[OT]: how to troubleshoot an optical drive in Linux

["H.S." <hs.samix@gmail.com>]

Hello,

In a Dell laptop, Inspiron 5160, the optical drive appeared to have died 
a few days ago. The disk stopped spinning, Fn+Eject stopped working and 
the button on the drive also stopped working. Attempting to eject lights 
the LED on the drive, but the tray is never ejected. I had thought the 
drive was dead (maybe the motor had died).

However, it started to work a few days ago out of the blue! Today 
though, it has again stopped working.

I wonder what is going. It is dual boot laptop. It started to work when 
the user was fiddling with Nero in Windows (it had stopped working after 
the user first started using Nero).

Are there any tools in Linux which I can use to see what is going on? 
The laptop is long out of warranty so calling Dell is not an option.

thanks.