Exploding CD ROMS

Okay, so the daughter plugged in a CD ROM from one of her friends in her 52x DVD drive. Suddenly, as the CD ROM was brought up to speed, there was a loud pop. Ejecting the drive, the CD ROM had shattered like glass into a hundred pieces. The CD ROM exploded in the drive!

I was astounded, just astounded, and thought maybe this wasn’t a CD ROM at all. To my surprise, I found the following article from Fujitsu explaining how a CD ROM can, in fact, explode in the drive if spun too quickly and if there’s physical damage to the disk, like a crack, for example.

Also, it turns out that MythBusters did an episode on this as well.

Indeed, it turns out that CD ROM’s can explode in a drive and could present a safety issue when using a personal computer. That’s it: from now on, I’m wearing protective eye-wear.

R
www.micklerandassociates.com

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