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1710 CD Drive always spun up with disk inserted

post #1 of 14
12/17/06 at 8:33pm
Thread Starter 
I did a search and found an old thread but really no solution other than disabling autoplay. I did disable autoplay from the registry but no matter what, if a CD is in the drive the disk is spinning. Most of my games are non-CD based (Minions of Mirth, a bunch through Steam, plus older games that don't require a CD to be in) but I could never get Titan Quest to work with an image and CD emulator so I have to keep that CD in the drive.

This is one of the reasons I hate retail games bought in a store. Not only do you have to carry the Cd's around because of the crazy copyright schemes but now even if I keep one in the drive it will be spun up indefinitely. I wonder if it's been like this the whole time I've had it or change during the last install a few weeks ago. The noise and the heat are driving me nuts now that I know what it is!

Anyone have something else I could check for or try? Are others having this problem or is it just me?
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post #2 of 14
12/17/06 at 9:50pm
Did you also try tweak ui?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx
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post #3 of 14
12/17/06 at 10:26pm
Thread Starter 
No I have not. It's been many years since I've used powertoys. I didn't even know they still made it.

What setting changes did you have in mind?
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post #4 of 14
12/17/06 at 11:18pm
(In Tweak UI) My Computer>Autoplay>Drives

Uncheck the drive(s) to disable autoplay.
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post #5 of 14
12/18/06 at 12:46am
Thread Starter 
I tried it but it didn't do anything. I really doubt it's autoplay anyway since I had already disabled it as noted in my first post.

Any other ideas? This is really irritating...

*Edit* I just figured out that it only does it with DVD's. Standard CDs spin down after after a minute or so, but with DVD games it stays spun up (tried TQ and PSU).

Also since it spins up prior to the windows login and stays spun up thereafter I decided to try safe mode. Even with about 9 essential services running and in safe mode it stay spun up. I'm now thinking it's not a software or windows config issue, but maybe just a design flaw in the 1710. I did read how others had a similar problem, but they were going down the lines of a DVD program starting the spinning. In my case that cannot be since it starts before windows even loads up.

During my testing I also noticed that it doesn't always do it. So it looks like I won't be keeping any DVDs in the drive, since it may keep the pc from going into hibernate or shutting down, and it definetly causes a lot of heat and undo wear on the drive. Too bad I always buy DVD versions whenever possible and many of my games are DVD
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post #6 of 14
12/18/06 at 2:11am
What about updating your drive's firmware? Have you done that as well?
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post #7 of 14
12/18/06 at 2:21am
You could also patch your games so you don't need the cd/dvd
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post #8 of 14
12/18/06 at 2:21am
Thread Starter 
Odious m - That's a good idea, haven't ever done that on a notebook. I know I have a Sony drive, I'll try looking for any updates available.

Zeke968 - I prefer not to patch since you have to wait everytime for a new patch and sometimes you can't play with others unless your version matches. I prefer the disk emulation method but in a few cases I could not get them to work.
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post #9 of 14
12/19/06 at 12:08am
Thread Starter 
Has anybody had any luck finding a firmware update for the Sony DVD/RW DW-Q85A?

I tried Sony support and just some random Googleing to no avail.
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post #10 of 14
12/19/06 at 5:07pm
Try this:

http://support.us.dell.com/support/d...&fileid=179054
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post #11 of 14
12/19/06 at 8:28pm
Thread Starter 
Doh! Could have swore I looked there first, oh well. Thanks. I'll try and report back.
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post #12 of 14
12/19/06 at 9:26pm
Personally, I had the same drive as you and mine would continue to spin all the time in my E1705, I got dell to replace it and now its working fine
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post #13 of 14
12/20/06 at 1:06am
Thread Starter 
Yeah my the firmware update said I already have the latest version. I updated it anyway just to be sure but it's still doing the same thing.

pdonket - what drive did you get in it's place, same? or a different model/brand? I guess I can give em a call. I hope it doesn't turn into a fiasco like I've read about so many times on here.
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post #14 of 14
1/1/07 at 12:46pm
Were you able to figure out what the problem here was? If so, please let me know what it was, and if not let me know what is going on now and I will see what I can come up with.
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