DeltaMac
Tech
The "blow air in the slot" sounds like a good idea (and you could try it) - but most often those older slot loading drives quit because the eject motor stops working (won't pull the disk in - or eject), or the laser mechanism gets too unreliable to read a disk anymore, particularly DVD-ROMs. The external drive is the better choice, as the replacements for the internal optical drive are not easy to find.