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How-to: Reset a noisy optical drive in the Mid-2009 MacBook Pro

By | July 2, 2009, 3:13pm PDT

Summary: 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 [...]

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:

  1. Insert a CD or DVD almost all the way into the drive.
  2. Remove the disc.
  3. 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.

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Topics

Optical Drive, Apple MacBook, Disc, Apple MacBook Pro, Jason D. O'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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RE: How-to: Reset a noisy optical drive in the Mid-2009 MacBook Pro
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 10th Oct
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View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
I'm having trouble recreating the sound you are talking about
NonZealot 2nd Jul 2009
Do you have instructions on how to get my Toshiba laptop to make this really noisy optical drive sound? I'd really like to try your fix, it sounds kind of fun!
0 Votes
+ -
The solution is simple...
zkiwi 2nd Jul 2009
Get a Mac. You know you want one.
0 Votes
+ -
Please Don't Hate Us......
yobtaf 3rd Jul 2009
Because we're beautiful.

a Mac Fanboy
0 Votes
+ -
And noisy
NonZealot 3rd Jul 2009
Apparently!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: How-to: Reset a noisy optical drive in the Mid-2009 MacBook Pro
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 10th Oct
I generally spend a have a look at in your web site web page and retrieve all very little factor you publish right here but I beneath no conditions commented but today when I noticed authentic nfl jersey this submit, I could not avert myself from commenting suitable right here. Great quick piece of writing mate!

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