A noisy popup-T42 CDROM

[emailus]

Hello,
I have an old T42 thinkpad with Vista installed,
My built0in CDROM is HL_DT_ST RW/DCD GCC-4242N ATA :D (it's a LONG series name)
Whne the laptop is in use, for around every 2-4 minutes, I see an irriataing popup from the system that
"The mentioned device can not be stopped because of an unknown error. Since this device is still being used, do not remove it"

Should I open the laptop and check the CD plug-in connector for the problem or should this be some other issues I am unaware of ?
Thanks a lot.

[PeejAvery]

No. If you read the error clearly, you will see that the machine thinks it's in use. It has nothing to do with connections.

Reboot in safe-mode and see if the error persists. Sounds like you make have something hooking it that shouldn't be there.

[emailus]

Thank you
But in safe mode it is still with the same problem, how can I trace out that hooking 'something' if any ?

[PeejAvery]

If it's persisting in safemode, then it could be a corruption in need of a new installation. But, at the same time, there could be device damage too. Does the drive read data?

[emailus]

Thank you
It can read and write data frm and to CD just fine.

[PeejAvery]

Most likely, hotplug.dll has become corrupt. You either should try to extract a new copy over top...while booted into recovery mode, or reinstall your OS.