What's that? LAUGH?? I nearly didn't believe it until I removed my cd player from my PC and the CD came out in 000's of teeny weeny itty bits!
So - of course - I searched the net to see what it was all about, AND .. .. .. .. There is quite a lot of interesting stuff. Some guys at college strapped a CD to a DREMEL drill and spun it up, needless to say the thing took off like a proverbial bat-- stuck in the ceiling WOW - could have had someone's eye out -so they say.
I wondered if there was a club I could join now - having survived a CD blowing up. Perhaps one gets a medal ?
Tell you what though, make's me think every time I spin one up in the drive.
There was a warning about minute bits floating out and those getting in your eye.
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ANYWAY - 'nuff said. In case you are interested, it's going to become more common as spin speeds achieve 64X. The media has found it's limits - for now.
SOLUTION : One web site suggested fitting multiple read heads to cut the speed.
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Well, over to you. I'm off for a pizza - home made - of course.

Also quite a few cd-roms are slighty un-balanced i.e - the hole in the middle for the cdrom-motorspindle - isn't exactly centered and can cause vibration.

Some cd-mechanisms can sense these vibrations and lower the speed accordingly.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

Actually the highest percentage of balance issues with CDs and CD-ROMS are not the location of the spindle hole but the layers of graphics and paints applied to the surface of the CD itself. Those layers being inconsistent is what causes the vibration of the disc at spindle speed.

But you are 100% correct that well made CD ROM drives will spin the spindle speed down to accommodate the imbalance of the disc to reduce wear on the drive and allow the heads to more accurately read the disc contents.

peace.