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I have a Memorex CD 322 E CDR.
The tray on this drive only rarely opens if the tray is empty. I can hear a slight knock from inside the drive when I push the button, but usually no action. I have to use the access hole to get it open. Once opened, it closes reliably. The drive reads data & music just fine.
The odd thing is, if there is a disc in the tray it opens flawlessly every time. As long as I remember to leave a disc in it will be usable, so no big deal, really.
Still, I'm tempted to open up the drive and have a look. But the few drives I've messed with didn't survive me poking at their innards. They seem to be pretty delicate.
Anyone have a hunch why the door works if the tray has a disc in it but not if it's empty?
You're going to have to take it out, take off it's top cover and take a look - you don't need to and should not remove it's front, or it's bottom cover.
There may be something that has come loose inside, or a piece may have broken off something, and that jams things under certain circumstances. Sometimes the cone or whatever holds down the disk from the top in the center while it's spinning has loosened - I've fixed a couple of those by gluing them in the proper position with 5 minute epoxy.
Some drives have a rubber belt that deteriorates with age and/or use and then slips under certain circumstances - you may only be able to see it when the cover is off and the tray is ejected - sometimes a common suitably sized rubber band fixes that.
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Or for $19.99 with free shipping you can buy a DVD burner and toss the old CDR. Look at the link below.
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I have the exact same problem on a 16x DVD burner. I removed it, opened it up & had a look...it appears that what Tubes said about the belt slipping is the likely cause.
"If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction
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I gotta say, that $19.99 DVD/CD burner deal looks pretty tempting...
My experience is admittedly limited, but I don't understand how a loose belt would cause the drive to malfunction only when the tray was empty.
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The weight of the disk may come into play somehow. If the drive is a CDR only it has to be old. The lasers only last so long.
That $19.99 deal ends today as it is a cyber Monday deal. Below is a link to their homepage with the Cyber Monday deals.
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From what I could tell, the "cone" that supports the disc from the underside has a powerful magnet that locks on to a top circular pad. The pad is metal with a nylon covering. I assume that the motor can't separate the two becuase of the slipping belt. The weight of the CD/DVD disc plus the thickness of the disc apparently allows just enough "weaking" of the magnetic pull to allow the motor to separate the 2 pieces & open the drawer.
"If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction
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Apparently, sometimes you don't need to remove the drive and it's top cover - I just took a look at two of my optical drives with the tray extended - a 1999 LG CDrom and a recent Sony DVD combo drive.
With good lighting you can easily see and get at the rubber belt on both.
Do you have any rubber bands of various sizes handy?
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In all likelyhood the belt idea would be consistant with or without a disk in the drive. When a blank disk is in the drive can you write to it? I ask because if the drive controller is having trouble accepting that it can't recognize a disk if one is not in the tray then successfull writes might indicate this as a possible problem. You may want to try this link for diagnosing CD/DVD/CD-RW drives.
John W. Borelli
IT Specialist
OmniIT
borelli35
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Thanks to everyone for their input... you've a great place for getting help and info here.
Here is some more weirdness with the drive. I had the PC lying on its side during all the time I was having the problem with the door not opening. When the tinkering was done and I finally stood the PC up, I found that the tray opens reliably in that position every time, empty or loaded!
I'm starting to buy into the loose belt theory. I did take a peek inside and it does look like I probably could replace the belt with an appropriately sized rubber band, but I haven't tried doing that yet since it's been working good since I stopped messing with things (lol).
I'll try the rubber band trick and see if it makes a difference and report back in a day or two.
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Thanks for the update.
In theory desktop optical drives are supposed to be able to be used reliably up to 90 degrees either way from them being horizontal and upright, but in practice, especially as they get older, they often don't.
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