Question

CD-Rom tray does not open

Asked by: mgroyal

Hi,

After I came home from my holiday I recognized that my computer and voip-box were damaged. Obvisouly, there was overvoltage or another electrical issue, which caused damaged. For the computer I had to replace the power supply. Now my computer is working, only my 2 CD-Roms don't wanna open its trays. So I bought a new CD-Rom, because I thought that they are also damaged. Unfortunately my new CD-Rom doesn't work too, which is really strange. So I bought a new IDE-cable without success. Then I changed the IDE cable sockets to make sure that none of the suckets are damaged. But the Harddisks were still working and the CD-Rom didn't want to open the tray.

As you can see I changed and tried almost everything, but the CD-Rom tray just dont wanna open. Therefore my question, is it possible that my motherboard is damaged that no CD-Roms are working anymore. Or, do you have another idea what could be wrong? Because of my incident, probably a person with electricity knowledge would be very useful.

Thanks for you help!
Rgds royal

PS: Of course, the CD-Rom is under power and the LED is blinking sometimes

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2007-01-24 at 10:31:35ID22135212
Tags

cd

,

open

,

rom

,

does

,

tray

Topic

General Computer Systems

Participating Experts
3
Points
200
Comments
15

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. LED Device lights
    This question is probably aimed more at electronics gurus. I have a server case at home that I want to use all of its features, especially the led lights. The server case has 6 individual led lights for different devices. Currently, device 1 is my first IDE Hard drive. This f...
  2. HDD LED  of motherboard
    I have 430VX pentum board. It has onboard HDD led for IDE drive But the LED works only for the primary HDD. Id there any way to make it work for all other drives
  3. Possible electrical problem
    Can anyone explain the cause of the following problem: I have just obtained a rebuilt Compaq 5000 series computer that now has Windows ME as the OS, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, CD rom drive, CD-RW drive, 56k modem, plus sound and video cards. The internal clock runs slow (...
  4. cdrw tray cycling
    this problem happened with my last cdrw in win98. now i am usina a philips cdrw800 on win2000. the problem being is that the cd tray open then shuts then opens...etc on and on the only way i have found to stop it is to pull the ...
  5. Fourth motherboard
    I have gone through three TUV4X motherborads in the last four months. The computer works for about a month and then will not start up. The cpu fan comes on as well as the Green LED but that is it. The last time this happened I noticed that the IDE connections are also fried...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: CallandorPosted on 2007-01-24 at 10:48:45ID: 18388639

A power supply that fails can damage anything that is connected to it, including optical drives and motherboard.  Test out the drive itself: does it eject with the button?  Does the drive work in another PC?  If the drive itself is fine when connected to another system, it is very likely the motherboard controller has a problem.

 

by: mgroyalPosted on 2007-01-24 at 11:29:45ID: 18389055

I tried to attach 2 new cd-roms, so the cd-roms are ok. As mentioned, the tray does not eject, when I press the physical button nor when try to eject it with the explorer. the strange thing is, that the motherboard works for everthing else. Both IDE sockets working with my 2 harddisk but both sockets do not work for the cd-roms.

Actually I have already experienced a broken motherboard, and then it was not possible boot up the pc. is the maybe something on the motherboard, which is exclusively responsible for optical drive or so?

 

by: mgroyalPosted on 2007-01-24 at 11:32:22ID: 18389083

jumper are also setted properly and cd-rom is recognized in the bios. what else could be wrong??

 

by: CallandorPosted on 2007-01-24 at 11:47:44ID: 18389261

If the drives work fine on other machines, you have narrowed it down to this machine.  The button works independently of the OS, so it isn't a software problem.  That leaves the cables, jumpers and IDE controller; you have already checked the jumpers and cables, so that leaves the motherboard.

 

by: mgroyalPosted on 2007-01-24 at 12:07:41ID: 18389497

this was also my first logical conclusion, but why it's only my cd-rom, which isn't working? (hope you understand that I really don't wanna replace my mb without being 100% sure)

 

by: CallandorPosted on 2007-01-24 at 12:54:22ID: 18389933

Most problems with PCs will not get any more sure than this, especially if it involves the motherboard.  The process of elimination of other causes is thorough enough that I would say it is the motherboard with confidence, and there's no test for the motherboard to refine it any further than this.  You could take it to a repair shop and I am sure they will conclude the same thing; the only difference is that they will charge you a lot of money for the same words.

 

by: mprssjprPosted on 2007-01-24 at 14:09:05ID: 18390732

The button on a CD Rom drive should open the drawer with only the molex power connector in - no IDE cable necessary.

If this problem occurred when you replaced your power supply, my guess is that the fault is with the power supply.

 

by: mgroyalPosted on 2007-01-24 at 22:51:25ID: 18393611

mprssjpr, that sounds very interesting and could really make sense (haven't thought about that possibility). However, the CD-Rom receives power from the support supply, so what could the be wrong with it?

 

by: nobusPosted on 2007-01-25 at 02:09:19ID: 18394197

as said, try with only the power connected (no ide) - then try to open it with a paperclip in the front hole.
You can also try to run from a live knoppix cd, to test the drives (if you can get a cd in)
are the cd drives seen in windows? and do they show in the BIOS ?

 

by: mgroyalPosted on 2007-01-25 at 06:17:12ID: 18395367

yes... cd-rom is dected in in the bios as well in windows. so, if I just connect the CD-Rom to the power supply and the tray does not open, I could say the power supply is damaged?

 

by: nobusPosted on 2007-01-25 at 08:23:26ID: 18396708

>>   I could say the power supply is damaged?  <<  i would suppose 1 out of 2 : power supply, or cd drive. If the rest of your PC works, it clearly is NOT the power supply, but the cd drive.
A possible cause could be a bad power connector (try another) to the cd drive.

 

by: mgroyalPosted on 2007-01-25 at 14:33:21ID: 18400043

nobus, i already attached my 2 old cd-roms as well as 2 new cd-rom... this should be defintely enough to say that the cd-rom isn't a real concern.

 

by: mgroyalPosted on 2007-01-25 at 14:37:13ID: 18400090

but i am going to try that with the new power supply, just to make sure... this will take some time form my side. thanks for this thought, it gives me at least a little hope

 

by: nobusPosted on 2007-01-26 at 00:40:48ID: 18402743

if your disk drives run ok, use their power connector, and try the power connectors from the cd drives on the disks.
you can also swap the ide connectors : connect the disks to IDE1, and cd drives to IDE0

 

by: mgroyalPosted on 2007-01-26 at 09:38:40ID: 18405915

A pin of the power supply cable is damaged, and therefore the CD-tray does not eject!

Thanks for your help! Highly appreciated!
Royal

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...