T21 - Matshita DVD-ROM Problems

I have a couple of weird problems with my T21. For the past six months or so, the Matshita DVD-ROM SR-8175 has been stopping on its own volition, without my requesting it. Out of the blue, a "Safe to remove hardware" pop-up message will appear stating, "The Matshita DVD-ROM SR-8175 device can now be safely removed from the system." This occurs completely at random, but never when the drive is in use.

Today, the Matshita added a new twist when it changed drive locations. Since I purchased the computer last year, the DVD-ROM has always occupied the D: drive. Now, all of a sudden, I find that it’s designated as the E: drive.

Neither of these occurrences has interfered in any way with the operation of the T21, but are unusual and I wondered if someone might be able to provide some feedback on either, or both.

Thanks in advance.

 

Perhaps as a place to start, re-installing the easy eject utility and deleting the ide drivers.

 

Thanks. That helped. The Ezeject Utility wasn't installed, so I downloaded it from the Lenovo site. Soon after installation, however, the pop-up signalling that it was 'safe to remove' the ROM drive appeared again, but due to the presence of Ezeject, the drive itself actually wasn't stopped. To ascertain why this was so, I opened the Ezeject utility and found that the ROM drive is marked with a "Do not stop device" label. Therefore when the Windows eject function (where the basic problem apparently is) tried to stop the drive, it was unable to.

In other words, when the Windows Unplug/Eject Hardware icon is clicked, the ROM drive is still displayed on the list of active hardware devices, whereas previously it would not have been.

I also utilized the Computer Management administrative tool to reassign the ROM drive back to the D: drive position. So, for now, all is well with the T21.