Optical drive is making noise

The noise that it is making, sounds like its reading the disc and then makes eject noises and it repeats the process twice and stop. But it won't let me insert a disk in, is it broken or jammed. this problem just started two days ago when I was inserting a disk and then it ejects, i have tired inserting a dvd, cd, software program and then result to making the noise. so I restart the computer it started to make the noise describe before. so every time It wakes up it makes the noise.
I dont want to have to take it to an apple store, to get it resolved. I want to know if theres a way first before taking it in.

When ever a problem has to do with a "hardware" situation, i ALWAYS suggest bringing it into the apple store. The only thing i can think of is that it is jammed. If you have recently dropped your MacPro then its a possibility its broken. I would suggest not trying to insert anything into the slot drive ever! Even if you opened your mac you cant get to the optical drive. The only solution would to take it in.
Hope this alittle. - Nate

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Slot-loaded optical drive make hissing noise without any disc inside

I got the MBP 15" (mid-2010) two months ago. Recently I found the optical drive made hissing noise even when there was no disc inside. It sounds like trying to mount or eject the disc. I am not sure it is hardware-related or software-releated problems. Can someone help me?

This is The Mac Pro forum.
You'll get a better response over at the forum dedicated to the MacBook Pro's
Which is here:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=190

Optical Drive Random Whirring Noise

My MacBook Pro's optical drive has been making a random whirring noise for some time now. It's similar to the noise it makes when you insert a disc but there's no disc in it. It seems to be doing it more frequently lately and it's done it since before I installed 10.5. I think something may be wrong with the drive. Anyone know why it would do this? Should I bring it in to be repaired?

ah even more people having this issue.
we've got two threads now!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1110915&tstart=0

Optical Drive Wake-up Noise

Two identical MacPros / Snow Leopard- one is quiet at wake-up, on the other the empty optical drive spins loudly for a few seconds. Obviously one machine knows the drive is empty and the other doesn't.
Other similar problem on MacBook / 10.5.8 - Empty optical drive clatters at start up (sounds like it's trying to mount a non-existent disk).
How do I stop this?

Hi,
Not a solution, just a question, sorry. If there's a disc in the drive, it's not as noisy from the start?
I remember something I was told a long time ago, it may have been a myth though. That for top performance one would want to have a disc in their machine. The idea being that once a disc is in there the computer doesn't have to check if there is one there all the time, therefore not diverting the Macs resources. If that has any truth to it, maybe that's why the noise. That is you're right, the noise indicates it keeps checking to see. Why two identical Macs wouldn't be the same there though, I don't know. Perhaps something funky with that particular drive or with that particular Mac itself.
I have my DVD drive mounted externally via Firewire, it's a lot noisier now overall, even if i start it up with a disc inside. However as soon as the disk appears on the desktop and if I double click on it, the noise mostly stops immediately.
No help there at all, was there... Well, at least I bumped you up a bit.
Sorry and Good luck.
PS: You have no Mennonite history in your family tree, do you by any chance? I have Yancy's going way back in mine and they were.

My CD/DVD drive keeps making noises with no disc inserted

My computer's CD/DVD drive makes the noise of it trying to pull in a disc whenver my computer is sat down or squeezed slightly from being picked up. I'm not sure why it keeps doing this. Is there anything wrong with it? Or is it just a little too sensitive?

Yes and no, the computer is obviously physically triggering the disk catch which may mean it's got a loose screw or something similar. It's advisable one way or the other to have it looked at or look at it yourself, the mechanism for the drive should be visible by removing the keyboard.

Optical drive makes weird noise when CD/DVD is inserted, won't play

OK so...When I put a CD or a DVD into the optical drive, it makes this weird consistant sound that, while i feel like an idiot typing it out, sounds something like: eee ooh ooh eee ooh ohh eee ooh ooh.
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Anyone know what this is?
I would guess a hardware failure.

Optical drive constantly making ejecting sounds when drive is empty

the disc drive on my iMac randomly tries to eject a disc for a minute or more at a time when the drive is empty....any ideas why this is??

Hmmm, I think I'd try this...
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts (Users & Groups in later OSX versions)>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed. (Thinking maybe iTunes helper here).
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons

Optical drive making squealing noise

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It does sound like a fault with the optical drive. It is the noise that bothers me. I would still try clearing the pram if you haven't as yet (hold down applealt+pr while booting up, and wait to hear the 3rd chime before releasing them) and possibly resetting the SMC (unlikely solution), but that would not account for the noise.
Karn.

Dropped macbook making noises from optical drive, won't accept CD's/DVD

Hi,
I am new to the forum, and unfortunately I am posting because I have a problem. I dropped my MacBook (which I've had since August 2006) from a desk, about 2-3 feet onto tile floor. Luckily, everything turned on and is working just fine, except everytime I turn my computer on and everytime it wakes up from sleep, the optical drive makes lots of noise. It sounds like it is trying to eject a nonexistent disk, except it makes that typical noise 3-4 times in a row before stopping. Also, it will not allow me to insert disks (I can get them almost all the way in, but it won't go completely in). I checked in my system profiler and it shows the details of my optical drive, and it is a Matshita DVD-R UJ-857. I called Apple and told them what was happening, and they told me to bring it to a local authorized dealer. However, I am a college student and it's really hard for me to find time to give up my computer for an undetermined amount of time while they wait to diagnose it. Also, I have a feeling it is going to be really expensive, considering they want at least $100 just to look at it, before the cost of labor and parts to actually repair it. Has this happened to anyone else? Any advice on alternatives or experience with this type of issue would be very much appreciated!

My computer just started having the same problem, only I haven't dropped it. I did, however, inadvertantly knock a hot chocolate over, and a little got into the optical drive. I turned the computer off immediately, cleaned it, and left it to dry for a couple hours. But now, whenever I close the lid & the computer goes to sleep, the optical drive keeps making an eject noise (every TEN SECONDS, incredibly annoying). When the computer is open and running, this doesn't happen.
Also, I just popped a DVD in there to test the functionality of the drive, it recognized it and went straight into DVD Player, so that's fine. However, it's hard to get discs to come back out ... it looks like the spilled liquid has dried but stiffened the felt(?) along the insert slot for DVDs/CDs ... when I try to eject, it makes a noise like it's trying to get the disc out, but can't. I used a paperclip (gently!) along the opening and that loosened it up enough to get the disc to eject, but it's still dirty... any ideas on how to clean that without taking the whole computer apart?
I'm having one other issue now, and I don't know if it's related... when I use the trackpad, it won't recognize it if I use my fingers to tap & select items instead of clicking them with the button. But I can still use two fingers to scroll. I checked in System Prefs, it says I should be able to do all the mouse functions by tapping the trackpad, so I don't know what the problem is. :-\

Crunching noise from the optical drive

Whenever I try to insert a CD into the disk drive, I get the noise from sample-1 under the "Inserting a disk" section from the Apple support link Mac notebooks with optical drives: Noises from the optical drive - Apple Support
I can't find anything on how to fix this yet so I'm hoping somebody here can help. I bought this macbook secondhand off of somebody on craigslist almost a year ago so I have no way to contact them anymore. I've only used this computer as a backup so I've never known this problem existed before now.
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Edit: The CDs won't play and ejects after about 30 seconds of making that crunching noise without showing up anywhere on my drives.

If your optical drive is making a crunching noise it's probably a goner. You can replace it yourself using the guides at iFixIt https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac
Or better yet replace it with and SSD for lightning fast performance and get a USB external optical drive.

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Hello all.
When ever my wife closes her MacBook the optical drive makes the noise as if it is being awken from sleep. The problem is that it does this over and over. The only way to stop it is to power down the computer. It does not do this when the computer is active, only when the lid is closed. Has this happened to anyone or does anyone know what the problem is and/or how to fix it?
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rx

rx,
I am having this exact same problem with my Macbook as well. I am very frustrated. My computer will be 2 yrs old in August. Within the last few months, I have had the battery replaced for burning up the computer (June '07), the optical drive replaced (Nov 07), and the hard drive replaced (Feb '08). It appears I am going to have to take it back to the mac store to get this fixed. This has been going on for a month and I have tried everything including Disk First Aid to try to get it stop! Please post if you find something else! Meanwhile, I will say the apple care warranty was a better investment then the computer itself. I have been VERY DISAPPOINTED with the product and I have had Mac products for years (Mac Performa, iMac, eMac, iPodmini).
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On my Macbook Pro, the optical drive makes a noise as though being accessed whenever waking up from sleep mode or powering on. Is this normal behavior?

Yes

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If this helps, I dropped it earlier today and I could have damaged it. I know the difference between the way it normally sounds when it boots and this. This kind of sounds like when you're inserting a CD into the Optical Drive, but far worse? The sound also happens when you press the Eject button.
Please help me, I need to know if I should bring it into an Apple Store immediately.

I have a mcabook 13 inch (white, not black LOL) that does the same thing. It was used by a guy at my work (it is a work laptop) and when he returned it to me (I am the IT guy) it wouldnt boot up. Warranty fixed this, but the grind is still there. This is the same guy who destroyed the screen on his PC laptop by dropping it down some stairs. So no doubt he has dropped this mac, which I have decided will stay in my personal care
Have you had any info on the issue?

Optical Drive keeps checking for a disk every 5mins

MBP 15" - My optical drive keeps spinning up as if is checking for or reading a disk. There is not one in there. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems, it's just annoying.

dseibold wrote:
MBP 15" - My optical drive keeps spinning up as if is checking for or reading a disk. There is not one in there. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems, it's just annoying.
I was going to begin my own thread about this but I'm glad you've begun one already.
I'm having the same issue as you are and it's quite annoying. It's not only annoying but it makes me worry about the longevity of the motor in the optical drive.
A bit of history -- after my LCD backlight died on my original 2.0GHz MacBook Pro and after 3 repair attempts (all gloriously FAILED) by the Apple Store on Regent Street here in London (flagship store my eye!) it was decided that rather than attempt more repairs Apple would replace the machine. As Apple would only guarantee they'd meet the specs of my previous machine I was given a stock 2.4GHz unibody MBP. I received that machine 4 days ago, Thursday of last week. Out of the box it was exhibiting the phantom disc issues you describe, roughly every 5 minutes. The only time it wasn't making the noise was when I had a disc in the drive.
Assuming it to be a defective optical drive I booked a Genius appointment and the earliest I could get was earlier today. I took the old machine in and between the issue I described with the new machine and the recent repair debacle they decided to swap the new computer for another new one on the spot (which was good as I would have asked for that to happen had they not brought it up). For interest's sake, that first unibody machine also had 2 dead pixels.
Fast forward to when I get back to the flat and unpack the second replacement unit today only to find that after I restore from my Time Machine backup the optical drive is doing the SAME THING again. The new unit also has 3 dead pixels. I will be taking this machine straight back to Apple tomorrow to ask *** is going on and get some satisfaction.
One thing I did find, after some investigation, is that when the optical drive does its phantom ejection, there's a process started. If you watch Activity Monitor (sort by process ID, newest first) you'll see DiskManagementTool kick in when the noise is made. That's a component of Disk Utility however thus far I've not discovered what triggers it or why; however, I wonder if it's anything to do with some component that was on my original MBP that was archived via Time Machine migrated to the new unit. Because I've neither done a clean OS reinstall nor waited past the migration assistant to restore my data, I'm not sure if the drive makes the noise when my backup's not in use but I have this nasty feeling it wouldn't.
Anyone else having this issue, please launch Activity Monitor and keep an eye on it to see if the same process kicks in when the optical drive makes its noise. I suspect others will see that happen, meaning that's the first step in figuring out a solution. It really seems like it's a software issue so it should be fixable.

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Also, see if your computer qualifies for one of the G5 iMac Repair Programs
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Optical drive is making noise

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