I just bought my brother a new Studio notebook for Christmas (take that economic downturn!) and it has a slot loading optical drive. I didn't used to trust these in ages past as I knew they could damage the disks. However, since then I got a Wii and that has a really good drive (even allowing the small gamecube mini-CDs to be inserted vertically without any problems). This new laptop's drive is worrying me a bit. Ignoring the ridiculous fact that there's no eject button, to insert a disk, it needs to be pushed in 95% of the way before it feeds the rest and it makes a lot of clunking noise when it gets there. Ejecting it is not smooth at all, it chucks it out staggered side by side as if it is walking out and, again, makes quite a lot of noise when doing it.
Is this normal and can it damage the disks?
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If I am not wrong, slot load drives do tend to make more noise than the ones with the tray. I don't know specifically about the slot load drive noise with the Studio models. You might want to call up Dell and see if you can have it replaced, if its really that bad - which it looks like, particularly with the ejecting part. For me (though I have an XPS) the load and eject is smooth, and I don't have to push it in like 95% before the drive eats up the disc. Cheers.
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I have the slot loading Blu-Ray on my Christmas present (I got a an awesome wife
) new Studio 1737.
I was prepared for the noise you are referring to.
I read a lot of online reviews since we ordered the laptop and many
people mentioned that these slot loading drives are typically noisier,
although some mentioned the one on the Studio didn't seem to be
as noisy as on other models.
My drive works the same as yours. I have to insert the disc 90% into
the drive before it will grab it and it is noisy. Since this is the first
one I have owned or ever used..I have nothing to compare it to.
I will say that it seems to sound like the drive is functioning correctly..
just a little noisy.
I am not worried about the drive I have as the reviews did warn me
about the noise. -
I'm more concerned about the strange staggered ejection, which seems to indicate that it is getting stuck on something and if it's getting caught on something then that may damage disks. Oh well, if anyone experiences problems with damaged disks it would be nice to know
Studio 1737 slot loading drive
Discussion in 'Dell' started by ghell, Dec 28, 2008.