Weird broken DVD drive issue

+(crossposted from here, this forum seems to get much more traffic.)+
Hi.
A couple of weeks ago, my Macbook's DVD drive stopped working. It won't load discs (physically) at all. This is not a software issue, it won't load under Windows or external boots either.
I figure the drive is dead, and I'm not that broken up about it… I almost never use it.
However, there are two interesting side points, which aren't very common judging by the lack of Google results:
• Ever since I got my Macbook, the drive made a sort of 'spinning' sound every time the empty drive was powered up, i.e. on waking from sleep or starting/rebooting, the drive would make a quick 'back and forth' noise, which none of my friends' Macbooks made. This only happened when the drive was empty; it was silent when a disc was loaded. My drive is a *HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N* according to System Profiler. I never did check whether my friends' drives were identical, although one friend did have the exact same model of Macbook. For all I know, this is entirely common with my drive.
• When the drive died (exactly when it died), another thing started happening as well: When I lift the Macbook's screen to wake it, I cannot type my password without extra characters (which are, of course, obscured) being added… I always need a second attempt to unlock my computer. I can't help but think that these two issues are connected… they started simultaneously.
So… is there any chance my drive is not dead? Does the fact that it always made strange noises have anything to do with it? And how does the phantom typing figure in? Is there a way to see what characters the system if dumping into my password box?
Thanks for any help. Again, I'm not worried about it, more curious. I'm also well out of warranty.

I can't speak to the specifics of your situation, hudgie, but I can tell you that the SuperDrive on my first MacBook conked out and had to be replaced. Fortunately, it was still under AppleCare. The symptom my MacBook presented was that it would not mount CDs. It would accept them and then spit them right back out. Curiously, it played DVDs just fine. This was a progressive failure. At first, I could rotate the CD and have it accepted. Then I would have to fiddle with it longer in order to get it to accept the CD. And, finally, it would not accept a CD at all. I did try a cleaning disc on the drive, without success. If you haven't tried a cleaning disc, I would suggest trying that, especially since you are out of warranty anyway.
Good luck!

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