. I found your post intelligible enough. :)
It's not really nitpicking. Nitpicking implies that the post was somewhat close. But, it was packed with tons of irrelevant information that wasn't even in the right place. I didn't even get to the bottom of the post before I gave up.

I wouldn't even have bothered to comment had the OP not decided to respond with such arrogance. We're being asked to read the post and presumably help, the least he could do is make sure that the post was reasonably readable.
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TheEnigmaticT: If mystikmind2000 has a history of posting aggressive and trollish things, I could understand your behavior (although still not approve), but he seems to be a victim of random drive-by dickishness. Be better, people, or else it will be your fault if the forums become a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
That's a fair point, but I'm still trying to figure out what he even wants.
Post edited September 16, 2013 by hedwards
Posted September 16, 2013
avatar
SeduceMePlz: I've had that happen a few times, too, and had to unplug the player from the electrical outlet and then reconnect it to get the player to reset. It is irritating. You'd think the player would auto-eject the disk if there was a problem reading the disk rather than just freezing.

As to the other comments in this thread: Ignore 'em. It's not worth arguing or getting irritated over. Nitpickers gonna nitpick. I found your post intelligible enough. :)
And one time my boss (who is from India) put a disk in his new TV upside down and we could not get it out for a long time. It was one of those side loaders.

The problem was that when you turn the TV back on at the wall plug, it won't recognize the eject button until after you select CD from the TV menu screen - of course by the time you do that, its usually gone and frozen again. But eventually we managed to do the selection and eject quickly enough after many attempts.

you would think that with a side loader, the manufacturer would have anticipated disks going in upside down occasionally???
Posted September 16, 2013
avatar
SeduceMePlz: I've had that happen a few times, too, and had to unplug the player from the electrical outlet and then reconnect it to get the player to reset. It is irritating. You'd think the player would auto-eject the disk if there was a problem reading the disk rather than just freezing.

As to the other comments in this thread: Ignore 'em. It's not worth arguing or getting irritated over. Nitpickers gonna nitpick. I found your post intelligible enough. :)
avatar
mystikmind2000: And one time my boss (who is from India) put a disk in his new TV upside down and we could not get it out for a long time. It was one of those side loaders.

The problem was that when you turn the TV back on at the wall plug, it won't recognize the eject button until after you select CD from the TV menu screen - of course by the time you do that, its usually gone and frozen again. But eventually we managed to do the selection and eject quickly enough after many attempts.

you would think that with a side loader, the manufacturer would have anticipated disks going in upside down occasionally???
Normally, there's a place to stick a pin that manually ejects the disc. Although, I take it you're talking about a slot loader, and I can't recall if they have one.
Posted September 16, 2013
avatar
mystikmind2000: It has always been a peculiarity to me over the years how disks that are scratched or otherwise a bit 'IFFY' can absolutely disable your computer with such overwhelming ease and depending on the circumstances, you sometimes can do nothing except press the reset button.

Doesn't matter whichever OS i have had or system, the disk drive still has absolute power to disable the computer.

The reason i am asking this question today, is because last night my TV CD player did not like a movie disk i put in and totally froze. I pressed eject but it would not, so i switched it off and the off message appeared on the display but it did not turn off! And no the disk was not a pirated copy, but it was a bit old.

So my question is this... Why the hell can a computer/player be so fixated on an iffy disk that it won't accept any further commands from the user?????

I mean, why do we need viruses? If you want to crash computers, all you have to do is sneak into a store and scratch a few disks!!!

At the start of any war, whoever has a spy near a vital computer, will win,,,, doesn't matter how powerful all your fire walls are, all they have to do is shove a crappy disk in the drive and down she goes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it is ridiculous.
avatar
TheEnigmaticT: Consider how many RPMs a CD spins at. From wikipedia:

As of 2004, the fastest transfer rate commonly available is about 52× or 10,400 rpm and 7.62 MiB/s. Higher spin speeds are limited by the strength of the polycarbonate plastic of which the discs are made. At 52×, the linear velocity of the outermost part of the disk is around 65 m/s.

Scratches change the balance of a disc. After all, you've removed some material from it, and even a milligram of material can cause enough imblanace when you're spinning at 10,000+ RPM. Imagine a wobbly disc smacking into the delicate internals of a computer at 65 meters a second, and you can see why that has priority over other operations currently running.
The kind of freeze I'm talking is not the kind where you can hear and or see the CD doing things. If its clearly active then its just a matter of waiting, and usually you can still override it (but not always) if you wanted too. What I'm talking about is where the CD freezes your computer and goes inactive or starts looping the same behavior over and over and you cannot do anything but restart. Anyone who has allot of contact with dodgy disks will know what I'm talking about.
Posted September 16, 2013
avatar
mystikmind2000: And one time my boss (who is from India) put a disk in his new TV upside down and we could not get it out for a long time. It was one of those side loaders.

The problem was that when you turn the TV back on at the wall plug, it won't recognize the eject button until after you select CD from the TV menu screen - of course by the time you do that, its usually gone and frozen again. But eventually we managed to do the selection and eject quickly enough after many attempts.

you would think that with a side loader, the manufacturer would have anticipated disks going in upside down occasionally???
Oh, no! That's terrible. I'm sure it was very irritating at the time, but it made me laugh imagining it. At least it makes for a funny story, eh? ;)
Posted September 16, 2013
Because they want to take over the world.
Posted September 16, 2013
avatar
mystikmind2000: -1 Grammer and spelling are not one of my top priorities in life, oh but i know it should be because of how absolutely important it is

-1 as above

-1 yea, its ridiculous to ask a question based on lack of understanding

+10 for giving such good opportunity for expressing sarcasm, thanks!
avatar
hedwards: A misplaced comma is one thing, but your post is pretty much unintelligible. I've known Australians and they generally speak English.

The point is that if you want a response that answers your question, you should show sufficient respect to us to give us something to work with. You posted English words, but I don't know what they mean because the grammar is all bollocksed up.
Funny, I had no problem understanding what he meant, and I'm a "foreigner".
Posted September 16, 2013
avatar
mystikmind2000: And one time my boss (who is from India) put a disk in his new TV upside down and we could not get it out for a long time. It was one of those side loaders.

The problem was that when you turn the TV back on at the wall plug, it won't recognize the eject button until after you select CD from the TV menu screen - of course by the time you do that, its usually gone and frozen again. But eventually we managed to do the selection and eject quickly enough after many attempts.

you would think that with a side loader, the manufacturer would have anticipated disks going in upside down occasionally???
avatar
SeduceMePlz: Oh, no! That's terrible. I'm sure it was very irritating at the time, but it made me laugh imagining it. At least it makes for a funny story, eh? ;)
Oh you don't know the half of it.... my bosses personality and level of intelligence is almost and exact copy of Colonel Klink, seriously, its true!
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussion (archive)Why do disk drives have so much power?(43 posts)(43 posts)
(43 posts)