My Dell Optiplex (Windows XP Home SP2) desktop computer seems to work fine, but it has an annoying habit. Whenever I do a file search, or certain other operations that access more than one drive, the CD-ROM E: drive (Samsung DVD-ROM SD-616T) starts spinning and never quits until I push the button to open the drive. I should note that I usually keep a disk in the drive (Scrabble game) and with no disk in the drive this problem does not occur.

It's been known to still be spinning several hours after I've ended my session (I keep the system unit running all the time), even if I haven't accessed the software on the disk. I'm worried about the extra power consumption as well as wear and tear on the drive motor. (Some day computers will have no moving parts...)

Is it normal for the drive to keep spinning like that for no apparent reason? Am I expected to keep the drive empty when it's not in use?

There may be an "autorun.inf" file on the Scrabble game disk that is being accessed. Try removing the Scrabble game disk and putting in another disk and see if the problem returns. It may take some time to see if the problem reoccurs or not.

You can check the Scrabble game disk for the autorun.inf file by opening the CD-ROM drive and looking for this file. There is nothing you need to do about it, just note and see if any other disk runs automatically like this one does.

If the only disk that does this is the Scrabble game, I suggest you copy the game to your hard-drive and play it from there. Then the CD drive will not have a CD in it.

However, if none of the above proves true, please read the following:

This (auto-running) is sometimes caused by removing a disk while a file is still open. You mentioned having a game in the drive (Scrabble game). At one time or another, you may have opened the drive while a game was still open. This sometimes happens without your being aware of it because the game fails to close properly, even though you clicked the close button.

What often will help is to open the CD drive and open something on a disk. Then close the disk and remove the CD and restart the computer. Sometimes that will be enough to signal the system that it doesn't need to access the CD drive every time. This often will work for any CD but sometimes you have to use the exact CD, so it it doesn't solve the problem the first time, try opening and closing any CD that you may have opened since this problem first began. Once you have opened, then close several CD's, try restarting the computer again.

If this doesn't solve the problem, there is a registry fix that can tell the computer not to access the CD-ROM drive unless it is clicked.

edit: in bold text

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dwight,

Dwight, thanks for answering. I'll try what you suggested and experiment with other disks, & reply when I find the results.