Office CD explodes in cdrom drive. *pic*

D

damonposey

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So I'm installing MS office on a clients computer, suddenly I hear a LOUD pop, like a cap gun right next to my ear. Then the cdrom drive on this PC starts growling really loud.

Can't be good, right. I press the eject button, and out comes the tray with half-inch and one inch pieces of cd falling out of the tray, and the flaky coating flakes everywhere. The pic is after I cleaned the tray of the flaky bits. some pieces of the cd are on the carpet. The rest of the pieces are inside of the drive(which will not open anymore).

I just didn't even know this was possible or how it could happen. This is on a relatively old Dell pentium 4 machine. But crap I hope this never happens to me when I get a new game.

low quality pic because its from my cell phone.

exploded_office_cd.jpg
 
Send the picture to Mythbusters and tell them it *can* happen. :p

There was probably a crack in the middle, but still LOL.
 
You know whats really weird though? Office continued to install even though the progress bar was at half. It continued to install and works fine. Now I'd guess that it copied what it needed before the cd exploded, but still, really strange.

Like one of those mission impossible gadgets that explodes after you get what you need from it.
 
damonposey said:
So I'm installing MS office on a clients computer, suddenly I hear a LOUD pop, like a cap gun right next to my ear.
Click to expand...

Wow... haven't thought/heard about cap guns since I was a lil kid, lol!

So let us know if MS replaces that disc, hehe.
 
A few years ago I repaired an NHS computer that had "a broken CD drive" and had gone bang!
When I finally got the drive open , tons of CD bits fell out and the drive was fine :)
The bang was the CD flying apart inside the drive.
 
I've seen this happen a number of times at work. Always an interesting email to the help desk when it does. "HELPDESK TICKET: My CDRom drive exploded!!!!!!!!!!!!" :D Oddly enough with Dells too, mostly 4550s and 4600s.

The best rotating disc issue I've seen was in college back in 1998. One of my friends had a couple of full height SCSI drives in his gaming PC (because you need SCSI drives to play Quake :p). They may have been 10Ks, not sure what the fastest rotational speed in 1998 was. Anyway, we were nerding it up in his room and BANG his PC BSODs and will not boot again! Shortly later, we discovered one of the SCSI drive bearings seized and moved his computer a few inches on the floor :eek:
 
The cd was hot enough that it cracked. That must be one powerful laser in that cd-rom.
 
hehe. well fortunately I was only using a copy of the real office disc to install on the clients PC, so no big loss there. im just glad the drive didn't fly open and shoot cd shards into my face
 
damonposey said:
hehe. well fortunately I was only using a copy of the real office disc to install on the clients PC, so no big loss there. im just glad the drive didn't fly open and shoot cd shards into my face
Click to expand...


It's a new copy protection scheme. If you make a copy it explodes when you try to use it. ;)
Frighteningly effective. (Joking, as far as I know MS has never put copy protection on any OS or business app disc) Just keys and/or activation.

(A software pirate in Singapore was killed when his warez version of MS Office exploded yesterday. Witnesses claimed that when he put the cd in the drive and clicked install, the computer just exploded. A fellow pirate that wished to remain anonymous said: "It was like a war zone in here, a massive explosion". Another told us that: "We had all heard that MS was going to get tough on pirates, we just never thought they would take it this far". The deceased man's name is being with held until the family can be notified." :p )

I read something like the above a long time ago. Don't remember where.
 
When Office products 2003 or higher install, they first create an invisible folder at the root of C called "MSOCache". It copies all of the source files here, then installs.

While I'm at it, more info on this some may find useful.

First, beware of Disk Cleanup. It can delete this folder and the next time Office needs a piece of code for something you've never used before, it will put up the old "Insert the Office CD" dialog. If the MSOCache is intact you will never see this.

When you install Office, if it has a check mark for "Remove Install Files", do NOT do this! It removes this MSOCache folder and you'll have to reach for the CD every time Office needs something.

Detect & Repair also will use this MSOCache folder if present.

Now, here's a neat trick on how to do a clean reinstall of Office without the CD as long as the MSOCache is present"

1. Copy the MSOCache folder to the desktop. You must do this because when you uninstall Office, it will remove the MSOCache completely.

2. Uninstall Office using Add/Remove Control Panel.

3. Reboot.

4. Copy the MSOCache folder back to the root of the C Drive.

5. Open the MSOCache folder, and go through the folders until you get to the one with all the files.

6. Run Pro11.msi (for office 2003).

7. Input your serial, and off you go!

This has saved many of my users bacon when they are away from the office and they need remote support. We do not provide them with corporate CD's.

If you don't have the serial, run Aida32 before uninstalling and look in the softtware section. It will list all the keys for MS products, including Office. NOTE - MS has changed Office 2007 and Aida can't find that one. Aida32 will never be updated but there may be other utilities that can find this stuff.

damonposey said:
You know whats really weird though? Office continued to install even though the progress bar was at half. It continued to install and works fine. Now I'd guess that it copied what it needed before the cd exploded, but still, really strange.

Like one of those mission impossible gadgets that explodes after you get what you need from it.
Click to expand...
 
Make an HDD disk image (acronis) now and you'll never have to use the MS office disks again.
 
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