Kip Crosby wrote: My feeling is that merely cleaning the unit will not help ( the sensor is fairly small, approx3/16", and I *think* it can be reached with a Q-Tip.) My experience tends to make me think the problem is more along the lines of either the laser diode output decreasing, or the gain of the electronics is decreasing with age. I had one for quite a while, and it was also a very reliable drive. One day, it started making funny noises, so I replaced it. Months later, I tried to take it apart and found the screws breaking off or rounding off where the phillips tip goes. I ended up drilling the heads off, getting the unit apart, and finding the noise was because of a faulty cassette leaving the metal cap attached to the magnet inside the drive. I found the screws were loktighted in place, and heat was required to soften the Lok-Tite enough to take the screws out. A bit of carelessness later, one of the plastic gears melted because of the heat, and the drive was rendered mechanically bad, and I *think* I tossed it.