DVD Drive Mechanical Problem?

[mar122999]

One of my customers called in about his DVD Drive. He said that when he puts a DVD or CD into the drive and presses the close button, the DVD drive will close, but when it finally closes, it automatically opens back up. Sounds to me like a mechanical problem. I just recently sold him the PC and it was working great. What type of action do you think that I need to take? Is it fixable by opening the drive up and looking at the gears inside? Thanks!

[Bovon]

I have been into a few CD drives to attempt a trouble shoot or lube the moving parts etc., and this would make me think that the drawer is not closing properly with a CD in it. If it closes and remains closed without a CD in the tray, then the placement of a CD in the tray is possibly causing the drive to not recognize the tray is closed and locked..which must happen before the mechanism that grabs and holds the CD while it is spun up to speed.

It may be a product flaw if the drive is new, if this is correct and an RMA can be obtained, that would probably be best.

A CD drive is not too easy to get into (and reassemble) and there is little to do once inside other than blow any dust bunnies out and very lightly lube the drive gears and rails the laser slides on. There is a cross bar locking mechanism that is driven home when the tray makes its final 1/4th inch or so closing.. this locking bar also controls the position of the laser head...which is lowered out of the way when the tray is opened, and brought back up into the read position when the tray is closed.

[RedFury]

I agree with Bovon. Either the drive is defective, or there is something about having a disc in it that tells the drive to open again ( such as something binding, etc ). I've pulled apart a couple of drives also and the ones with trays have like a limit switch that tells the drive that the tray is closed all the way and to lock down the CD on the spindle. You may want to pull the drive cover off, and test it with a CD/DVD and see what happens. Sometimes you can hear a click and find the source of aggravation.