How to silence DVD ROM

The default setting for the DVD ROM on the T4x models is very noisy.

BIOS

It isn't obvious, but there's a BIOS setting under the "Power" section in which the drive can be set to silent. It is very effective.

hdparm

Another solution is to use the command hdparm :

$ hdparm -E8 /dev/hdc

-E8 sets the speed of the cdrom drive to 8, which is silent, to reset maximum speed use -E0.

See also

How to set optical drive speed

Affected Models

• ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p, T43, T43p