Thinkpads Forum

Hi guys,

first post on the forum, and I am starting off with a difficult question (at least it's difficult to me):

I have a R400, and every time I wake it up from standby the CD/DVD drive makes four short, strange noises. BRP BRP BRP BRP. It's probably the drive waking up from standby, although it's strange that it makes the same sound only two times when I start the Thinkpad from off.

Does anybody have an idea how to stop this sound? It's really, really annoying, because I am working in a silent library most of the time.

As I see it with my very limited knowledge, there are two hardcore solutions: Take the drive physically out or de-activate it in the device manager (is that how it is called in English?). However, there has to be a softcore solution as well. I cannot believe that there is no option in the Energy Manager to stop it from activating the CD/DVD drive? I have activated "Shut off optical drive automatically", but nothing changed.

Any ideas how to stop my Thinkpad from activating the drive when I wake it up from standby?

It also happens when you do a cold boot. I think it makes that noise when the drive powers up, and it is annoying.

Other Thinkpads I've had make a similar drive noise on start up but nowhere near as loud as my R500.

You could try setting the drive speed to silent. It made the noise a little bit quieter for me. Although at one point I switched to normal because I was ripping a CD, and now this trick doesn't work for me anymore.

Well, at least I don't seem to be the only one with this problem.

sir_synthsalot wrote:You could try setting the drive speed to silent.

How/where do I do this?

I find it hard to imagine that there is no easier way around this.

You can change it in the BIOS or in Power Manager -> Switch to Advanced Mode -> Global Power Settings -> Advanced Options.

sir_synthsalot wrote:You can change it in the BIOS or in Power Manager -> Switch to Advanced Mode -> Global Power Settings -> Advanced Options.

Cheers, will try that...

No, it doesn't make a difference.