Re:cd players.. (Score 1)

Happened to me also a couple of months ago with a CD-R and a 48x drive. The front panel of the drive just blew off with a bang. The CD was in a pretty good condition and I had been using it for less than a year with no problems.

Luckily nothing more than a little silver/plastic dust escaped the drive's metal case. Since that episode I've moved my computer on the floor so that the CD-ROM drive doesn't point at any of my 'vital' organs...