System keeps trying to access/read my laptop's empty CD drive

I'm using a 16-to-18-years-old laptop, a Clevo Zeus M3CW, on which I recently installed antiX Linux 19.3. The kernel version is 4.9.235 (compiled for 486). Now, whenever I boot, the kernel complains about I/O errors from device /dev/sr0 - my laptop's built-in CD-ROM. This is what lsblk says about the device:

# lsblk -o +VENDOR,MODEL | head -1 ; lsblk -o +VENDOR,MODEL | grep sr0
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT VENDOR   MODEL
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom             TEAC     DW-224E-A

The drive is empty - no CD in there. Later while the system runs, I get innumerable dmesg entries such as the following:

[   53.250051] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[   53.250056] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[   53.250066] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[   53.250071] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[   53.250076] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer

and also this:

[   53.312725] REISERFS warning (device sr0): sh-2006 read_super_block: bread failed (dev sr0, block 16, size 512)
[   53.312746] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[   53.312754] REISERFS warning (device sr0): sh-2006 read_super_block: bread failed (dev sr0, block 128, size 512)
[   53.359602] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[   53.359617] EXT4-fs (sr0): unable to read superblock
[   53.405593] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[   53.405606] EXT4-fs (sr0): unable to read superblock
[   53.464594] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[   53.464608] EXT2-fs (sr0): error: unable to read superblock
[   53.533449] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[   53.533461] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[   53.533478] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Unable to recover table-of-contents
[   53.533490] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00
[   53.533516] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x0
[   53.533528] squashfs: SQUASHFS error: unable to read squashfs_super_block

and these:

[ 2852.951421] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[ 2852.951431] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[ 2852.951444] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Unable to recover table-of-contents
[ 2852.951453] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 07 ff fc 00 00 02 00
[ 2852.951458] blk_update_request: 1680 callbacks suppressed
[ 2852.951462] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 2097136
[ 2852.951509] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[ 2852.951514] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 2097136
[ 2852.951521] buffer_io_error: 1670 callbacks suppressed
[ 2852.951525] Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 2097136, async page read
[ 2852.951540] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer
[ 2852.951544] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 2097137
[ 2852.951550] Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 2097137, async page read
[ 2852.951563] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 unaligned transfer

I should also note that if I insert a CD, it automounts and reads fine. My questions: 1. What makes the kernel try to read from /dev/sr0 all the time? Especially on boot, when it's not in /etc/fstab nor mentioned in the grub configuration. 2. How can I make the kernel give up on this device? From the get-go or after failing a few times?