This is an interesting question that I used to hear periodically when I
worked at Micron Electronics.  Our thinking was that the disc is turning at
a pretty high rate of speed, so it will get warm simply from the heat
generated by the spindle motor, as well as the ambient heat within the case.

Now, if the disc is substantially warmer than it use to be, there are a
couple of things that I'd check before going shopping for a new drive.  Make
sure that all of the fans in your computer are running.  Hold your hand in
front of the exhaust vents (some fans blow out, some in, so you might have
to hunt for where the air comes out).  Is it hot air?  It shouldn't be, if
there is sufficient air flow through the system.  If the air is hot, look
for things like plugged vents or fan failures.

Check other devices, especially hard drives.  Are they excessively hot?  As
an example, Micron used to sell a 9GB 5.25" full height SCSI drive.  Its
normal heat output was so high that it hurt to touch it.  I wouldn't expect
that of a drive today, but it's worth a look to see if you've got some other
device that's producing a lot of heat.  It would probably be prudent to
touch the CD-ROM drive, too, to feel how hot it is.

As an aside, in a major computer manufacturer's newsgroup on USENET, someone
purporting to be from that company's tech support department said that CD's
could get hot from the high heat output of the laser that is used to read
CD's on very fast drives.  I say that as an aside because it sounds like one
of the most absurd things that I've heard in a while...

Anyway, if you check all of these things and find that the source of the
heat is the CD-ROM drive itself, it's possible that the spindle motor
bearings are failing, causing a buildup of heat within the drive.  It's a
mechanical device, and it happens...

Drew Dunn
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Check out the BurbCam!
http://adsl24.bois.uswest.net/drew/hood.html


> My CD ROM seems to get very warm.  I had completed a re-install of Win 95
> yesterday, and I noticed that the CD wouldn't eject, so I went to the MY
> COMPUTER, opened it, right  clicked on my E:/ drive (that's where
> my CD ROM
> is) and clicked eject.   Upon removing the disk, I noticed it was really
> very warm...     is this to be expected, or am I facing a bit of shopping
> for a new CD Rom?   btw, it's a 24x, about a year old...