Two days ago when I was trying to burn a CD in Ashampoo Burning Studio, it said “No compatible CD recorder found.” I went into Computer and saw that my DVD Drive was not listed there with my other drives. Then when I thought about it for a second, I remembered thinking a week ago that it looks odd and something looks missing. Well just then it hit me what was missing, my DVD Drive.

I looked to see if it was in Device Manager and it wasn’t listed there so I went and had a quick look around the internet. After seeing a few possible things I can try, and getting some advice, I decided to do a little troubleshooting to see what was going on. Was it my operating system not detecting the drive, was it the BIOS, or did the drive crap out. I went into the BIOS to see if it was disabled but it wasn’t, then I tried to boot an Ubuntu LiveCD. No luck there either. It seems to be a hardware problem.

Now it was time to figure out if it could have been a loose connection somewhere, my computer failing, or the drive dead. After a bit of thinking, I decided to take the drive out, check it and put it back. I did that, no change. I then later on thought that maybe I can put my sisters drive in my computer and that will tell me if its the drive, or something deeper. After swapping the drives and powering up my system, my computer detected the drive and started adding drivers for it. My computer was fine.

So the problem lies in the DVD Drive, its broken. I suppose its better there something being wrong with the drive than something having a deeper problem. It was a relief figuring out what the issue was. Now I have to figure out whether to replace my drive or not. If I do, it is going to be an internal one, which will lay me back about $150 New Zealand for a slimline DVD Writer. For how much I do use the thing, I don’t think replacing it, or even buying an external drive is worth it.

I only use the drive for ripping CDs and burning files for friends to DVDs. And even that is rare. The only time other than that is when installing software, but that usually only happens if its a new Operating System install. I don’t think its worth my paying to get something that will be hardly used and just for those purposes. I am probably better off keeping my money and putting it towards a new system, or just getting something else. If I do even need to reinstall Windows, or any other OS, I could always borrow my sisters drive for a few hours.

As you should know, a couple of months ago, my laptop went to the repair center to get fixed. Well the story is that I didn’t get the computer back in its full glory. Other than the missing ExpressCard blank, a hole that now fills with dust, I was also left with one dead pixel. You probably think I am crazy for getting annoyed and complaining about one little pixel on my monitor, but it is a big deal. I am getting one less pixel than I should be getting. Not only is it the fact that it’s dead, but its that it died when it was at the repair centers hands. Call me crazy but I blame them for it. I think they were careless and that’s why that poor pixel died.

I do know my poor laptop, the one I treated like a million dollar diamond, perfect, clean and mark less. When it returns to me, it has scratches, it has a giant dust collecting hole in the side, one of the grips on the bottom is gone and one pixel is dead. Just so you know how big of a deal this is, the pixel in question is located just a bit up from the bottom about half a finger on the left. Its well hidden by Vistas black taskbar but I know it is there, a millimeter under the iTunes quick launch icon. It annoys me. I want a perfect screen with every single pixel in working order. Call me crazy but I should be getting all the pixels I paid for, not one less.

This is not the only thing in my possession with problematic pixels. My PSP happens to have a stuck pixel, a damn red one. It is about 2.5 cm from the top and left. You would think it wouldn’t be a problem but it is really irritating when watching a movie or doing something other than pushing buttons in a game. When playing a game, you are so into the game that the pixel becomes invisible, but when doing other things, that red dot is irritating and very noticeable, so much that it is distracting.

When a small dot on a screen with many more pixels dies, its not really a problem if it is out of the way, but a pixel on a small screen close to the middle, now that is just irritating. When will the day come that pixels don’t have problems. One day I would like to now worry about the little guys inside my screens dying or getting stuck, its something that I shouldn’t even think about, but since they are annoying me, I am worried. I am crazy for getting agitated about something so small and insignificant. Maybe I have some kind of disorder, or maybe I just want things perfect!