Anatomy of an Optical Drive

Mechanical Components

Now let’s explain about the main mechanical components of an optical drive. First you will find three motors: sled, which moves the optical pickup unit; spindle, which rotates the disc; and tray, which opens and closes the tray. In Figure 18 the tray covers the spindle motor. Notice that this picture and Figure 19 were taken before we removed the logic board and that’s why you can see it there.

Figure 18: Main mechanical components.

Figure 19: Main mechanical components.

The tray motor can be connected to the tray by a pulley or can be directly driven, depending on the optical drive model. Our model used a pulley, as you can see in Figure 20. If the tray is not opening the first thing to check is if the tray pulley is broken or not.

Figure 20: Tray motor. The red arrow indicated the pulley.

Figure 21: Tray motor, back view.