Prolonging the life of your optical drive?

I recently had to have the Superdrive on my MacBook replaced, as it had only lasted a rather woeful 7 months since I bought the computer new.
The guy at the authorised service centre gave me a tip: he said that to prolong the life of any optical drive (PC / Mac / laptop / desktop), you should leave a CD in it at all times. He seemed to think that this would protect the laser.
Is this just an old wives' tale, or does anyone here think that it could be a good idea?
I went through two optical drives on my previous Mac (a G3 Powerbook), so as I'm sure you can understand, I'm getting kind of paranoid that my new Superdrive will go wrong again, so any other tips would be most welcome!

About the only benefit I could see in doing this is that you would keep the laser covered and perhaps prevent dust build up. Most notebooks don't have slot-loading drives so a Q-tip can easily clean them... and as the MacBook does have a slot-loading drive, I can't imagine any dusty getting in there. I've lost count of how many desktop/notebook optical drives I've had over the years. I don't recall ever having one fail and I've never kept them loaded with a disk. As mentioned, I would imagine the extra wear of the drive spinning up all the time would be more likely to cause a shorter life (plus the annoying delays associated with optical disks mounting, etc).

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Quote
Originally posted by naw
Hi!
i wonder if anyone can help me to flash the firmware in my optical drive?
i have never done it before and i dont know how to do.
i got a NEC DV-5700B DVD-rom drive. i know it is not a MSI drive but i am going to use it for my MEGApc 180. and need to flash it to get it working as supposed. i hope.
http://forum.rpc1.org

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Possible solution to your Optical Drive failure

Hey everyone. So I've been having the same issue that it seems like everyone else has been having with their optical drive spitting out DVDs and CDs.
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HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N:
Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N
Revision: AP09
Serial Number: K0078710705
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Low Power Polling: Yes
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my macbook pro is just over one year old, and my inernal dvdrw also stopped working with dvd disks (it still worked with cd disks).
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Hi guys,
Quick question (and an idea if you think of it that way ): Why don't BT Retail lift the 448Kbps cap on their ADSLMax DSLAMs and allow the upstream to increase for the max 832Kbps upload? (Yes I know 832Kbps is classed as ADSLMax Premium and can be purchased through some ISPs).
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chris6273 wrote:
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Hi,
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The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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Prolonging the life of your optical drive?

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