We need to figure out how to replace diodes.

[BijouMan]

Since Pioneer has exited the disc drive business, leaving Hitachi-LG Data Storage the only company that might still be making computer Blu-ray drives, we as a community need to do something to keep existing disc drives operational by being able to create replacements for various failure points within them. One such failure point seems to be the lasers themselves, which seem to either last forever or stop detecting certain types of disc after a short time. On one hand, my Wii U has been left on, at times for many months in a row, with the disc spinning and it still reads both Wii U and Wii Game Discs just fine. On the other hand, I have two computers that both shipped with basically the same Hitachi-LG Data Storage slot-loading drive, and while they will read DVD-9, DVD+R9, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM discs perfectly, they very quickly lost their ability to read any DVD-5, DVD-R5 or DVD+R5 I throw at them. The laser does not properly detect the reflection that causes it to trigger the DVD mode and the drive instead just defaults to the CD mode and never ends up reading the disc. I also have a computer from 2012 with a Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology TS-U633J in it, and now it does not properly detect the reflection from some DVDs unless I turn the drive upside down as I push the tray in (once it detects the reflection it proceeds to read the disc perfectly, even once I turn the drive right side up again.) I don't currently have any Blu-ray drives, but many of them seemingly quickly lose their ability to properly detect the reflection from BDs, especially slim ones. It's to the point where I feel that if I was to get a used drive, especially an early one, it might only read a BD once or twice and then quit. The current solution to fix these problems in disc drives is to replace the entire pickup assembly, but those are only made as long as the drive in question is made, so it is not a sustainable solution. What we need to do is figure out how to disassemble pickup assemblies, clean them out, change only the laser diodes, and reassemble them. It would be easier to just manufacture diodes than try to re-engineer entire pickup assemblies that the manufacturers for whatever reason don't want us to be able to know how to make, even after all these years. There were so many different pickup assemblies used throughout the years of disc drives, so we would have to be able to study each one and figure out how to replace its diodes. Slim drives would probably be admittedly harder to do, but I would still like to see it. Focus should especially given to rare drives like HD DVD drives and the original PlayStation 3 drive. There are a couple laptop HD DVD drives on eBay right now, but do any of them actually still read HD DVDs? Will they be reliable or will they break after the first HD DVD you put in them? The sellers don't say. Anyway, I just wanted to see what we can maybe do about this. Maybe we can leverage AI in some way to figure this out? Who knows?