Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Illogical pieces of design.............

Why are the majority of computer CD/DVD drive eject buttons UNDER the tray?? This design is fine when the drawer is closed, but if you wish to push the Eject button to un-eject(?) the tray (rather than push it in) it's hidden under the tray - how stupid is that?

Julian, that post bears all the hall marks of a really frustrated man!

I have always wondered about those drawers myself, I think that's why I use a laptop, you don't have that problem

jtaylor wrote:Illogical pieces of design.............

Why are the majority of computer CD/DVD drive eject buttons UNDER the tray?? This design is fine when the drawer is closed, but if you wish to push the Eject button to un-eject(?) the tray (rather than push it in) it's hidden under the tray - how stupid is that?

Probably because they're thrown together at the lowest possible cost. Design costs extra.

Apple put the eject key on the keyboard, which seems far more logical.

Your PC has a number of keys you never actually use. You can probably find software that turns one of them into an eject button.

I wonder if they put those buttons on so that more hardware can be added at a later date

I've wondered why they don't put the buttons on the top of the PC...

That would be too helpful to do that

If you want to turn the computer off you have to go to 'Start' first....

Ben Elton did a very good monologue/diatribe about bad design once. He blamed it all on a mystical government department called The Ministry of Crap Design. Amongst his pet hates were metal tea pots that burnt you whenever you touched them and tea cups with handles so small you can't get your finger through them.

marty wrote: metal tea pots that burnt you whenever you touched them

My mother has one of those. They are very cheap to make and don't break if you drop them, unlike pot or china. I have a metal frying pan, with a metal handle that miraculously stays cool. I don't know how, but it does. Unless you leave it over a ring that is on. Ouch!

I have always wondered how that works. A metal pan with a metal handle and your hand doesn't get burned!

** Boring techy post alert ***

I presume the reason is because the design pretty much has to be standardised - to fit in standard-sized slots. Because of the space restriction there isn't really any room to put the button anywhere else - all the mechanism is in the bottom half of the drive and the tray is in the top half - though some do have the button on the tray itself (though whether that's any better is debatable).

Anyway, this could be the piece of software to end your woes: http://www.cd-eject.com/

J.T. !!

Have you not tried, (GENTLY), pushing the CD?DVD tray back in with your fingers ??

A computer Doctor friend of mine says this is infinitely better for the machine, because excessive button pushing eventually wares the button out - Not that he's bothered as this means more money for him !!

Hmmmmm !

Doesn't happen with a mac, you know..

graham wrote:Doesn't happen with a mac, you know..

Would that be the brown 'gabardine' flashing model, Graham ?

Great Plum wrote:I've wondered why they don't put the buttons on the top of the PC...

because some of us keep stuff on the top and the stuff might press the button...

J.R. wrote:

graham wrote:Doesn't happen with a mac, you know..

Would that be the brown 'gabardine' flashing model, Graham ?

D'oh!