Could this damage my DVD/Blu Ray drive in any way ?

I have just bought a new wireless mouse, i inserted the disc that came with it which was an official logitech SetPoint disc into my drive. It started to load the software fine then towards the end it would just spin then make a click sort of clunk noise, this would repeat itself and i couldn`t find a way to stop it.

To stop the drive i had to put the end of a paper clip into the little hole you get on most dvd drives for emergencies to stop it and get the drive open to get the disc out, the drive opened while it was spinning. Can this damage the drive in any way ? Ive played some dvd`s since and it seems fine, i just didn`t like the sound of the clunking the SetPoint disc was making and having to open the drive while it was spinning.

 

You shouldn't worry about that, aslong as you don't have to do that from time to time, then it's something wrong.

 

Thanks, what would cause the drive to do that as its a brand new mouse ive bought and the software disc was obviously new and had never been used. I take it you probably get the odd dodgy disc from manufacturers as well even when new.

 

Opening the drive with the paper clip hole probably wasn't the best option, but works. If the drive still seems to function properly and the tray glides smoothly, then it's likely fine. I'd only be concerned if it glides roughly. In the future it's wise to only open the drive with a pin while the power is off.

When installing the SetPoint software on my computer it made some clunky noises while reading the disc as well. Nothing harmful though. In my old Toshiba it sounded like a spaceship landing while reading the recovery disc within Windows . If you're afraid of using the disc though you should be able to download it from Logitech:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/support_downloads/downloads/&cl=us,en

 

Optical drives will do that if data is scattered all over the place (for example a Live CD of a Linux distribution) It's best to leave the CD in the drive and finish whatever you are installing. CDs won't kill optical drives if the laser just has to rapidly seek to different sections of the disc.

-J.B.

 

It felt like i had no other choice, from the moment it started the spinning and clicking repeat cycle i left it for roughly 4 mins to see if it would stop of its own accord, it wouldn`t stop. I tried the eject button i have on my laptop and that did nothing, the disc just kept spinning and clicking.

Using the paper clip hole was the only way i could stop the drive, i clicked on computer to view the drive but that just went a ghost white colour as if it had crashed and everything just froze.

 

You could have just done a hard reboot. It is probably not smart to open the tray while it is running. But if it still works it still works. Doubt it will somehow cause a slow death.

 

This happened to me this summer with the Dell driver disc for my monitor. I think the problem was related to improper weighting/balancing of the disc. I didnt use the paperclip method, I instead shut the system off and pressed the open button on the drive when the system rebooted.
I know that on desktop drives, the optical drive could be deadly if you open the drive while the disc is spinning. Supposedly on the 52 and 56x drive the optical disc could actually shatter if it was to be removed from the system.
Laptop optical drives do not spin nearly as fast, but just be safe and shut the system off before removing the disc if the drive starts acting funny

K-TRON