Please help....CDROM drive is locked (physically)

[Ge|atinousFury]

Well I was stealthing my 2nd CDROM drive for my Lian-Li PC60 and I thought that everything had went as planned until I fired up the pc. I pushed the button to open the drive and the tray opened about 3/4 of an inch then went back in. I know it's hitting something in there because I can hear it catch. When it catches it makes a clanking sound. I took the drive out and I can't seem to break it free from whatever it's catching on. I was wondering if anybody here has had this problem and knows how to fix it. If not it looks like I'm about to take the cover off of this and dive right in...

[tweakerxp]

Unfortunately it sounds like you're going to have to open that sucker up if you ask me :(

[Kendan]

Look for a little hole on the front of the drive. If there is one stick a paperclip in it and it should open the drive. You should try that before you open the sucker up;)

[Ge|atinousFury]

Well, I've been trying to fix it for a while now and I thought I had everything working. I had to literally tear the drive down to the bare components but it turns out some of the gears weren't meshing right. A large physical force on my part forced the gears back into meshing.

Another problem now....I hooked the drive up and when I press the eject button the tray opens fully, then goes back in after about 2 seconds every time. I can't get it to stay out.

[Ge|atinousFury]

Kendan, I tried that but it still wouldn't open. It had me puzzled too until I opened it up. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[DeathONator]

Someone gave me an old drive that did the exact opposite. When you power up, it opens. When you close it, it just opens back up after 2 seconds. If you figure it out lemme know :).

[Ge|atinousFury]

Originally posted by DeathONator
Someone gave me an old drive that did the exact opposite. When you power up, it opens. When you close it, it just opens back up after 2 seconds. If you figure it out lemme know :).

Wow, that's weird. I'll do some investigating and see if I can come up with a solution.

I just got into WinXP for the first time with it, not knowing if it would work. I put my WinXP cd in (during the 2 second open interval lol) and it autoran with no problem whatsoever. Guess I'll put the stealth plate back on it and live with it.

[TCnet]

Another problem now....I hooked the drive up and when I press the eject button the tray opens fully, then goes back in after about 2 seconds every time. I can't get it to stay out.

I have 2 old DVD drives that do that too, used to have to catch the drive when it was open and physically hold it so I could put the CD in, never did figure out what was wrong with them. Just ended up buying new ones.

[Barn_Angel]

they will do that because of a damaged mechanism. in theroey when the drive is all the way out, it will stop trying to push it out more....but if it continues to try, it will get stopped because the tray cant come out any more. in that case, it will re-close the tray.

try opening it with something infront of it (kins like when it catches) it will open, hit, wait, close. wouldnt know how to fix it, though.

[Wathnix]

The problem is that the mechanism has jumped a tooth or two on the gears which does not allow the limit switch to work properly, unfortunately the only solution is to take it apart again and keep realigning the teeth and testing it to see if it work, may take several tries, I suggest you mark the current alignment with a marker first

[Barn_Angel]

sounds about right to me. i've only worked on 3 cdroms, and i was removin gthe internals anyway.

[I.M.O.G.]

Originally posted by Wathnix
The problem is that the mechanism has jumped a tooth or two on the gears which does not allow the limit switch to work properly, unfortunately the only solution is to take it apart again and keep realigning the teeth and testing it to see if it work, may take several tries, I suggest you mark the current alignment with a marker first

Nice advice. Always helps to learn something about fixing CD/DVD drives given their reliability, or lack thereof. A belated welcome to the forums to you! :)

[Ge|atinousFury]

Originally posted by Wathnix
The problem is that the mechanism has jumped a tooth or two on the gears which does not allow the limit switch to work properly, unfortunately the only solution is to take it apart again and keep realigning the teeth and testing it to see if it work, may take several tries, I suggest you mark the current alignment with a marker first

Thanks for the info Wathnix. Since the delay isn't impossible to live with I think I'll keep using it like this and save the tearing down and realigning for a rainy day. Good to know that it can be corrected, though.