My sister-in-law is having a problem with her computer. As soon as the power is turned on, the CD drive opens up and will not stay closed when you try to close it. I am a programmer and so everyone assumes I will be able to fix computer hardware (and some I can) but I have no idea if this is something that can be easily fixed. I am assuming that it is a sensor in the drive itself that is causing the problem, but that is just a guess. Any help would be appreciated.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
If you try pressing the button a whole lot, does it close and then reopen?
Does it make any difference whether or not there is a disc in the drive?
If I press and hold the button on mine it cycles back and forth between closed and open. Assuming her hardware works the same way, it would NOT be a problem with the button switch staying pressed.
Yet it opens as soon as she turns it on and it stays open.
Is this a brand new computer that's been doing this from the very start? Or did it just start happening one day and if so what happened right before that in terms of software or system updates or installation of new programs or anything of that sort?
If the limit switch telling the system the tray is fully out weren't making, it might stay out forever once you opened it, but that wouldn't cause it to spontaneously open as soon as the computer turned on. Hmmm, not unless the "request to open" state was something that survived a reboot somehow.
Interesting puzzle. I'll ask my baby brother. He knows everything.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Mikie says sounds like hardware. The motor transistors could be burned out making the little motor always be on in the "open" direction. Buy a new CD rom drive and replace it. That should fix it.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
Thanks for the replies. I'll look into the questions you have here. I think that it probably is a hardware thing and replacing the drive will probably be the best solution. I just know that is something they can't afford right now so I was hoping I could fix it. I have a couple of old drives (4x and 8x) that work, so I could try putting one of those in for them to see if that would work.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Yeah, give that a try. When things behave oddly, my general purpose algorithm is to play around with them in every imaginable way (hence the disc/no disc questions), hitting all the buttons, holding them down, trying software vs. hardware opening and closing commands, etc. You're trying to get enough hints about what's actually going on that you can figure it out.
Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
Did you try duct tape? I hope you didn't ask this question without trying duct tape first.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
That's true! Duct tape fixes everything!
Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :