Just a little while ago, out of the blue, my GF and I were watching TV and my CD ROM suddenly slid out for no reason… I pushed it back in, and a few minutes later, it opened again! (scared the hell out of the GF! She’s now convinced that my apartment is possessed by poltergiests… it may be, but that’s beside the point…)
Thinking the driver might have gotten corrupted, I removed the CD ROM drive from control panel/system/device manager, and rebooted to reinstall the CD ROM drive. As I rebooted, the drive opened again! I pushed it shut, and then went back to the TV figuring I’d worry about it later (IE: GF was getting lonely). As we watched TV, the drive opened again! A few seconds later, it closed all by itself… then opened again! And closed. And opened. An closed… over and over about 5 or 6 times…
OK teeming millions, here’s your chance! Anyone got any clues??
I’m running Win98 SE (cursed thing tho it is!), and the only thing I have done recently is to go to start/run and type in “msconfig” (did this after reading an earlier thread)… once the system configuration utility was up, I unchecked some boxes to disable a few things that were loading automatically on boot-up (that was this AM, and after that the comp worked OK all day long… so I’m pretty sure that isn’t the reason.)
In order for it to open, the computer must send it an eject message. You might try unplugging the computer from the wall for a minute & see if that resets the electronics in the cdrom.
Little update: it hasn’t opened again mysteriously since last night (now it is AM here in Korea), and I left the comp on all night (as I usually do, running Seti at home).
I was connected to the net, I am on a LAN line, but I have a firewall that, at the time, was locked… so shouldn’t have been a Trojan (no record in the firewall’s log of an attempt to get into the comp…).
IMHO : The mysterious ‘opening CD tray’ is the first sign of an impending invasion by North Korea. At a specific time, seconds before the actual jump-off, the NK’s send a signal that opens every CD tray on the Southern half of the peninsula. As thousands of US solders get up to slide the CD tray back in …they strike!
Yours was just a test. That is why it is all better know.
An invasion by the North Koreans!?! At first, I laughed… then it started creeping me out! Looks like I’ll be coming home for Christmas a little early this year, Dad!
As an aside, the first month I was here, they held a civil defense drill and no one told me about it! Suddenly, in the middle of the day, all these scary air-raid sirens went off, all of the traffic stopped, people on the streets were heading into basement bomb-shelters… and I was in my apartment trembling under the bed! A couple of F-16’s roared right over my apartment building (sounded like they were only a few feet up, but as I said, I was under the bed soiling myself). Kept thinking “Oh ****! Why did I come here?? Mommy!!!”
If the drive does it again, try unplugging it from the IDE bus. If it keeps doing it, the drive is probably in need of replacement. (The IDE bus carries the -eject cd- command, if it’s disconnected, the only reason it would open would be either it isn’t closing, or it’s defective or… someone is pressing the button.)
It could be a virus. I had a run-in with a PC that did this sort of thing, and the PC was only about 3 weeks old. I’d follow Wonko’s advice and try removing the IDE cable and see what happens. If it continues, then the CD-ROM drive is going bad, but if it stops, then it is definately something software related (Operating system, driver, or virus).
The CD-Rom drive has a lot of mechanical parts, which tend to break down from time to time. Therefore, I think the open/close mechanism is out of alignment. You could fiddle with it and make it work, or spill the $40 to buy a new one. Or the cheap ass approach - duct tape it shut when not changing CDs.
That last post about lotsa mechanical parts out of alignment is most likely the cause. I’d be willing to give 10-1 odds that you have a piece of $%#& Comqrap, since I am currently working on a client’s Compaq which has similar problems. There are LOTS of gears in there that if they get misaligned (maybe by forcing the tray in or out, most likely when the PC is off) the thing will never reliably open or close consistently.
Good luck, you’ll need it. Either that or you can avoid the headache and go buy a new CD-Rom altogether. They’re not that expensive.