July 2nd, 2009
How-to: Reset a noisy optical drive in the Mid-2009 MacBook Pro
While playing with my new 3GHz “Mid 2009” MacBook Pro I noticed that it made that weird optical drive load/unload sound three times in a row, instead of the usual one, any time the drive was used.
If you don’t have a CD or DVD handy you can invoke the sound by clicking on System Profiler > Hardware > Serial-ATA.
The solution, according to an Apple knowledge base article, is to reset the optical drive as follows:
- Insert a CD or DVD almost all the way into the drive.
- Remove the disc.
- Insert the disc fully into the optical disc drive.
The optical drive is now reset and the noise should no longer be present when you start up or wake the computer.
A video of the procedure is also available and it worked like a charm for me.
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
Subscribe to The Apple Core via Email alerts or RSS.
