Odd optical drive issue

Had a similar issue (MB Pro, i5 early 2011) without any warning.

My optical drive not only made some strange noises whenever CD's or DVD's (specially CD) were inserted.

Looked up on the web and here for possible solutions as a mean to avoid an expensive tech visit, nothing seemed to work therefore considered changing or even discarding the optical drive.

When I was removing it (and despite the large tag that indicates that no serviceable parts are inside and that I should not open it) I saw 3 small screws which I decided to remove, I couldn't entirely open the case due to some adhesive tape placed on the other edge, still managed to somehow remove it (without discarding it) and took a look inside.

Everything seemed to be in the right place, I still blew some compressed air to clean the lens and the entire mechanism, closed it again (this also included re-attaching the tape as it was before), placed the bolts and assembled again (thought the shot was worth).

I turned on my Mac and placed a DVD, not only it swallowed it in an easier way but also there were a lot less noises when reading it, furthermore, I ran it (it was a movie) and it all went well, at the time I decided to eject it, it not only eject it flawlessly but also quicker and better (I managed to see at least half of the DVD out of the laptop).

Long story short, try to do some basic cleaning on the unit (specially if problem begun from quite a sudden) and if after this, situation remains, have it replaced or take advantage of the space and install an additional hard drive (I'm still planning on doing so)...

Cheers!

I had a similar problem with a Toshiba (standalone) tray-loading DVD player. As soon as I pressed the "open" button, the tray opened and then immediately closed. If I manually pulled the tray all the way out, it wouldn't automatically retract. Sometimes, the logic board develops component failure that causes quirky behavior. I cut off the AC power cord and e-cycled it. In your case, you should consider replacing the ATAPI (PATA: parallel ATA, not SATA) DVD±RW drive. Since they're no longer manufactured, check ebay for a pulled drive or new "old stock." The older Pioneer 12x and 16x drives were reliable and very Mac-compatible. If you do, you'll need to pop off the trim piece that snaps over the leading edge of the tray, to provide adequate clearance through the front panel.

Might try this...

On your main hard drive, dig down into System > Library > CoreServices > Menu Extras. Inside that window, double-click on the icon called Eject.menu.

http://www.creativetechs.com/tips/quicktips_51.html

Menubar will now show an eject symbol.

Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.