my disc drive wont open.

[Cruelty]

i have an issue with both of my disc drives; neither one of them want to open. at some point, they both got really stubborn, and i had to press the eject button several times before it actually ejected, but ever since it was closed without a disc in it, it simply won't eject at all. when i press the button it makes a sound like it wants to eject, but it just doesn't, then several seconds later it will make a sound like it's trying to close, and the light will flash like its trying to read a disc. i can feel it nudge when the button is pressed, as well. i'm not convinced that it's the drive itself, seeing as my other drive started being the same way at the same exact time.

anyone got any ideas as to what the problem may be?

 

[Zeriab]

Since both your drives started being the same way it might be driver problems. You can try updating or backrolling your drivers. (Remember to create a restore point as messing around with drivers is always dangerous)
It also could be a virus or perhaps a problem with the wiring.
It could also be motor problems although it does sound strange if both your drives started doing it around the same time.

Drives typically have a manual eject button for which you can use something like a paper clip to trigger. There should be a little hole somewhere in the vicinity of the drive.

Good luck figuring it out.

*hugs*
- Zeriab

 

[Venetia]

After trying Zeriab's fixes, have you checked the power wires connected to the drives? Perhaps they became loose, or frayed. It also sounds like they're not getting enough juice.

A friend of mine had a similar problem and the root of it was that her power supply had started to fuzz out, it wasn't producing enough power to allow her CD drive to function correctly.

 

[Cruelty]

well, the manual eject with the little pin-hole is the only way i can open it when there's no disc in the drive. when it has a disc in, it opens and closes with no problem, but if it doesn't have a disc it won't open. i checked the wires, and they seem fine. would you still suspect this is just a wire fizzing out? my computer is old (like 7 or 8 years old by now), so this wouldn't surprise me.
thanks for replying. :}

 

[Venetia]

Oh, well optical drives die all the time, sometimes for no apparent reason. I'm impressed they lasted you THAT long! Mine generally only live about 2-5 years :/

 

[Cruelty]

well my drive is less than 2 years old. i'd assume it may be a wire connected to it losing it's will to live. :{
unless anyone has any other explanations, of course.

 

[___]

Usually what will fail in an optical drive is either the plastic gear which rotates to slide out the tray or an elastic band which becomes loose over time and no longer rotates the gear. There's not a lot you can do to fix it, but the good news is the manual release mechanism almost never breaks down so you can keep using that. Just be careful not to pop the drive open when the disc is at a full spin.

Usually when I see a disc drive problem it's the opposite - it won't open with a disc in it, which usually indicates something is reading from the disc. This is a little weirder. Sometimes you'll get a problem like this when a drive is misconfigured, but they don't misconfigure themselves. If you have the drive's IDE priority explicitly set using the pins, try switching them both to cable select, or if they're already cable select try setting them explicitly, that often solves the issue (just make sure you have them set in the right order!).
If that's not the issue your IDE controller driver may be set up wrong, but that would be odd if the behavior started recently and you hadn't been fiddling with anything. CD/DVD drivers are practically universal so it's pretty tough to have them installed wrong, but you can have their settings tweaked improperly.
Besides that your only good bet is that your IDE controller chip on the motherboard is beginning to fail, which can and does happen, and it's not replaceable short of getting a new motherboard.

 

[Juno]

Have you tried disconnecting one drive altogether (and reconfiguring the jumper on the other, if needed), and seeing if the connected one still exhibits the same behavior?

 

[Tohsaka]

It seems like it would be the gear. My brother had a similar problem on his desktop, but the drive stopped reading correctly as well.

I tend to dislike the tray drives with that. Try to get a slot-loader if you can.

 

[skirtboy]

Try gently pushing down on the top of the front bezel of the tray when you push the button. I had this once, and the tray was slightly misaligned, meanint that it caught without the weight of the disc.

 

[neomatrixjc]

How much do you burn or use your cd drive and what make and model is it?