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I just got a new laptop and I've noticed that every 10 to 20 minutes, the BD-RE drive emits sounds. The sounds are similar to sounds made by movement of the optical head inside the drive. If there is a disk in the drive, the dive will spin it up in addition to moving the head.

NOTE: Sounds can be heard even when there is no disk in the drive. As I mentioned previously, the when there is a disk in the drive, in addition to emission of sounds, the disk will spin up.

This is the first time I've encountered something like this, so I don't know how to proceed.

I did read this question, but my case isn't as severe, because the optical drive seems to be working normally, except for the intermittent sound it makes.

The computer itself is Toshiba P50t-B-10T running OEM installation of Windows 8.1 64 bit and the drive itself is MATSHITA UJ272 (Panasonic UJ272 in non-OEM versions).

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  • Maybe a problem of windows, check whith another (install linux for example or Win7)
    – UltraDEVV
    Sep 26, 2014 at 11:41
  • Another thing. Im not saying that you done wrong but next time buy a good brand like ASUS or Samsung or HP . I have fujitsu and it makes high sounds when it is reading a disk but other laptops that Ive seen are not like this. I know this comment does not help but a caution to others.
    – UltraDEVV
    Sep 26, 2014 at 11:44
  • @UltraDEVV It's a good idea to try with another OS. About the brand, well I don't see what the big problem is. Perhaps it's a more local thing, but in my circles Toshiba has good reputation, and Samsung has 0% market share penetration in laptops. Local issues maybe?
    – AndrejaKo
    Sep 26, 2014 at 12:39
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    @AndrejaKo Have you tried using Process Monitor? With the right filters, you can get to something like this which will let you know whenever something access your optical drive.
    – Vinayak
    Sep 26, 2014 at 13:15

3 Answers 3

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One tool you could use is the Resource Monitor in Windows. Open Task Manager and click the "Resource Monitor" button on the Performance tab. Once in the Resource Monitor, go to the Disk tab, where you can see which processes are accessing your disks, and exactly which disks and which files they're accessing.

Another tool is Process Explorer from Sysinternals. Use the Search tool to search for X: where X is the drive letter of the BD-RE drive. This will find any currently open file on X.

The most flexible tool is Process Monitor that can trace and log almost all and any event happening in the computer, including access to the disks. You can select the Files filter to selectively include only disk accesses to the BD-RE drive. For more information see the article:
Using Process Monitor to capture system events.

image1

DiskMon also shows direct disk access, but doesn’t show the process doing it.

image2

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  • Unfortunately, none of the offered programs were helpful. When the drive emits sounds and there's no disk in the drive, Process Monitor shows nothing. During the past few days, the drive spun up with a disk in it only once, but I was unable to start Process Monitor quickly enough to catch the event.
    – AndrejaKo
    Oct 3, 2014 at 11:51
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    You can run Process Monitor with a filter permanently for several days and see what it finds. Otherwise, if some program is responsible for it and it happens once in several days, it will be hell to find. You could use autoruns to selectively disable some boot-startup products and re-enable later.
    – harrymc
    Oct 3, 2014 at 12:30
  • "Once in the Resource Monitor, go to the Disk tab, where you can see which processes are accessing your disks" - Isn't this just for hard-disks?
    – RJFalconer
    Aug 4, 2015 at 15:33
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Like harrymc said, a couple programs you can use are Resource Monitor, Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and DiskMon.

However, the problem here is most likely that there is a wire loose or a faulty/dying optical drive mobo.

Basically, it's connecting and disconnecting, causing Windows to keep registering it as a new drive.

Additionally, it could be a problem with the driver that is trying to reconnect the drive.

Do this to find out if either of these are the problem:

  1. Physically disconnect the optical drive by unscrewing the screw on the bottom and pulling it out.
  2. Now reconnect the optical drive by pushing it back in. (all while the PC is still on).
  3. Listen to the sound it makes as you connect it. This is the sound of the drive initializing. Is this the same sound you heard that it makes randomly? If so, then there is probably an issue with either the optical drive itself (hardware), the cable connecting the optical drive, or the optical drive driver (software).
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  • The sound is the same as when optical drive is initializing. In my case, I have a laptop, and the connection between the drive and motherboard is a solid PCB. I've checked it and it looks good. I've heard reports of other users of same model of computer with different optical drive having same issue.
    – AndrejaKo
    Oct 3, 2014 at 11:28
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Probably your anti-virus doing a periodic check for new files, etc., to examine. Norton does that (including the CD-drive rattle) every 10 minutes on my 8.1 system. Apparently it needs to do something physical (hence the rattle) just to determine if there is a disk in the drive.

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  • Not true on my machine, and I have Norton Security.
    – bwDraco
    Aug 4, 2015 at 17:16
  • At the time, machine had no antivirus.
    – AndrejaKo
    Aug 4, 2015 at 20:09

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