Grinding noise coming from the DVD drive

Hello,

today I bought a used Dell Latitude E6400. As I installed the operating system I noticed that the DVD drive is really loud. I made a video of it: Noise of the DVD drive of my Dell Latitude E6400
I checked if the disc is properly inserted and it is. Question is now whether the drive is defective or it has something to do with the case above the drive. Maybe something above it is loose. How can I check for the source? I don't want to replace a still functional drive. The casing above the drive is not yielding too much. It feels pretty solid. I can only press it down for 1 mm or something. I does not always sound like that. Only when its under heavy load or when I press the drive into the case or the case above the drive. Watching a DVD for example is okay. Not too much noise.

Thanks for your help.

 

Does it do this for all dvd media or just that one media? There shouldn't be any noise from the drive itself other then the spinning noise. I heard some dvd I rented do that and if you spin it on the drive spindle by hand you notice that the dvd media itself is kinda warped and that will make the similar noise as well. Did you check to see if there wasn't any foreign debris in the drive itself as well? If you can would be to pop out the drive itself and do a physical lookover and see what if anything is wrong visually as well. But that drive could've been heavily used before you got it and that could be that it is in need of a replacement drive as well. But from my experience drive shouldn't make that noise if it is in working order. But beyond the spinning noise you hear normally that noise you posted isn't something that should emanating from the drive.

 

I inserted the discs I used into my other notebook and everything was fine. I did this with 3 discs, so I am pretty sure thats not it. I opened the drive and took a look into it. Everything looks alright. The empty bay also looks normal. The top of the drive is yielding even under light pressure, but I guess thats normal, because of the material used (very thin aluminium I guess).
So you think I should replace the drive? The case of the Dell Latitude E6400 seems very sturdy. I have my doubts that this is the issue, but I can press the casing above the drive down slightly.

 

That noise I heard on youtube was a little excessive noise for a drive. If the disc works and spin fine in the other players I would if you can get another drive if possible and swap out and see if the problem isn't here still. I heard my drives spin a high pitch wine but your grinding noise is more then just a high pitch wine spinning drive though. But if you have a spare around I would try that and swap it out and see if the problem isn't there for a test. That noise sound like something is making contact that shouldn't be contacting that how I perceive it. But if your other drives match the connection give those swap and see what happens. That way we can eliminate the drive as the problem and we can go from there and see if the laptop itself has some kinda obstruction to the drive working properly.

 

it sounds like the disc inside is slightly out of balance. If the media was designed and balanced for 4x speed but you are running it at 12x speed this could be the issue.

 

I did not want to risk buying another drive, because I was not sure was the issue. But fortunately I found a store in my city which had one of these to try out. So it turned out the drive was faulty. After a change everything is fine now.

 

I kinda figure it was that just from the hearing the sound your drive was exhibiting on the video but only way to be sure was to swap the drive out and then you would know what was the problem and where it was coming from.