It could use some silicon or lithium grease, ejecting is not that smooth I reckon.

Thank you. I have no experience of these slot loaders, and was a bit surprised by how violent the load/eject mechanism is - as you can see it visibly flexes the top part of the metal enclosure, which I definitely didn't expect. It does appear to work fine otherwise, and makes no other untoward noise, so perhaps it's all good. That said, I just tried to burn a CD-ROM with it and while it seemed to work at first the burn failed once the drive sped up to maximum speed... Regarding your suggestion about lubricating the drive (I do have silicone oil to hand): is that a practical proposition on delicate device like this? I wouldn't hesitate to have a poke around in a regular 5 1/4" optical drive, but this one is tiny and due to being a slot loader surely much more complicated inside?

Lomax wrote on 2026-09-02, 18:59:

Thank you. I have no experience of these slot loaders, and was a bit surprised by how violent the load/eject mechanism is - as you can see it visibly flexes the top part of the metal enclosure, which I definitely didn't expect. It does appear to work fine otherwise, and makes no other untoward noise, so perhaps it's all good. That said, I just tried to burn a CD-ROM with it and while it seemed to work at first the burn failed once the drive sped up to maximum speed... Regarding your suggestion about lubricating the drive (I do have silicone oil to hand): is that a practical proposition on delicate device like this? I wouldn't hesitate to have a poke around in a regular 5 1/4" optical drive, but this one is tiny and due to being a slot loader surely much more complicated inside?

I would not apply any lubricants inside any optical drive without knowing exactly where you are applying it and where it might end up... especially with a slim slot loader.

If I had to guess, that is part of the mechanism that pinches the disk against the top of the drive so that it stays in place when spinning. I can't say whether it is normal or not for this model... but I agree with you that it looks pretty unsettling! heh

I have no experience servicing these drives, only floppy/diskette drives. You could search for a service manual, or just carefully open it up. Just be gentle with the laser unit, don't use any spray type lubricants unless you know where you're pointing the nozzle at. 😀

Thanks. The only part of the mechanism I would consider lubricating would be the lead-screw that the head rides on (if it even has one of those); I would clean this first, with cotton buds dipped in IPA, and only apply the tiniest amount of lubricant afterwards, for fear of it ending up in the wrong place. I guess the reason I posted my question here was because I hoped to hear from other who've used the same or similar drives, whether the aggressive behaviour when loading/ejecting a disc is normal or not.

I tried burning another CD-ROM, this time limited to 8x speed, and it seems to work fine: