Solved Disk Drive Not opening?

Long story short, my disk drive doesn't open when i press the button sometimes. It makes a clicking sound like its trying to open but something is in the way, but i know that's not the case because i just went through testing the contents of about 600 CD's.

I have checked all the connections and everything is secure.

I am positive that there is nothing blocking it inside or out

It seems to open more when i go to My Computer/E-Drive/Eject.

Any advice?

First, a small trick. If a disk drive doesn't open automatically, get a paperclip and on the drive door you'll find a tiny hole (about the size of the paperclip tip). Insert the paperclip and push a bit and it should open the drive enough for you to manually pull it the rest of the way.

I can't think of anything with Vista that would cause that, so I'm inclined to think either there's a problem with the drive (some sort of internal hardware problem that most likely is cheaper to replace the drive than try to repair) or with the drivers for the drive. Let's check out the drivers.

Go to Device Manager by going to start / search box and type device manager and enter and then double-click on the program icon that appears. Check each device for a red x, yellow ! or white ?. These identify devices with problems (probably drivers, but also conflicts or something else). Click on each for further details and troubleshooting tips. If you need to get drivers (and you should get drivers, firmware and/or software for the disk drive at least and any others you have time to do - they may help in ways beyond just resolving this problem), do so from the computer vendor or device manufacturer (NOT from Microsoft Updates). Proceed as follows to get the drivers: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driverssupport/ht/driverdlmfgr.htm. Once you have the drivers, you can install them through Device Manager as follows: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/193584-device-manager-install-driver.html.

Then reboot and see if that helps.

If that doesn't work, try a clean boot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135. If the problem goes away then it's just a matter of tracking down the culprit causing the problem. Follow the procedures in the article. Once found, delete, remove, deactivate, or uninstall it. Once done be sure to reset Vista back to normal status as explained in the procedures. If the problem occurs in clean mode then just restore the system to normal status and reboot - this solution is not going to work.

Boot into Safe mode with networking and see if the problem occurs there. Either result helps us narrow down the search for the cause.

If none of that worked, I'm afraid that the most likely cause is some internal hardware problem with the drive and it needs to be either serviced or replaced. If you have another drive on another computer, try swapping them and see if the problem stays with the computer or moves with the drive. That should confirm the source of the problem. If it turns out to be the computer (and that will surprise me greatly if the above didn't work), post back and we'll try some other options to track down the cause and resolve it.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Lorien said:

First, a small trick. If a disk drive doesn't open automatically, get a paperclip and on the drive door you'll find a tiny hole (about the size of the paperclip tip). Insert the paperclip and push a bit and it should open the drive enough for you to manually pull it the rest of the way.

Well, i have done this before, it works fine no doubt, but its kind of obnoxious trying to find a paperclip every time i want to open the drive door. That and it works just fine intermittently.

I can't think of anything with Vista that would cause that, so I'm inclined to think either there's a problem with the drive (some sort of internal hardware problem that most likely is cheaper to replace the drive than try to repair) or with the drivers for the drive. Let's check out the drivers.

Go to Device Manager by going to start / search box and type device manager and enter and then double-click on the program icon that appears. Check each device for a red x, yellow ! or white ?. These identify devices with problems (probably drivers, but also conflicts or something else). Click on each for further details and troubleshooting tips. If you need to get drivers (and you should get drivers, firmware and/or software for the disk drive at least and any others you have time to do - they may help in ways beyond just resolving this problem), do so from the computer vendor or device manufacturer (NOT from Microsoft Updates). Proceed as follows to get the drivers: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driverssupport/ht/driverdlmfgr.htm. Once you have the drivers, you can install them through Device Manager as follows: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/193584-device-manager-install-driver.html.

Then reboot and see if that helps.

Well i checked my Drivers and everything is up to date, the only thing i have is an Exclamation point on my Ethernet thing..

If that doesn't work, try a clean boot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135. If the problem goes away then it's just a matter of tracking down the culprit causing the problem. Follow the procedures in the article. Once found, delete, remove, deactivate, or uninstall it. Once done be sure to reset Vista back to normal status as explained in the procedures. If the problem occurs in clean mode then just restore the system to normal status and reboot - this solution is not going to work.

Boot into Safe mode with networking and see if the problem occurs there. Either result helps us narrow down the search for the cause.

If none of that worked, I'm afraid that the most likely cause is some internal hardware problem with the drive and it needs to be either serviced or replaced. If you have another drive on another computer, try swapping them and see if the problem stays with the computer or moves with the drive. That should confirm the source of the problem. If it turns out to be the computer (and that will surprise me greatly if the above didn't work), post back and we'll try some other options to track down the cause and resolve it.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Bout to try the reboot things and see if that works. Will update post soon with further info as it develops.

Thanks for the update.

Good luck with the clean boot and safe mode options - I hope they come up with something helpful.

Even if the drivers are up-to-date and even if Device Manager says they are functioning properly, it is still possible for a small bit of corruption to get in - not enough for device manager to detect but enough to cause this small problem with the drive. I suggest you try downloading and installing replacements just to be able to positively rule that out as the cause.

Then swapping drives would help if it can be done - that would be the best test and almost positive proof of where the problem lies.

Thanks again and good luck!

Well, unfortunately it appears that this is a hardware problem. I should say that i am not surprised, but the drive is only about 3 years old, granted it was opened 70+ Times a day, every day for about 26 months lol.

I will continue to work with this drive for awhile, since its effing gangster/ghetto lol.

Update: Alright, so i was trying to open the drive, as per usual, but it refused to open again, so i admittedly kinda spam pushed the button and ejected it from the My Computer screen. I've done this before, but it actually gave me an error this time. "An Error occured while ejecting 'DVD RW Drive (E.'

And yeah Occurred is spelled wrong in the error message.

Update 2: I went into event viewer (Finally getting the hang of this stuff lol) and i found 'The driver detected a controller error on \Device\CdRom0.'

Does this point to a Hardware error because the driver itself detected the error? Or was it an error of the Driver?

I'm sorry to hear that, but at least you know the issue and can deal with it whenever you choose to do so. It's rare that I open mine more than 2-3 times a week if that (I just tested to make sure it worked - LOL!). If I used it as much as you do I don't know if I could live with that problem for long, but that's of course entirely up to you.

Thanks for the update and letting us know how it turned out.

If you consider the issue resolved (even if it isn't solved - it is identified and the solution is apparent), don't forget to close out the thread by clicking the far right triangular icon at the top of your post and typing "solved" in the box and submitting it. The moderators will notice and put a green check next to the thread title. That way others seeking answers by searching the forums will know that this thread contains a solution to the issue identified in the title - and people seeking to help will not waste time checking out this thread since it has been resolved.

Good luck and best wishes!

Well, i may not have been able to find ANY drivers for my CD-rom, but i at least got my Ethernet working again lol.

It sounds to me like the driver detected a hardware error (but I'm not 100% certain - but very close to it).

What is the manufacturer, make, and model (everything it says) of your DVD/RW? Maybe I'll have better luck - even if I honestly don't think it's a driver issue but is the drive itself. But I can try and if found, we can at least rule that out and be all the more sure it really is a hardware problem. Of course, testing it on another computer is the simplest way to confirm this, but in the meantime, if you provide that info, I'll give it a shot.

Thanks!

Its an ATAPI DVD W DH16W1P ATA Device

Unless its the one that says YXS GX6RO9M7S9YN SCSI CdRom Device But i think that one might be my Damon tools.

I've just spent almost 45 minutes looking and all I could find were companies that want you to download their driver finding software to search for drivers and some even insist they can provide drivers for that specific device, but I can't bring myself to trust any of them enough to post links to them. If you input ATAPI DVD W DH16W1P ATA Device in Bing you'll find what I mean, if you want to chance it but I wouldn't. I give up. I too can't find them anywhere I feel is safe to use

Sorry, and good luck! I'd find someone you know with a desktop computer who's willing to let you swap drives to test if it's the hardware (or just live with the problem or buy another DVD/RW device).

Take care!

Well, i was told that the Atapi Dvd w drive thing is a Microsoft device. You can uninstall the drivers, scan for changes and it reinstalls them, i learned this after a good few hours of searching