DVD-Ram drive won't close 1

[electricpete]

Hello teksperts!

I have a new laptop Toshiba Satellite A105-S2201 with Windows XP.

Worked fine for a few weeks. I burned a few DVD's and CD's along the way.

Then at one point I ejected a CD and have never gotten that DVD drawer to close again.

I feel the resistance as I push in. If I push it in all the way, the light goes on and the computer can read the CD normally as long as I hold the drawer in. The moment I release it, the drawer pops back out and cd spins down. Same result when inserting without cd or dvd... the light comes on indicating it sees the drawer in, but drawer pops out when I release pressure.

I tried rebooting a few times. I fiddled a little with my cd/DVD settings including turning off the "eject when finished writing" feature. No results.

I did take a look at FAQ's and searched previous threads. Did find 3 threads with similar symptoms for DVD's.
thread602-756528
thread602-426278
thread602-158281

I didn't see a lot encouraging in there.

Two things I haven't tried yet:

1 - going into setup mode during reboot... not sure how to do that.

2 - disassemble unplug cd/dvd connector from laptop and replug the dvd. I haven't tried that yet... a little wary of tearing into my new laptop but I guess that's the next step.

Any other suggestions?

 

[ski]

Sounds like the drive's closing mechanism is toast.

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

I think you have 2 options, replace the drive or use duct tape!!

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!

 

[Vector13]

I had a similar problem once with a Toshiba Sattelite 440CDT (that was an old model). The CD-ROM drive sometimes just wouldn't shut. It usually took me a good 10 minutes fiddeling with the drive. I had to wiggle it just right and put just the right amount of pressure on it to close. It was a pretty touchy thing. Sometimes I had to leave it sit for a while (off, of course) and then when I turned it on it sometimes took the first try.
I'm kind of a laptop drive slammer which isn't probably a good thing. If you really don't want to mess with it that way though, I'd second Johnthephoneguy's post and get a new drive.

 

[electricpete]

Thanks to everyone for your inputs.

When I wrote this question, I kept the laptop at my desk always plugged in. It was turned off everynight but remained plugged in. Then I unplugged it for a long period of time and after that the CD rom drive worked great.

On this particular question for my particular laptop, Vector nailed it.

Thx again to all.