Just got a Thinkpad T430. The DVD RW Drive is Powered off, I can't power it on

Hi, I just got my new laptop and was performing the SEEMINGLY easy task for placing my Microsoft Office cds into the computer in order to install it. However, for some reason, nothing happened, and when I went to my computer to check what was up, it says DVD RW Drive (E (Powered off). I have no clue why....that would be like that, but I did the next logical thing and it was to right click on it and press "power on." Apparently doing that was pointless, because maybe to this computer "power on" does not mean what I think it means. I really don't understand WHY this is so much more complicated than it needs to be. I didn't do anything, so I'm wondering WHY in the world this is happening. I just got my new laptop and it's been weird to have to get used to dealing with Windows 8, but to have to deal with something that to me should be extremely simple and that I'm having trouble with is extremely frustrating. Like...I'm going crazy trying to deal with this, I just want to install my programs please help

 

This issue is being reported with more frequency. I think Lenovo has some bugs to resolve.

See the thread at W520 Ultrabay HDD ejects or dismounts on sleep or ... - Lenovo Community

It seems there are workarounds for Windows 7 but I am not sure about Windows 8.

 

In Power Manager, just disable the automatic power-off of the optical disk drive and restart.

 

He said he was running Windows 8 I think. I assuming Power Manager wasn't available since it doesn't run well.

Or does it?

 

Ah, missed that. If there isn't a Lenovo setting for that (there may well be in the Windows 8 Lenovo program), I would check Device Manager and see if there's a setting where the CD drive can be disabled for power saving. Alternatively, you could install Power Manager and manually disable the setting that way--it works fine in W8, as far as I can tell.