Why do CD drives spin up when a flash drive is plugged in?

[herqulees]

It's not really annoying, just has bugged me forever. Every single computer I've ever used weather it be Windows 98 through 7, OS X, Ubuntu, laptop or desktop. If you plug a flash drive in the CD drive(s) will spin up to see if their is a CD in them. Why? Lol I can't find anything online saying the reason.

 

[maxie]

Hi there .. I cannot say i have ever noticed that .. So just tried it on two Laptops no spin at all .. Though that was a DVD/CD drive which i assume you meant

 

[madcratebuilder]

Very strange, I have never experienced that problem. I can see it would be annoying as heck. Just checked my W7, Vista and XP machine, no cd spin up here. These are a combination of IDE. PATA, and SATA optical drives from several manufacturers/oems.

May have something to do with "auto run" or "auto play" settings.

 

[herqulees]

The CD drive light doesn't even flash for any of you guys? This happens on every computer I've had. On my current laptop which is listed in my specs it happens every time, I hear the motor quickly spin up because their is no CD on it to spin, the activity light flashes, and the servo kind of clicks as it moves the laser.

 

[maxie]

Hi there No do not get any thing at all .. No lights flash no noises

 

[boohbah]

i know what you mean, when i plug in a drive or turn the power on my hub then the cd drive gives a little jump start sound.
thats on a hp pavillion g6 laptop
it is annoying but only for a millisecon.

 

[herqulees]

i know what you mean, when i plug in a drive or turn the power on my hub then the cd drive gives a little jump start sound.
thats on a hp pavillion g6 laptop
it is annoying but only for a millisecon.

Yay someone else has this! Haha maybe not yay though. This is a video I took of it, rather boring and simple but you get the idea. Turn the volume up and you can hear the drive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TtQLADRCM

 

[muralidg]

Hi There,

My CD ROM has stopped working. Is it something to do with a missing SM Bus Driver? Can someone help me? I have a Toshiba Satellite series C665 machine with Windows 7 Home Premium 32 Bit in it.

Thanks in advance

 

[herqulees]

Hi There,

My CD ROM has stopped working. Is it something to do with a missing SM Bus Driver? Can someone help me? I have a Toshiba Satellite series C665 machine with Windows 7 Home Premium 32 Bit in it.

Thanks in advance

Please no thread hijacking. Make your own thread and ask your question there. http://www.sevenforums.com/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=28

 

[mohavepc]

The answer is actually quite simple. The CD/DVD Drive powers up when "Any" hardware is plugged into a USB port to "Check" for Drivers. Each time a device is plugged in it has to load the drivers before windows can access it, Hence the drive runs up. It used to happen with floppy drives too(actually still does if you find a modern machine with a floppy).

 

[herqulees]

The answer is actually quite simple. The CD/DVD Drive powers up when "Any" hardware is plugged into a USB port to "Check" for Drivers. Each time a device is plugged in it has to load the drivers before windows can access it, Hence the drive runs up. It used to happen with floppy drives too(actually still does if you find a modern machine with a floppy).

But their is no reason that the CD drive should be waking up for something that has nothing to do with it, it's driver(s) are loaded at boot and stay loaded forever since it's a permanent part of the OS. Stuff like flash drives use the user mode driver framework, a whole different system separate from the main parts of the computer.

 

[mohavepc]

It is part of the routine. MS built this into the os to be able to load driver via a dc/dvd. lets say you get a new usb device that has no windows drivers preloaded and you have no internet access. You do have the installation cd. it stands to reason that if you insert the cd then plug in the usb device windows will automatically look to the cd for drivers. it is how it is programed. even in Win8 the cd/dvd will cycle when a new device or even an already installed device is plugged in. if drivers are not readily available windows will automatically look to floppy/cd/dvd.

it's not the cd/dvd drivers windows is looking for.

 

[herqulees]

It is part of the routine. MS built this into the os to be able to load driver via a dc/dvd. lets say you get a new usb device that has no windows drivers preloaded and you have no internet access. You do have the installation cd. it stands to reason that if you insert the cd then plug in the usb device windows will automatically look to the cd for drivers. it is how it is programed. even in Win8 the cd/dvd will cycle when a new device or even an already installed device is plugged in. if drivers are not readily available windows will automatically look to floppy/cd/dvd.

it's not the cd/dvd drivers windows is looking for.

So any idea how to disable it? CDs/DVDs are pretty much an outdated technology and thus I rarely use the drive and disabled it for now, but I'd like to fix this instead of just avoid it like that.

 

[mohavepc]

So any idea how to disable it? CDs/DVDs are pretty much an outdated technology and thus I rarely use the drive and disabled it for now, but I'd like to fix this instead of just avoid it like that.

short of modifying the inf files involved with the driver install feature of windows the only solution that I am able to offer is to turn of auto installation of drivers. This could lead to issues later on however as windows will then prompt you as to what driver to use when you attempt to access a device This is a link to How to Disable Automatic Driver Installation In Windows the article is for vista but should work in seven.

Maybe finding an MS engineer would help. I am not comfortable modifying inf files.