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

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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 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

Optical drive making squealing noise

all of a sudden my optical drive is making a high pitched squealing noise. also i've been able to burn dvd+r and now it just spits them out. i've had my mac for less then two years. this is my first mac (pc user for years) i really hope its not breaking down already. any help would be great.

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.

Optical Drive making eject noise

I have a brand new Satellite E205 with an optical CD/DVD drive.
I've found that it's very sensitive to movement as anytime the machine gets slightly moved or I'm working with it on my bed, it will repeatedly make an eject noise.
Is there a way to disable/turn off the optical drive? Is this behavior normal?

Hello,
I think there is no way to disable the dvd drive in your computer(you can check power option) Is it really an ejecting sound or like a ticking sound? You might enable the acoustic silencer in your computer
you can go to Start> All programs> Toshiba>CD/DVD> acoustic silencer
if that option is not there it could be something else
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the only easy day was yesterday.....
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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.

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.
It does this for a couple minutes until it responds to me pushing the eject button.
Anyone know what this is?

Anyone know what this is?
I would guess a hardware failure.

Optical Drive makes noise when lid closed

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?
Thanks
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).
Heather

Optical drive being accessed (makes noise) waking from sleep & on startup

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

Optical drive seems to try and eject nothing?

Hey Everyone,
I'm using a MBP 2.4GHz and starting a few days ago my optical drive makes a sound like it does when ejecting a disc at random intervals when there's no disk in there. Not running anything special, just when the computer is sitting there with no programs... Any thoughts?

Same here. After 18 months of use, it just started in the past week or two.
MacBook Pro ...
Nothing in the optical drive. Same noise--as if trying to eject something.
Seemingly random. Lid open or closed. Active use or screensaver or asleep. lots of open apps or nothing but the finder. After multiple reboots.
Doesn;t seem to hurt anything. But is very annoying.
these are the only system updates in the past month:
2008-05-28 14:41:37 -0400: Installed "Mac OS X Update" (10.5.3)
2008-06-12 15:44:31 -0400: Installed "QuickTime" (7.5)
2008-06-13 21:19:36 -0400: Installed "AirPort Utility" (5.3.2)

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.

Optical drive sputtering/clicking at startup

Setting up my mom's Mac Mini, brand new, & startup the computer's optical drive auto load mechanism sounds like the it is trying to find a optical disk, 3 or 4 times, clicks and sputters. Then once the OS starts loading from the HD it stops.
Anyone experiencing similar Mini startup issues? Is this a known Mini CoreSolo issue? Thanks!

I got a (brand new) Mac mini 1.83Mhz Core Duo in December and when I start or re-start it the same problem arises sometimes. It has even left the optical drive in a state where I cannot put a disk in and so I've had to restart it. Whether it's a hardware problem I don't know - though I do know that if it becomes a major problem I will return it, during the warranty period, for service. My Mac mini G4 - which I've had about a year - has never had this problem though, of course, the optical drive does whir on booting. Actually, I try not to have to boot - I preferring to leave the machines on as they are both principally media centres. However, I have Elgato's EyeTV software (version 2.3.3) running to drive one of their DTT sticks in each case and that necessitates it almost every day. Now that's a story for another thread which I may start when I've done some testing - though I could do without that as I've got plenty of other things to do.
Mac mini (x 2) Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1.5Mhz G4 with 1Gb RAM and 1.83Mhz Core Duo both with 80Gb Hard Drives

Does MacBook Pro make whirring noise even when shutdown?

Was wondering if this was normal. I have a new MacBook Pro that I hardly use so I shut it down and store it under my desk. I recently noticed it makes the whirring noise from startup, about once a day. My laptop is not in sleep mode but completely shutdown. Checked the laptop and everything works fine, just curious about the random whirring noise.

If it is off, there should be no sound at all. Check the log files to see if anything pops out.
Barry

Random optical drive noise

I have a 1.33 mhz powerbook that I purchased a little over a year ago.
Twice now I've had a strange occurrencethe optical drive has made the noise that it makes when it's ejecting a disc, without a disc being present.
I tried searching for a similar posts on this board but couldn't come up with any. Is this the sign of an impending problem?

Perhaps your PowerBook is bulimic!
As long as your optical drive is still functioning properly with discs in it, then you shouldn't worry. Your warranty is up, and you don't want to worry about fixing something unless it's broken, especially with Apple laptops. Unless you have AppleCare, calling Apple is going to be about as helpful as bringing sand to the desert.
If your optical drive stops working, you have a couple of solutions. There are companies that install optical drives for PowerBooks, such as http://www.mcetech.com. If you want to stick to internal, that's your best course of action. Or, if you can't part with your PowerBook for that long (you ship it to them and they install it for you), you can just pick up a FireWire optical drive.

I have several cd imports which have so much noise on them that I'm unable to listen to them. Any ideas? I've spoken with Apple care who stated optical drive was at fault; this has been replaced and I've re imported them but same outcome. Michael

Hi, I have several of my cd imports to itunes, unable to listen to for lots of background noise. Applecare told me the optical drive was at fault; a new one replaced old one (less than a year old) still same problem after re-imprting relevant cds. Also ticked error box in itunes preferences.
Would the cds in question have some sort of 'block' on import. All the releevnt cds play on my various cd gadgets.
Any assistance would be much appreciated.
Michael

Does the noise occur with all imports or just some.
Do the CDs play noise free in the optical drive or just as imported.
Have you tried unchecking error correction. I virtually never use that setting.
AAC 128 - Unless disk space is at an absolute minimum, I would import at 256 AAC and a sample rate of 44.100 kHz

Optical Drive Random Whirring Noise

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