Introduction
We have found that in very rare circumstances, some high speed CD ROM drives (48X or higher speed) can become dangerous when used with CD ROM disks with small cracks. The result is that the disk can be damaged further or shattered and, in very exceptional circumstances, fragments of the broken disk can be expelled through the front cover of the drive at high speed. This could cause serious physical injury. We have confirmed that the problem can only occur when a damaged CD ROM disk is used in the CD ROM drive.

Do all 48x and 52x drives carry the same risk?
No, all CD ROM drives are not the same. We have tested 48x or 52x speed drives from 9 manufacturers in total. We have tested two large manufacturers CD ROM drives extensively (hundreds of hours of lab time and many different drive units, as well as different models). We see two significant areas of difference between the drive types. They are:

• Likelihood to shatter disks:
  We have reproduced disk shatter in every manufacturer’s drives that we have tested. The type that we are now using has been shown in our tests to be significantly more resistant to shatter (more than 100 x less likely in the test we have been doing). We believe that this is because the drive is better able to detect problems with the disk and reduce the motor speed very quickly.
• Likelihood to allow fragments of broken disk to escape:
  We have found that this is harder to provide precise numbers on because most disk shatters do not lead to this problem. However, we are confident that some drives are more likely to allow this than others. Through our research we believe that the current CD ROM drive that we are supplying is less likely to suffer this problem too.

Is RM’s current high speed CD ROM drive safe?
Yes. We have carefully selected drives that reduce the incidence of disk shattering, and in our intensive extended testing have not allowed fragments of broken disk to escape. The control logic of the drive has been adjusted to detect disk faults and adjust the speed of the drive accordingly.

Can you give us lists of safe CD drives?
The independent scientific analysis that we have commissioned indicates that all drives up to and including 40x speed are extremely unlikely to have any risk of disk shatter. All RM computers manufactured since the end of July 2001, regardless of their speed, have not caused disk shatter in normal use and all RM NoteBooks contain safe CD drives. We cannot provide advice about other manufacturers drives. The link below will take you to the independent research section.
Independent Research

What’s a safe speed?
Our research to date has shown that it is extremely unlikely that a disk will shatter in a 40X drive.

Are 52X drives more prone to shatter?
Yes, because of the physics involved in disk rotation, the shatter is more likely the higher the speed of drive.

I think I’ve brought one as an upgrade/repair – What do I do?
If you can give us the model type of your CD drive then we can check it for you. The Model type can be found by right clicking on the My Computer icon, selecting the 'Device Manager' tab, and clicking on the + sign beside the word 'CDROM'. It will then display the drives you have in your computer. Please either email us with this model number on safety@rm.com or call RM Support on 08709 202202.
How you establish the model number of your CD drive.

Why are you still selling 52x speed drives?
All the drives that we are currently shipping have all been through our revised quality assurance process and they have specific design features within the drives to make sure that they work safely even with cracked media.