CD-ROM drives stay open

Sounds like NEC is selling a decent cup holder. :)

This might sound stupid but If nothing else you could write a program that its purpose is to close the CD Rom tray. You could schedule it to run with windows scheduler at a certain time to close the CD Roms.

Here's the entire program in VB6:

Private Declare Function mciSendString Lib "winmm.dll" Alias "mciSendStringA" (ByVal _
lpstrCommand As String, ByVal lpstrReturnString As String, ByVal uReturnLength As Long, ByVal _
hWndCallback As Long) As Long

Private Sub Main()
  Dim Dummy As String
 
  Dummy = vbmciSendString("set cdaudio door closed ", 0)
End Sub

Function vbmciSendString(ByVal Command As String, ByVal hWnd As Long) As String
    Dim Buffer As String
    Dim dwRet As Long
    Buffer = Space$(100) ' Create a buffer
    dwRet = mciSendString(Command, ByVal Buffer, Len(Buffer), hWnd)
    vbmciSendString = Buffer
End Function

On a more serious note, have you tried a different brand of a CD-Rom drive? Did you receive all of these NECs at the same time? I'm wondering if you could have received a faulty batch of NEC drives. It's definitely an odd one.

Try a different brand to see if maybe it was a controller or cable problem (if it does it to the different brand drive?)
Or you can simply change out the IDE Cable (they are ide right?)

You can also try them in another machine?  

Scan for viruses?

Make sure the jumper settings are correct....Master/slave?
If they are indeed IDE, and if they are on their own separate chain, try slaving them to the HDD?  

Does this happen the moment you turn the machine on?  If not...
goto www.bootdisk.com
dowload a win98 bootdisk w/cdrom support
and boot off the win98 bootdisk and see if the problem persists in a dosbased OS?

If your drive doesn't open untill you get into your OS, it is possible it is a virus...

Give us a bit more information... and let us know what you've tried on my list...

i Just noticed and reread your question and you say upon boot.....boot of the OS?  or when you say boot, (turnning on the machine?)  or .......where/when does it exactly open up?

thanks...

It does sound like a virus.  Check at http://security.symantec.com and also at http://housecall.antivirus.com

Try a driver/firmware update.  That might fix the problem.

it's definately a virus!

i had a virus that kept pooping out my CD drives, so that you couldnt use it to install norton from CD i guess.
If it does that before windows starts, then it's a device error.

just curious, why do you have 15 CD-rom drives? and how do you manage to plug them all in?

i just want my batch of cd-rom drives to work... haha... whoever finds the solution gets a cdrom drive!  i have another sony cd-rom drive in the computer which works great.  i didn't buy the NEC'S- i picked it up at my school where they were sitting around for free.  i wanted to update the firmware, but i can't find any documentation for the model, which is NEC CDR-3001A, manufactured in 1999.  it ejects as soon as the computer boots up.  windows xp detects it just fine.  

yea, it's definitely not a virus... i have norton installed and it's up to date...

it shouldn't be the IDE cable... i'm using it as a slave to another CD-ROM drive, and i've also tried it as a slave to a hard drive on the other IDE bus

Maybe they were lying around school for a reason.

i have a feeling they will read if they stayed closed.  and yea, i agree... i think they were lying around school for a reason!

Stand by my comments on the bad drives.