new DVDRW drive, lights up, shows up in windows, door wont open though

is it just bad? I push the button, light flashes, doesnt do anything. tried ejecting through explorer, same thing. it registers fine, just doesnt open. could it be a jumper setting? Id think it would effect bios detecting it, not just it opening.

Use a paperclip to jump the power supply (http://aphnetworks.com/tutorials/psu_paperclip_trick) with the drive hooked up and try to open the tray. If it doesn't, then it's bad.

It's possible although unlikely that one of the side screws, unless you have tool-less bays of course, is in too far and is keeping the drive from opening. I thought my cd-rw was toast when I rebuilt my case and it wouldn't open (but showed up in XP and bios), but I took one of the screws out partially and it worked fine at that point.

If grumperfish's suggestion doesn't fix it, look over the drive's exterior and see if it has a screw being used as a transport lock (I haven't seen one in a while, but it's possible). If it doesn't have a transport lock, try manually ejecting the tray with a paperclip in the little hole in the front of the drive put there for that purpose. If it won't eject the tray manually it's toast--something inside is really jammed. One other thing, make sure that the faceplate isn't being "pinched" and that the button on the exterior is actually contacting the actuator on the inside. That's about all I can think of right now. Good luck.

yep, the drive opens fine, toolless bay, and the paperclip ejects it. but no dice. even when I stick a cd in and close it manually, doesnt load.

a cd doesn't load?? hmmmm.... so it opens ok, recognizes in Windblows ok, but doesn't read CD's?? sounds like it might be a bad lazer..