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DVD Drive Clicking Noise On Dell Latitude E6530

The DVD-RW Drive consistently makes a clicking noise even though it is not operating with a disc. Then, when a blank disc is placed in the DVD-RW Drive, the blank disc swirls as if being read. This too happens periodically.
Troubleshooting Performed:
Performed Dell hardware diagnostics. No problems shown. Ran M/S Fix It. I was told the Detect Controller was fixed. I am not sure what this means? Performed the Fn+Power up for diagnostics and no problem shown.
When I leave the DVD tray out of the Laptop there is no noise. This is a brand new Dell Latitude E6530 with windows OS 7, 64 bit. Dell has replaced the DVD Drive with a new one, however, the new one still makes the clicking sound periodically. Please offer any suggestions as to a solution to this problem. Thank you.

Does the drive work?

'Makes noise every now and then even when empty' and 'spins up and tries to read a blank disc' sound like normal DVD drive behaviours to me.

This would be a DVD drive firmware issue. I'll try to explain it in layman's terms:

Windows periodically (every 1-2 seconds) sends an ATAPI inquiry to optical devices (CD/DVD drives), asking them for a general status. I believe it's looking for tray state (open/closed), if there's a disc (and if so what information), and a few other things. The ATAPI packet is sent through your local storage controller (either IDE/PATA or SATA or AHCI, doesn't matter) and makes it to the DVD drive. The DVD drive's controller handles the request, which in turn gets processed by the DVD drive firmware.

The drive firmware may have been written to adjust/shift the optical head (which slides along one or two rails, controlled by a motor) when certain ATAPI queries are received, regardless if there's a disc inserted or not. The optical head may be moving forward, then shifted back to position 0; the result, depending on motor used and drive design, may be a noise that's audible to some individuals. (I should note this is a mechanical noise, not an electronic noise)

The decision to do this is up to the drive manufacturer and how the firmware is written. Some drives may do this, while others may not.

If it doesn't happen every few seconds, but instead maybe every 3-4 minutes, then the situation is something similar -- in that case, it's probably the drive internally going into a "fully spun down" mode (think of it like power saving, except it's something unrelated to that), where some mechanical part of the drive may be coming to a complete stop/rest after a periodic amount of time (decided by the drive vendor/stored in the firmware). I have owned many drives which operate this way, and it can be annoying if the drive vendor chose a very small idle timeout (say 15 seconds). This behaviour is even more common on slim form factor optical drives (such as those used in laptops, which your Latitude E6530 is).

All above said and done:

Did you contact Dell Technical Support about the issue? If so, what was their conclusion? If you didn't, why not?

The easiest thing to do is to replace the DVD drive with a different brand/model of your choice, but you may potentially violate your warranty period if you do this. With laptops it's tricky because you need to make sure you find a drive that's physically compatible with the design/layout of your laptop chassis/case; you can't just buy any random slim form factor drive and shove it in there.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

I would look on Dells support page and see if there is a firmware update for that model. I would also see if the bios and chipset drivers have updates.

Dear Koitsu, Thank you for your prompt response and valuable information.
Yes, I contacted Dell Technical Support about the issue. Dell has replaced the DVD Drive with a new one, however, the new one still makes the clicking sound periodically. When I told Dell this they came back with the following request:
"Thank you for contacting Dell Small and Medium Business Hardware Online Support
Since replacing the DVD drive did not resolve the issue, then it is possible that as different component may be causing the noise. To isolate this further, please remove the system hard drive and check if same problem is shown. If possible, try a known good one on system in question. Secondly, try to check the fan. Clean vents and make sure that there are no dusts on it. Please reply to this email so that I may assist you further."

I did not want to remove the hard drive because I am a neophyte when it comes to doing something like this with a brand new Laptop. I did not feel that the clean vent comment was applicable to a laptop and it would make more sense if it was a desktop.

I have not replied to this Dell request for the above reasons.

could it also be from the bloatware that comes installed on the machine?

for example, people with toshiba machines complain that if the toshiba health monitor is active then they get such clicking every 5-10 minutes.

1) If instead of booting into Windows you just enter BIOS setup and stay there - does it still make noise? If it doesn't - could be something in your Windows setup.

2) Boot into different OS. Easiest I think is some kind of Live Linux CD or USB flash drive (in your case USB Flash is preferable so that you can easily remove/insert DVD after OS is loaded). See if it makes the noise under this OS. If it doesn't - most likely this is something in your Windows OS.

I would continue to engage Dell Technical Support on this matter until the issue is addressed, or a manager or someone of senior ranking states that the issue is by design (i.e. some form of admittance that this happens with the drives on that model of laptop). You may need to actually go physically to an authorised Dell repair store somewhere and sit down with them and show them the issue; it's very hard to get someone over the phone to understand these types of problems.

I do understand their logic with regards to the hard disk and other components, however. With laptops (and PCs in a lot of regards) it's very difficult to narrow down what particular piece of hardware is responsible for an audible noise. 2.5" hard disks (such as those in laptops) often excessively park their heads, which in some situations is audible (sounds like a clicking noise). I have good ears and can easily tell the difference between a hard disk parking its heads and a optical drive resetting itself to track 0; it is literally impossible for me to explain the difference in text.

The easiest solution here would be to -- you guessed it -- remove the DVD drive from the system. I've examined pictures of this model of laptop and the drive is removable. If the issue goes away when the DVD drive is removed, then you can safely state that the noise itself is coming from that component. What causes that issue, however, I have already explained to the best of my abilities.

Dell would be the only entity who could actually do something about this issue, either by giving you a different model of DVD drive (gut feeling this is unlikely), a different model of product (which would ideally contain a different model of DVD drive), or something along those lines. Dell should also be able to communicate with the DVD drive manufacturer and determine if this is normal behaviour, or possibly provide a DVD drive firmware update that could help with the issue (depends, of course).

Welcome to one of the hundred or so reasons why I hate laptops -- you usually cannot build them yourself, so if you encounter situations like this you're greatly limited in what you can do to rectify/work around the problem.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Even new DVD drives go bad from time to time. They are just a piece of mechanical device. If the drive does not read a dvd then it is bad. You should get a message when you place a blank cd or dvd disc if you want to open a write folder.

Once again thank you for your valued help. There is an available firmware on line for this system from Dell. However, I am not certain whether this is for my DVD drive model. As Previously mentioned the Dell Tech removed the original DVD drive and replaced it with a new one.
Question? Will the Laptop E6530 show the details of the newly installed DVD Drive or still reflect the original DVD Drive in the System Information Data?
Thank you

The drive you have in the machine presently is what will be shown.

Thank you once again for your valued help with my questions.