Weird CD event

[aaa]

Surfing the internet, minding my business.

Ok, its the internet, minding everyone elses business.

And I hear the *whirrrr* up of my computer, standard, happens all the time, barely notice it.
*whirr*'s up and back down, up and down, eventually it gets REALLY loud and I realize its my CD drive that's making the noise (note, was NOT using either the CD or DVD drive to do anything, the only thing running was Internet Explorer).

I hit the button to open the CD drive and as it opens the disk is still at full spin as the tray slides open (or faster then full spin, like I said LOUD whirr). The very edges of the CD are slightly black (color of drive) and slightly scuffed up, I hope because it was at full spin while moving horizontally, and there's a light tang of burnt something in the air.

So, for those of you who know anything is this a common enough occurance, or shall I need to purchase a new CD drive in the near future?

Thank you

[Zippyy]

So, for those of you who know anything is this a common enough occurance, or shall I need to purchase a new CD drive in the near future?
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A Samsung CDRW drive of mine did something similar. When it would try to read a CD, it would spin up in very distinct phases.

whirrrrrrrrrrr
whirrrrrrrrrrr
WHIRRRRRRRRRRR
WHIRRRRRRRRRRR

The drive was only a year old at the time, and had worked admirably until then. It never spun up spontaneously though. My solution was to rip it out of my case and buy a new one, since CDRW drives and now DVDR drives are pretty cheap.

[ima_nerd]

there's a light tang of burnt something in the air.

I think it's a general rule that burning smells mean replace it :) Like Zippyy said, with the prices of drives nowadays, it's probably worth just buying a new one to be on the safe side or maybe take this opportunity to get a DVD-RW if you don't have one already.

[Wyrm]

CD/DVD drives just aren't lasting as long as they used to. Both of my drives make horrid noises when they read discs, one of them almost to the point where I can't use it. I can't really afford a new drive at this time either, so here's hoping it's just a messed up ball bearing.

On occassion, if I've got a disc in the drive it'll start spinning up even when not in use. It's due mainly to Windows checking the contents of the disc when you click save as or do something that makes the browser check for available disc space or something like that.

[whyBish]

It's due mainly to Windows
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Yup, windows does some really daft stuff.

I was also going to suggest it might be that Russian virus/copy protection that comes with many games released in the last couple years...
That one did crazy stuff to CD drives.

[Raelynn]

Yup, windows does some really daft stuff.

I was also going to suggest it might be that Russian virus/copy protection that comes with many games released in the last couple years...
That one did crazy stuff to CD drives.
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Are you talking about Starforce? I hate that copy protection. Penny Arcade did a comic concerning it yesterday.