Disabling DVD Drive Eject Button

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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Los Angeles, CA
This is going to sound like a silly post, but I've done a lot of searching and tried a bunch of solutions. Hopefully, someone here has an easy answer.

Almost every time I touch my laptop, I accidentally hit the DVD eject button on the side of the machine and open the drive. It's really annoying, and one of these days I'm going to break something by mistake.

I really don't have any use for the drive, so I'd prefer the button to simply not work at all. I mean, who uses disks anymore? Disabling the drive in Windows Component Managment doesn't seem to work. I tried a software program called "LockCD", which seemed to work at first, but it won't work anymore ever since I rebooted the machine once.

I realize that I could physically take out the drive and even replace it with a hard drive caddy for extra storage, but that's a project for a rainy day for me. I'm looking for a simpler solution in the meantime.

If it matters, I have an ASUS ROG G751JT (Windows 10).
 

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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This program might be worth a shot,
http://sourceforge.net/p/lockcd/wiki/Home/
It locks the button like you want, it is a few years old now so not sure if it still up to date or not though.
That's the one I said I tried in the OP. It worked...the first time and never again.

I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that there's no solution for me. Every discussion I've read online concludes that you need a software program to do it, and I haven't gotten any of them to work.
 

gtmtnbiker

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Jul 15, 2005
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The button is on the DVD drive itself, right?

Have you tried contacting ASUS support? Other than swapping it for a hard drive caddy, I don't have any advice for you.
 

crystalline

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Oct 12, 2009
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JP
That's not going to work. The button sticks out a little - isn't flush with the side of the laptop - and is very sensitive.
Use a washer that fits around the button. Tape over the washer and button. Alternatively, roll up a piece of tape into a long tube and build a wall around the button. Tape over wall and button.

Edit: if you're never going to use the drive again, rip off the button with a screwdriver. Tape over the hole. Or epoxy/superglue the button in place. Both are non-conductive. Epoxy preferred, but apply in a ventilated place.
 

Couperin47

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Use a washer that fits around the button. Tape over the washer and button. Alternatively, roll up a piece of tape into a long tube and build a wall around the button. Tape over wall and button.

Edit: if you're never going to use the drive again, rip off the button with a screwdriver. Tape over the hole. Or epoxy/superglue the button in place. Both are non-conductive. Epoxy preferred, but apply in a ventilated place.
If he physically disables the button (seems more elegant that ripping it out), it won't prevent using the drive, virtually every burning program as well as stand alone software will allow the drive to be opened via software command, assuming he doesn't damage the drive. That would seem to be the best option.
 

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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Thanks guys. It's a beautiful laptop, and I don't want to make any physical changes - certainly not with tape / glue / etc. I was really looking for an OS/software solution that was non destructive.

I guess I'll just replace it with a 3rd hard drive when I have some free time.
 

Lowrielicious

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Apr 19, 2011
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What is the brand of the drive and driver version you are using? (right click -> properties in device manager).
If there is a software/setting solution for it I would think it is specific to that particular DVD drive rather than a general OS setting.
 

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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What is the brand of the drive and driver version you are using? (right click -> properties in device manager).
If there is a software/setting solution for it I would think it is specific to that particular DVD drive rather than a general OS setting.
I've tried that and couldn't find anything on the Internet. I had also tried disabling the drive in Device Manager. It appears that it might be an OS level thing (or at least a standardized function used across all drivers) because that LockCD program appears to work for all drives - it even worked for mine, but only one time. I don't know what registry setting or whatever it's manipulating though.
 

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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I'm guessing virtually all cd/dvd drives are hard wired to make the eject button 'work'. Software may be able via blocking logic to disable this, but that's not going to survive any reboot.
The software authors realized this. The program has a "run after reboot" option so that you can be sure it's always disabled. I've run the program manually after reboot, so it doesn't have anything to do with the auto-run not working. It just stopped working for some reason. Perhaps I was imagining things and it never really worked the first time either, but I swear that I tested it by pressing the button several times and nothing happened. Oh well.
 

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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@Lowrielicious great news! Your idea did work after all. I originally tried "Windows Vista (Service Pack 2)" compatibility mode because XP wasn't available, and that didn't work. Just now, I tried changing it to "Windows Vista" and rebooted, and it works now! So I don't know if it was the reboot (because something was cached) or changing it to "Windows Vista" that did the trick, but I don't care.

Thanks for the help everyone!
 

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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Los Angeles, CA
FAIL. It's not working again. Whatever mechanism the program uses to block the open function seems to get "unset" by something, but I can't figure out what. Ugh.

So maybe the compatibility mode didn't really make a difference after all.