Yesterday we were playing a music CD that we have complied (and played many timed before), and it just, well exploded inside the CD Drive: a LiteOn CD-ReWriter with Atapi interface 52x24x52. Does antone know what happened? A fault with the CD, with the Drive, or elsewhere? Presumably it means a new Drive, or can it be dismantled and cleaned out?

This does indeed happen, although I know of very few actual cases where it did. It seems you're one of them.

It has been researched some (look here (http://www.paintbug.com/cdexplode/) for example) and a google search will yield quite a few results.

It would appear (http://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000093.html) that it's possible to clean the drives out, fortunatly.

See this http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17380&highlight=Acceleration

Thanks, Guys, what a lot of wonderful information, and it's reassuring to know that we're not the first people in the history of civilisation to suffer from an exploding CD! Took a day off from the computer yesterday to do some plastering in the spare room (we have a guest coming from Argentina later this month)but this morning I dismantled the drive and shook out all the loose bits. Was a bit worried by the warning "Invisible laser radiation when opened. Avoid direct exposure to beam". Is it really that dangerous? Will I live? But the good news is that all the shrapnelseems to be out. At least there is no more rattling. Have reassembled the drive and reinstalled it ....... and Dusty Springfield started singing to me "The Look of Love". So ... it worked!? Thanks.