I have been trying to figure this out for weeks, my cd drive when either pushing the button or clicking eject from drive, kept sticking like it was broken yet sometimes it would open (note nothing wrong with the reading or writing of the drive) well then my DVD RW drive started doing the same thing just not as much, I sprayed WD-40 on my finger then ran it along side the tray (not inside where the disk goes) put it on both sides and BAM it works just like new, I kept getting errors in my events about it so wanted to post this for anyone else that may be having the same problem. (I just barley put it on the drive tray.)

That will work for awhile but petroleum jelly works a little better.

What ever works I will try that next if this problem starts again. But really wanted everyone to know just in case they have this problem, it was real irritating.

All the help the better.

The real cause is probably the rubber drive belt slipping on the pulleys inside. Most drives have a small rubber drive belt which can just about be seen when the drawer is open (some use cogs though).
Lubricating the drawer probably helps compensate for the rubber belt problem. When they have this problem it is more noticable when the drive is empty as the magnetic bits that hold the centre of CD in place need more force to separate them. When a disc is in there less force is needed as the disc is holding the magnets further apart.(the disc being between the two metal parts).
A workaround is the whack the top of the pc tower above the cd drive hard a split secong after pressing the eject button. But it's not really that good an idea in case the shock also affects the hard drive.So I would not reccommend it, but it does work.

Has anybody ever had a CD or DVD build up some kind of adhesive residue on the disk itself? I guess I'm going to have to take my drive apart to find out what is going on. For the longest time I was battling with a drive that did not want to open its door, and only when subjected to irrational use of force would it open. I just now noticed that the DVD has a gum like ring of adhesive about 2.75 cm diameter right around the center. The ring itself is a little less than .5 cm thick. Obviously it's from the drive itself, maybe the pad needs replacement. Any thoughts? Bummer.

Time to trash it. Drives are cheap. Look at Newegg.com if you are in the USA.