Modify Your CD-ROM to Watch DVD Movies

August 28th, 2007
27 Comments

Got an old pc with no dvd drive in it? Why not mod it’s CD rom drive to play DVD’s this weekend?

There are two types of CD-ROM drives we can mod:
24x to 40x
40x or higher
Drives slower than 24x are too old to be modded.
24x to 40x CD ROMs

Laser Head Adjustments:

The track pitch of CDs is 1.6 microns, and the track pitch of DVDs is only 0.8 microns. The minimum length of track pits of CDs is 0.843mm, and the minimum length of track pits of DVDs is 0.293mm. That’s why DVD discs can store much more data in the size of a CD.
Pinpointing this situation, we need to adjust the laser head so it can read discs with smaller track pitchs and shorter track pits. Open up the CD-ROM drive, do you see a lens on the rail? That’s the laser head. On the side of the laser head, there’s a screw you can adjust.
This is the key of this mod.
This screw can adjust the size of the laser beam that lands on the disc. Referring to the above, after adjusting, the laser beam should be less than 0.293mm, to suit the needs of DVD discs. So turn that screw 2-3 times. I got this number through trial and error. Mark with a pencil, in case you forget how many times you turned that screw.

Speed adjustments:

DVD-ROM drives can play DVD movies smoothly at 4x speed. If we’re modding a 32x CD-ROM drive, the rotation speed is obviously too high, increasing heat, and shortening the life of the drive.
So we need to decrease the speed of it.

Most people know that power supplies can provide 5V (red wire) and 12V (yellow wire) electricity output for Molex connectors. Find the Molex connector you’ll plug into the modded CD-ROM drive, cut the yellow wire or insulate it with tape, so only 5V of electricity is transferred to the CD-ROM drive. The speed of the drive is now 32 * 5/17 = 9.41x and can now fulfill our requirements.

40x or higher CD ROMs
When 40x CD-ROM drives are released, most manufacturers are already producing DVD-ROM drives. To lower cost, they use the same core as DVD-ROM drives with DVD functions disabled. What we need to do here is to re-enable the DVD function.
Open up the CD-ROM, behind the circuit board, look for a jumper that says DVD JUMP. Find a jumper to connect this jumper. Thin metal wire also works fine.

OK, so the DVD function is unlocked, but we still need to decrease the speed. Use the instructions above on how to decrase the speed of the drive.

Notes:

Modded drives cannot be detected in POST, that means you cannot use it in DOS. But once you get into Windows, the drive works fine.
Modded drives have no region code problems.
Modded drives MIGHT NOT read DVD9 discs.

27 Comments so far

Caveman October 12th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
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Hi i wich direction shall i turn the screw….to the lift or to the right.??

Chilangolandia October 18th, 2007 at 2:15 am
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Please tell me the direction to turn the screw… R or L?

Devendra Chouhan November 15th, 2007 at 7:51 am
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in which direction turn the screw

left side or right side?

timbaland November 16th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
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has any1 tried it?
is the name DVD JUMP standard? i cant find this jumper

1 December 28th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
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If you google a sentence of this, it brings up loads of pages with the exact same article, so this has probably just been copy & pasted, thus the ‘author’ won’t be able to answer any of your questions.

I would assume that you turn the screw whichever way makes the lens go down.

Juan February 5th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
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:idea: This only may be possible if the manufacturer of the unit has put a DVD JUMPER on its circuit board, the 99.9999% of the manufacturers didn’t that, because is not necessary and you will not be able to convert your CD-ROM to DVD-ROM as you expect (open your drive and see with your own eyes, you will never find that jumper), that jumper is so important to exist in order to convert the unit because it chooses the way in which the firmware will work and read the disc structure, this dvd jumper solution appears to be a very very very old solution from a specific brand, and i’m sure that brand doesn’t uses it anymore in its modern drives. This article mixes truth with lie, and is made only to attract traffic, look at the right and left columns, yes… ads.

Bizzle February 8th, 2008 at 2:12 am
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Hey Juan!!!! BRAVO!!!!! BRAVO I AGREE!!!!

# Juan Says:
February 5th, 2008 at 5:30 pm (Quote)

:idea: This only may be possible if the manufacturer of the unit has put a DVD JUMPER on its circuit board, the 99.9999% of the manufacturers didn�t that, because is not necessary and you will not be able to convert your CD-ROM to DVD-ROM as you expect (open your drive and see with your own eyes, you will never find that jumper), that jumper is so important to exist in order to convert the unit because it chooses the way in which the firmware will work and read the disc structure, this dvd jumper solution appears to be a very very very old solution from a specific brand, and i�m sure that brand doesn�t uses it anymore in its modern drives. This article mixes truth with lie, and is made only to attract traffic, look at the right and left columns, yes� ads.

albino negro February 8th, 2008 at 2:19 am
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haha old shit never works who needs to mod sumthin to watch a dvd nowadays anyway

İndiriyosun.com » Blog Archive » CD Romu DVD Rom’a Dönüştürme Görsel Anlatım April 16th, 2008 at 6:15 am
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[...] nasıl yapıldığına dair videolu bir anlatım bulunuyor. ayrıca şuradan da detaylı bilgi alabilirsiniz. -Ayrıca donanım bilgisine sahip olmayanlar ve gözden [...]

» Cd romunuzu DVD roma dönüştürün Gemiyi en son farelerin terkedeceği “peynir gemisi”: Gemicilikte Son Nokta April 18th, 2008 at 2:12 am
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[...] nasıl yapıldığına dair videolu bir anlatım bulunuyor. ayrıca şuradan da detaylı bilgi alabilirsiniz. -Ayrıca donanım bilgisine sahip olmayanlar ve gözden [...]

MeneLWorM » Donanim » CD Romu DVD Rom’a Dönüştürme Görsel Anlatım April 29th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
(Quote)

[...] nasıl yapıldığına dair videolu bir anlatım bulunuyor. ayrıca şuradan da detaylı bilgi alabilirsiniz. -Ayrıca donanım bilgisine sahip olmayanlar ve gözden [...]

KAMIKAZE May 4th, 2008 at 6:11 am
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Is this possilble with all cd roms?

a.kilic May 9th, 2008 at 3:07 am
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Is this possilble with all cd roms?

Aditya May 29th, 2008 at 7:38 am
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not working..

CD Romu DVD Rom’a Dönüştürme Görsel Anlatım « Mcsesistem’s Weblog June 14th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
(Quote)

[...] nasıl yapıldığına dair videolu bir anlatım bulunuyor. ayrıca şuradan da detaylı bilgi alabilirsiniz. -Ayrıca donanım bilgisine sahip olmayanlar ve gözden [...]

SAUROV GUPTA June 20th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
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hi, this is very interesting issue. & u did it well. Congra…..
but u don’t mention that the screw of lens i have to turn 3 round clock wise or anti clock wise.
letme make my cd to dvd. thanks.
mail for any new invension from ur site. again thanking u.

Haklabs