Laptop gets choppy when I'm using my DVD drive

Is this normal? My laptop becomes choppy whenever I'm using the DVD drive, such as when I'm ripping a CD to my hard drive or when I'm installing new software. The video is choppy as well as audio on everything I'm doing. As soon as the drive stops spinning the system is back to smooth operation. Surely this isn't supposed to happen. Any suggestions?

The laptop is an Inspiron 9400 if it makes any difference.

 

get a better processor or backhand slap your laptop. j/k. but seriously, what are you doing with your dvd drive? this is first laptop i've had that it rarely slows down when i'm using optical drive. it could processor, ram or hdd or any combination of those being utilized too much. but i think the biggest culprit would be ram is full or near full, or your hdd is busy with other things. also 4200 rpm could be cause if you have one. 4200 rpm's can slow things down considerably if it's busy.

 

That is fairly normal for people with slower computers like my Satellite L25. I wouldn't expect it to be as much of an issue with a machine fast like yours. Do you have a ton of programs running hogging all your resources?

My computer is almost unusable while installing massive programs from CD's or ripping music. If you are able to do stuff, but a little choppy, then you are in a better boat than me.

 

btw, how choppy is it? if it's only a little choppy, you could probably find some things running in background that might free up your comp, like greg said. if it's bad, try suggestions earlier, maybe even defragging your hdd might help in situations where you're installing software or transferring files.

 

syn246, its definitely not your processor slowing it down. Your T7200 packs some serious power. It is most likely other programs running in the background which you are not using.
Go into the start menu, go to the run command and type in MSCONFIG.
Than go to the processes and startup tab and shut off programs, processes and applications which you are not using. This will help cut the amount of programs running in the background, eating up your cpu, memory and harddrive resources. After doing this, you should notice a significant speed increase. Shut off as much as you can, so that your performance will be maximized.
Your system should not be slowing down with your specs.

Also what software are you using for cd's.
I suggest using Nero, since it is much better than Roxio.

K-TRON