Cdrom Opens & Closes Opens & Closes!

Hi...I am running windows 98SE on a compac presario5352.....My cdrom drawer takes spells of opening and closing at random....when it chooses to stop it wants to remain "open "!! Everything seems to work fine. most of the time it will begin this behavior after being used, but can do it just out of the blue also......sometimes if I reboot, it behaves for a few days....then the whole thing starts again. I am thinking there is probably a pattern to these episodes but have not been able to figure it out yet? (too many openings and closings!) it will do this even while a cd is in the drawer.....it does NOT do it while I am reading the cd, or playing a music cd.
can someone please tell me how to remedy this problem!
thanks!
katy

 

I had a CD drive that started doing the same thing exactly as you describe.

It finally stopped working completely so the only cure I found was to replace it.

There is some "prank" software out there that will cause a CD drive to open and close randomly. The one I'm familiar with uses "open_CD.exe" so poke around on your computer to see if that files exists. Read about it on this page.

 

Burning software has the ability to automatically open and close drives. I would do an "over the top" reinstall of any burning software (if you happen to have any old burning software from a previous burner, uninstall it).

Matt

 

I have a cd burning drive that I installed myself...(besides my cdrom drive) It's been part of my system for several years now and this opening and closing business just started a few weeks ago. I think I see a pattern in that after rebooting, the drive sits quietly....but once I have used it, then it may do the random opening closing thing? I guess I can redo the software for the burner drive??
as long as it sits here quietly, I probably won't do anything LOL will take another session of acting up to get me motivated!
thanks
LKM
oh and I did a search for that file....it isn't on my computer.....thanks for the information

 

I have found that a problem rarely fixes itself (although I have seen Windows appear to learn and correct some problems). If I have the software and driver installation programs available, problems no longer worry me. I have my data backed up, so I could reinstall from scratch if necessary.

A reinstall "over the top" of the program (as opposed to uninstall and reinstall) should have little or no major effects, apart from maybe fixing the problem.

Caveat: about the only time I have reformatted Windows to correct a problem is in a battle with the burning software .

Matt