I have in the past had a Radeon 7500 fail in a Cube, which I assume was due to overheating. As the stock Rage card was too limiting, last year I found another 7500 card going cheap and so installed one again. At the same time, I also installed a dual 500MHz G4, which required a modest heatsink adaptation. (That was a superb upgrade.)
Being concerned about heat issues, my strategy was to place a small fan, raised on four small bolts, beneath the machine in order to force more air up through the entire assembly. This works well, and makes the machine noticeably cooler, but is a bit unsightly. So I plan to build a nice wooden box on which to place the Cube, with an integrated (larger, but slower-running) fan (to increase the airflow further), and add an air filter (which I will manufacture from a fibreglass furnace/ air conditioning filter) sometime over the winter months.
On the DVD question, I find your problem interesting, as I have similar issues with the CD-burner in my Cube. I wonder if the issue is again the heat? I haven't thought of the heat as an issue before, but it makes sense, as I take it that the trouble is most likely dry rubber rollers, which are not gripping the CD well enough to do the business.
There is, however, a product called "Rubber Renue" which can restore dry rubber, and which I have used successfully on a range of printer rollers that we no longer gripping paper after a decade or so, so it might work also on the CD drive if only one could get far enough into the thing to apply the liquid. Presumably you'd need to give it a good chance to dry before inserting a disk — or maybe the rollers are only on the label side?
Being concerned about heat issues, my strategy was to place a small fan, raised on four small bolts, beneath the machine in order to force more air up through the entire assembly. This works well, and makes the machine noticeably cooler, but is a bit unsightly. So I plan to build a nice wooden box on which to place the Cube, with an integrated (larger, but slower-running) fan (to increase the airflow further), and add an air filter (which I will manufacture from a fibreglass furnace/ air conditioning filter) sometime over the winter months.
On the DVD question, I find your problem interesting, as I have similar issues with the CD-burner in my Cube. I wonder if the issue is again the heat? I haven't thought of the heat as an issue before, but it makes sense, as I take it that the trouble is most likely dry rubber rollers, which are not gripping the CD well enough to do the business.
There is, however, a product called "Rubber Renue" which can restore dry rubber, and which I have used successfully on a range of printer rollers that we no longer gripping paper after a decade or so, so it might work also on the CD drive if only one could get far enough into the thing to apply the liquid. Presumably you'd need to give it a good chance to dry before inserting a disk — or maybe the rollers are only on the label side?