Disable CD eject button on laptop

Question

Most laptops have a CD eject that is very sensitive, and placed such that it regularly gets triggered when handling the laptop. This is in particular a problem (for clumsy-handed me) when picking up the laptop to stow in in a laptop bag; I've lost count of the number of times it has ejected just as I am lowering it into the case!

I rarely use a CD, but I am wondering whether some crafty software hack (or other trick) might be possible to make it less vulnerable. Perhaps trying to fool it into thinking it is busy (but ideally without destroying my battery).

Otherwise, I might as well bow to the inevitable and snap the darned thing off.

I'm not making this brand-specific, as I've seen this problem on a range of both branded and re-badged laptops. I am, however, mainly interested in windows-friendly solutions.

Answer 1

There are several ways you work through this problem.

Firstly I would say just disabling the drive entirely is really not the right option here. So let us explore some other options.

I would consider is to use a small piece of software that is capable of locking the drive. This can be done in software which is well evident during those times the drive won't let you eject the disk. I have not tried to do this kind of thing specifically but I am sure this is possible if you can write a little code. You might be able to find a small systray app for this kind of thing already off the shelf.

The second suggestion I would make would be to remove the drive and inspect the eject control mechanism. In many cases it uses a sub-miniature surface mount single pole, single throw switch like the ones used in the right and left buttons on a standard mouse. This configuration gives you two obvious options I can think of. One is to install a small toggle switch somewhere inside the drive that can sever the trace to the eject button. Controlling the problem electrically is great however there is a question of whether there is enough room inside the device for anything extra and also if you have the soldering/assembly skills to pull this modification off properly. A screw up with this method could render the drive a hunk of slag. An easier method would be to find the end of the plastic button for the drive eject. Once you find the spot where the button and the switch meet, you can use some sandpaper to take off a small amount of material until the button is sufficiently resistant to being accidently activated. Be very careful here because removing too much material will render the button permanently disabled.

Answer 2

Woohoh! score: CD/DVD Drive Locker (systray app). Works like a charm, and doesn't cause it to spin.

Answer 3

You can try disable cd-drive in device manager.

Answer 4

There is some way of locking CD drives so that they can't be ejected anymore. I know that CDex did this back when I used it (was pretty nasty when it crashed because the only way to open the drive again was to reboot). Maybe there is a tool which allows one to do that on purpose.

Digging around a little I stumbled over this which is Winbatch but seems to just call a WINsows API function so that might easily adapted into a small program. Also I found this.

Answer 5

Toddler Keys is exactly what you are looking for: http://tk.ms11.net/

"It is a useful tool for parents that allows you to lock your computer keyboard, CD drive doors and power-off button. When the keyboard is used it will display images and play sounds every time a key is pressed, thereby preventing access to the desktop and applications, while adding some entertainment value for the kid. You can select the images and sounds to be used by copying them to the Toddler Keys folder. To exit the locked screen, just type the word QUIT."