Noisy G1S-A1 Optical Drive

I've had my G1S for about a month now, and for the most part, its fantastic.
The only problem I have with it is the optical drive.

On my Command and Conquer disk, it fairly often (while spinning up) makes beeping like sounds. Not too unlike (but not too like) error messages from BIOS.
It stops shortly, then works fine..

The drive itself seems to vibrate like crazy, so much so that if I was listening to music, I wouldn't be able to hear it anymore.
Happens with all sorts of disks (movie dvds, audio cds, game discs, etc)

Is this fairly common, or am I just lucky?

edit: now it actually seems like the drive is dying, or on its way out, as its stopped recognising some disks...sometimes requiring a reboot!
I guess I'll have to send a support ticket ASAP...I wonder if the G1S is officially being distributed in the country yet...

 

Definite candidate for RMA. These TSST drives aren't all that fantastic anyway. If you don't have a special bezel cover (ie: just black and flat) you might be able to get another sort of optical drive for your unit.

In any case, I believe the "bleeping" noise you're getting is the unit trying to re-read a part of the disk when it's having lots of trouble.

I've noticed on most ASUS laptops that use the TSST DVD drives that:
- If the disk is easy to read it'll run right through without slowing down.
- If the disk is a bit more difficult to read, it'll try at full speed, then go down a notch and try, then go down another notch and try.
- If the disk is really poor, it'll sound like it stopped, but you'll hear whirling noises since it's still running, and maybe that "bleeping" noise here and there.

If possible, you may want to try to ISO the disk and use something to mount it, or do a full install if possible so that it doesn't run off the CD/DVD as much. The more you run it off the disk, the more you wear down your drive.

 

Does Asus offer any replacement battery in place of the optical drive in the G1S like Lenovo's Ultrabay in the T61?

 

Another option is to make an image of the disc and use something like Daemons Tools or Alcohol to run the image. I do that for my games and it loads much faster and doesn't make the OD whirl like a tornado

And no, only the ASUS V1s has the modular optical drive at the moment.

 

Yes, the G1 drive is not modular like the V1 or the W3. However, it should be possible to remove the drive (usually held by two screws) and use the mounting rail and adapter card (if applicable) to get it to work with another slim drive of the same type.

Running the game from a virtual drive will also save you a lot of battery life, since the optical drive draws a fair bit more power than HDD.

 

Thanks guys, sent an email to Asus support, still awaiting a response. After my assignments are done, if I don't have a response, I'll just call directly.

By the way, its a full install of the game, just likes to check CD for proof of nonPiracy. Daemon Tools/etc would be viable, but a 120gb HDD fills up rather quickly when its your primary computer!