Windows – Optical drive noise on Windows 8 Pro upgrade

optical-drivewindows 8

I upgraded my Computer to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 7 Professional, and I noticed that the optical drive (Pioneer BD-ROM BDC-202) started making a strange noise. This is what happened:

  1. I downloaded the image and burnt it into a DVD with that drive.

  2. I rebooted and started through the optical drive

  3. As soon as the installer started, the drive started making an intermittent bzzzt noise (On for 1 second, off for 3~4 seconds)

  4. The installation goes impossibly slow, and it gets stuck after I input my product key

  5. I reboot, and this time, I install directly from the desktop installer on Windows 7. While I'm doing this, the drive is not making any noises.

  6. After I successfully install Windows 8, I boot into it, and the drive starts making that noise again. I open the cover, and confirm that the noise does indeed come from the optical drive.

  7. I try to eject the drive, but it doesn't work with the hardware button. I eject it from the Windows explorer, and after several seconds, it ejects properly, but the noise continues, although much quieter.

  8. I close the drive with the hardware button, and it seems like it is stuck. It goes in very forcefully, and after some effort, it actually closes. The noise goes back up. Discs I insert are unreadable.

  9. I decide the drive miraculously broke down just as I was installing Windows 8. I curse my luck and decide I'd buy a new drive the next day.

  10. But then I reboot, go into the BIOS settings, and while I'm in there, the drive works perfectly. I boot into Windows 8, and the problem restarts.

  11. I reboot with the Windows 7 recovery disk, and recover using a disk image I made just before I started the install. I'm now back in Windows 7. (I recovered using the same drive, and no noise)

  12. I'm back in Windows 7. The noise no longer exists, the drive ejects and closes perfectly both with the hardware button and the software interface. CDs, DVDs and BDs read perfectly.

  13. What the huh?

So. I learned that an optical drive can actually become stuck and exhibit hardware problems completely via software.

I also learned that it is definitely a good idea to do a disk image backup before upgrading to Windows 8.

But I am at a loss, and come to you guys to ask what could have happened. Has somebody experienced and solved something similar?

Best Answer

On my Pioneer BD-ROM BDC-202BK Blu-Ray drive I solved it by updating the BIOS of my motherboard (ASUS Sabertooth P67 Rev.B3) to the latest available version.

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