Is there something wrong with my CD/DVD drive?

Every time I open my itunes.exe , battefield 3.exe my CD/Dvd drive will make noise like when you boot-up you computer , is that normal? I just notice it recently.

Also during boot , in the bios screen its dim then usual , is that normal?

 

I know the random drive noises are normal (there was a post about this which a dell rep answered) though not sure why

 

Mine has the same issue its the CDROM ejecting itself when nothing is in it. Everytime I inserted a usb drive or mem stick, ran a certain program it would just eject itself. I dont believe it's normal but an issue with the drive and so far I had dell send me a replacement drive and a replacement motherboard and it's still doing the same thing. I got tired of it and just installed a caddy drive and using an external bluray burner.

 

Here is the thread i was referring to. In the last post Natalia, whose an Alienware rep, seems to confirm that the noise is indeed normal. Though it is possible that this is a driver issue so maybe if it's really bothering you try updating the drivers but really - it's not THAT bothersome is it? I hardly notice it

 

Oh it's bothersome at least for me it is. I tried something I installed my slot drive from my MacBook pro same brand Mat. Panasonic and nothing quiet doesnt make a drop of noise unless I hit the eject button so it's definitley the drive. So since Dell can't solve this problem and tells us its normal I just eliminated it all together.

 

I did some changes in bios , now the sound is gone. I enable the USB wake support , Powershare , in Miscellaneous Drvice enable USB debug.

I agree with blown9350lx , the sound is really troublesome , this does not happen in my other laptop definitely abnormal.

 

This is a general quirk that is reportedly normal behavior of the M14x. It does this everytime there is some hard-disk/disc-drive access/scan, basically just the disc-drive waking up and checking itself to see if it actually has something inside.

 

I agree with you if its randomly , but this only happen when i clicked some programs , I got it fixed not a problem now. This does not happen on my m17x & m18x. nice miku btw.

 

Well, I don't see the problem, you know what causes it.

 

I tried this and I still have the same problem. Solution doesn't seem to work for me.

 

Yeah this is really annoying. The most annoying one is actually not the sound of it, but the 1-2 sec delay when playing a video or mp3 at the beginning.

What is going in here Dell/Alienware? Is there a fix to this optical drive issue?

 

I just disable to disc drive and enable it when I need to use it.

 

The funny thing is, even when disabled, the optical drive will still have that noise when coming out of sleep or restarting.

 

Odd because mine is silent when disabled.

 

Are you sure it is silent when disbled when you turn on your computer?

 

Boot check of cd/dvd rom is normal and usual, but in OS it bugged me at first, then I've disabled it, like I've disabled webcam, mic, card reader

Spoiler

useless... sh...

 

I am attempting to get us all together in the same place so we can sort it out..

Please read my post here:
Spin Up Noise - Alienware M14x R2 - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

Then put any further updates in this post as we managed to get a Dell tech to start investigating the problem:
Re: Alienware m14x w/ SSD making faint beeping noises - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

 

Did you see the alternate fix that iPhantomHives provided? It might work for you. As NJ stated before the sound is normal it is just a power saving feature that the m14x has.

 

Is it normal for the sound to be occurring every 60 seconds?

iPhantomHives provided a suggestion not a proper solution/fix.
It may be a power-saving feature put in by Dell/Alienware but there should also be a feature to turn it off.

Further to that I fail to see how the hell checking to see if a disc is in the optical drive every minute saves power??

Further iPhantomHives solution appears he made changes to the USB settings in the BIOS, how does that affect the Optical Drive?
"I enable the USB wake support , Powershare , in Miscellaneous Drvice enable USB debug. "

romanstine9 has reported it as an issue.
lucidwater has reported it as an issue.
rquinn19 has reported it as an issue.
laz91 has reported it as an issue.
Vip_blast has reported it as an issue.
ejohnson has reported it as an issue.
Colpolite has reported it as an issue.
blown9350lx has reported it as an issue.
thauch is disabling his driver in Device Manager to stop the noise happening (I don't accept that as a proper fix either)
greenfield also disabling his driver.
DarkTriforce has also reported the issue on the Dell Alienware forum.
I make the twelfth reported case.

blown9350lx has hit the nail on the head with his description of the problem and his troubleshooting:

"Mine has the same issue its the CDROM ejecting itself when nothing is in it. Everytime I inserted a usb drive or mem stick, ran a certain program it would just eject itself. I dont believe it's normal but an issue with the drive and so far I had dell send me a replacement drive and a replacement motherboard and it's still doing the same thing. I got tired of it and just installed a caddy drive and using an external bluray burner. Oh it's bothersome at least for me it is. I tried something I installed my slot drive from my MacBook pro same brand Mat. Panasonic and nothing quiet doesnt make a drop of noise unless I hit the eject button so it's definitely the drive. So since Dell can't solve this problem and tells us its normal I just eliminated it all together."

Dell needs to provide a proper driver/firmware fix or software solution to the issue or else I will have my $2000 back and will take my business elsewhere.
I bought Alienware because I was told it was a superior brand and would provide better technical support than competitors.

Telling 12 of your customers that "it's a power saving feature" and "thats what its supposed to do" and ignoring the fact they we are all telling you "no that is NOT what a normal laptop is supposed to do and other laptops do not do this" is not good customer service or technical support. Not to mention the fact that having the laptop check for a disc in the drive every 60 seconds!!!!!!! WILL NOT SAVE POWER!

 

That is the answer that we have got from the escalation that we already sent a long time ago and everyone has been on the same page. Now the suggestion that iPhantomHives has is pretty good actually. It makes sense since the person that you are quoting states that the issue happens also when he plugs something in the USB ports. It could be that. Disabling that in the BIOS won't cause any harm to your PC and could actually fix the problem. We are here to help and to fill the gap that sometimes exist between users and companies. We get the feedback and escalate cases and this was brought to the engineers atention as soon as we found out but they said that it is the normal behavior.
Try the iPhantomHives fix and let us know how it went.

 

Sorry for the late repy I have just moved house and have had no Internet access for a while.

As I suspected I tried this "fix" and it has not worked.

I turned my computer on after applying the "fix" and even sitting at the Windows login screen with no USB devices connected and no applications running even it continued to initialise/check the optical drive every 60 seconds even though there was a disc in there.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...340823-slot-load-vs-tray-load-dvd-burner.html

since the drive is slot-loading, this sound is called closing the "tray", which every computer with a tray-loading drive does when you boot up the computer (assuming the drive can close itself). Just with a slot-loading drive there is no tray to close, so instead you have the drive trying to pull in whatever disk may be in the slot. There is no proximity sensor in your drive.

 

So your trying to say is because there is no sensor it keeps trying to sense for a disc every 60 seconds?

I do not see how that post you just wrote gives any explanation as to why the noise is made only when running on battery as i have stated about 15 times already! This is regardless of what software is being used. even if it is trying to sense for a disc every 60 seconds because it doesnt have a proximity sensor then why does the noise not occur when its plugged in?

 

No , I'm not trying to say anything , just wanted to let you know about slot-load drive.

I have no problem so far , my dvd sound apply when window starting only , not like you mentioned every 1min problem , I can't really help with that.

You may try this , right click power option on the right battery icon , select you current plan -> "change plan setting" -> "change advance power setting" -> "USB setting" -> "USB selective suspend setting" -> Disable.

Or ; Open AlienFusion ->"Advance setting" -> "USB Setting" -> Disable.

 

Mine recently started with this problem. It wasn't like this before and the only difference was I installed Intel RST, I am going to uninstall it and see how it goes.

EDIT: Obviously didn't work. It's annoying the hack of me right now, I've been using this laptop for 3 months now, and ONLY TODAY, this problem happens.

 

it maybe that possibly dust or something may cover the disc sensor over time? causing the random disc check?

personally 1st thing id try is a different brand of drive just to rule out that its a hardware or software thing.

for the record, mine is loud and annoying as well. but mine only checks for a disc or whatever when i boot up the PC or trigger a software based storage scan. its not random for me in anyway. but i could see how it could drive you crazy out side of those parameters. its very loud...

not sure if this has been tried on the dives that are having problems but what about just keeping a disc in the drive at all times? you could set the drive order in the Bios so that it wouldnt check it on boot so it would just go straight to your OS before checking for a disc. and with a disc in the slot it may never make the anoying noise again while checking for a disc etc.

just trying to be helpful.

 

I might actually try to take out the whole cd drive and clean it, probably tomorrow. I suspect it's dust too because when I first got it, I had iTunes on the first day and it never had this issue until today.

Yeah it is loud during boot up, it's pretty normal for all laptops that I have owned, so no issues with that.

EDIT: Took it out, ripped it apart and clean the sensor with alcohol. It's still the same. What lousy drive is that, my dad's 5 years old Samsung laptop doesn't even do this!

EDIT2: I notice it "ejects" every minute whenever my iTunes is on, it was NEVER like this before. Software/registry glitch?

EDIT3: Fixed. Ain't going to share the so called "solution", since the engineers from Dell are just so freaking lazy.

 

I now count 20 people that have reported the issue and the last time I contacted Dell the reg fix they applied failed to fix the problem.

If your not sure about the sound this is what it sounds like: Alienware M14x R2 Spin Up Noise - YouTube
The sound can be heard at: 00:37 , 01:36 , 02:35 , 03:35

The sound will continue until the battery runs out or until the AC charger gets plugged in.
There were no applications running just the blank desktop.