Automatically close DVD drawer at boot up.

[John]

I have recently changed the internal DVD player from Sata to IDE. I done
this because I got fed up with the hard drive activity light flashing all
the time.
Everything is fine apart from one minor problem - if I want to use a boot
disk I have to manually push the drawer in at boot up, whereas the old Sata
DVD player closed the drawer automatically.
Is there a way to get the DVD drawer to close automatically when starting
with a boot disk inserted?

 

[Nobody > (Revisited)]

I have recently changed the internal DVD player from Sata to IDE. I done
this because I got fed up with the hard drive activity light flashing all
the time.

The interface should have nothing to do with the HD indicator.

How did you determine that SATA was the cause? Did you find something
on the web that said that SATA causes this?

Everything is fine apart from one minor problem - if I want to use a boot
disk I have to manually push the drawer in at boot up, whereas the old Sata
DVD player closed the drawer automatically.

Some optical drives do, some don't. It doesn't matter what interface is
used, it's been like that since they were introduced.

It's also possible that this might be something in the motherboard BIOS

Is there a way to get the DVD drawer to close automatically when starting
with a boot disk inserted?

Since you didn't give any vital info on the make/models of the SATA DVD
drive, the IDE DVD drive, or the motherboard; there's no way of going
past that but guessing.



--
"Shit this is it, all the pieces do fit.
We're like that crazy old man jumping
out of the alleyway with a baseball bat,
saying, "Remember me motherfucker?"
Jim “Dandy” Mangrum

 

[Flasherly]

I have recently changed the internal DVD player from Sata to IDE. I done
this because I got fed up with the hard drive activity light flashing all
the time.
Everything is fine apart from one minor problem - if I want to use a boot
disk I have to manually push the drawer in at boot up, whereas the old Sata
DVD player closed the drawer automatically.
Is there a way to get the DVD drawer to close automatically when starting
with a boot disk inserted?

I thought they all closed when first receiving power -- sort of a
industry default start up, ROM logic state thing. Never seen or at
least can't recall one that didn't out of at least 10 drive makes I've
owned. Plenty of weird problems, also, only never one which was
falsely triggering the HD activity lite. You probably meant the DVD's
lite, which isn't right if that's what's going on more or less
regularly when no disc or an unaccessed disc in the tray is present.

 

[John]

The interface should have nothing to do with the HD indicator.

How did you determine that SATA was the cause? Did you find something
on the web that said that SATA causes this?

Searching for "hard drive led light continuously flashing" I came across a
number of instances where a SATA CD/DVD drive was the cause. This was then
an easy problem to locate by stopping the drive using USB Safely Remove, or
disconnecting the drives from the sata cable. Once the drive was
disconnected the hard drive activity light stopped continuously flashing.

 

[John]

I thought they all closed when first receiving power -- sort of a
industry default start up, ROM logic state thing. Never seen or at
least can't recall one that didn't out of at least 10 drive makes I've
owned. Plenty of weird problems, also, only never one which was
falsely triggering the HD activity lite. You probably meant the DVD's
lite, which isn't right if that's what's going on more or less
regularly when no disc or an unaccessed disc in the tray is present.

First,I should apologise for not making myself clearer. The drive will
automatically close if booting form cold, but not if restarting using
restart. Normally this is the way I would use an image boot disk, using the
restart from within Windows.
I do mean the HD activity light, not the DVD drive light. With a Sata DVD
drive installed the HD led would continuously flash, this seems to be quite
a common problem.

 

[Flasherly]

First,I should apologise for not making myself clearer. The drive will
automatically close if booting form cold, but not if restarting using
restart. Normally this is the way I would use an image boot disk, using the
restart from within Windows.
I do mean the HD activity light, not the DVD drive light. With a Sata DVD
drive installed the HD led would continuously flash, this seems to be quite
a common problem.

I've had my share of problems, too, but it's an older MB. Warm or
cold boot wouldn't be one of them - if everything's fresh *and*
working. I've ATA-IDE drives that mysteriously go out over a few
week's time while running W/XP, that variously begin to malfunction up
to the point they'll no longer eject the tray from their front panel.
Also SATA that'll conflict with one ceasing to work. Nothing really
wrong with the drives, either. I have to open the case and physically
remove their connectors, bring the rest up, shut down and reconnnect
them in order to get something essential like a boot CD utility to
work. Been limping along for years like this, since it started
happening. Before that I've run up to 4 DVD units largely without
incident, probably NECs. It's all Optiarc/Sony or LG these days,
though. Recall sending my first LG I noticed dropping out, back to
Newegg. I'd "marked" it where nobody would see, told them it had
"issues" - they turned around and sent the same unit back to me for a
replacement. Oh well. Nearer now to having totally migrating
everything to HDs for USB docking stations. . . .Quite the common
problem -- the fat lady with the monkey in her lap is singing . . .
OK, I give up. I'll still be needing *a* working SATA boot DVD unit
on future systems, but beyond that I'm done with the industry. No
more BlueRay money from me and no more DVD units or disks. They can
go the way of the floppy.

 

[Metspitzer]

I have recently changed the internal DVD player from Sata to IDE. I done
this because I got fed up with the hard drive activity light flashing all
the time.
Everything is fine apart from one minor problem - if I want to use a boot
disk I have to manually push the drawer in at boot up, whereas the old Sata
DVD player closed the drawer automatically.
Is there a way to get the DVD drawer to close automatically when starting
with a boot disk inserted?

Anyone else wish the DVD had power to open the drawer before booting
the machine?

Well.........it wouldn't need constant power. You could have a spring
loaded drawer, but springs are moving parts and we know moving parts
can fail.

 

[Paul]

Anyone else wish the DVD had power to open the drawer before booting
the machine?

Well.........it wouldn't need constant power. You could have a spring
loaded drawer, but springs are moving parts and we know moving parts
can fail.

This is why I use the F8 popup boot menu on my computer.

Turn on the computer.

Press F8 in the BIOS, and 20 seconds later, the boot menu shows,
including the DVD drive. (On my other motherboard, you press F11
for this function. Motherboards vary in the key used.)

(An example of a popup boot menu is shown here. As seen in BIOS...)

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Von_klumpen/boot_pop.jpg

Now, open or close the optical drive drawer, as needed. The
computer power is on, but booting will be delayed until
a selection is made in the BIOS boot menu.

Using the cursor keys, indicate to the computer you want
to boot from DVD etc.

Job done.

Paul

 

[Jon Danniken]

Anyone else wish the DVD had power to open the drawer before booting
the machine?

Well.........it wouldn't need constant power. You could have a spring
loaded drawer, but springs are moving parts and we know moving parts
can fail.

Not particularly something I use all that often, but when I need to, I just
hit the pause key after I turn on the computer, then open the optical drive
normally. Once the media is inserted, I close the tray and hit the spacebar
and the boot process continues.

Jon