cd-rom continuously opens

Is the eject button stuck down? Is there something in the back of the drive that is obstructing its path? Does it work properly in another machine? I one had a pc that would open the cd drive when I booted to Linux, but worked fine in Win2000!

At what point in the boot sequence does the tray open?

If it stays closed until Windows is most of the way loaded, your system may have a virus or "prank-ware" installed on it.

Run your virus scanner and AdAware or SpyBot.

If the tray starts opening and closing as soon as power is applied, you either have a bad drive, or a hardware conflict.

Check for a bad drive.

Shut down and disconnect the IDE cable. Leave the power cable connected.

Also, remove the screws securing the drive into the case.

Power back up. If the drive still opens and closes the tray is not getting in far enough to activate the tray home switch, or the switch is bad.

If the tray will now stay closed, start by putting the screws back in and see if the tray still opens and closes properly.

Still good?

Shut down and connect the IDE cable back up.

Make sure that the drive jumpers are correct for both the CD drive and any other drive connected to the same IDE channel. If you are using a cable select style cable, the drive MUST be set to either cable select, or the channel you are connecting it to.

Chas

Another thing that I've seen with Optical Drives is the Open/Close Switch broken and constantly making contact so that the draw continues to Open & Close.

If you are handy with a soldering Iron and have an Electronics one you can replace the switch but most times it's just cheaper to replace the drive in question.

Col

Sounds like dust bunnies!

If anything is stopping it from closing all the way, it will spit it back out.

Try blowing it out real good. Might have to take apart.

Cheaper and easier to just drop a new one in.