At 08:37 AM 1/30/2001 Carlene Newton wrote:
>
>The cd tray was stuck and my husband forced it open to get the cd out now
>it won't close. Please tell me what to do to get it to close. When it was
>in he said a blue box came up and said it may need cleaned. It it ruined?
>

The CD tray usually has track (on the bottom or sides) which is driven by a
motor driven set of gears.

The gear(s) may have jumped the track, lost a tooth, bent an axle, become
misaligned, slipped or fallen off.... You get the picture. Better CDROM
drives might be fixed (but may not have broken in the first place). Cheaper
ones may be permanently damaged.

As replacement IDE CDROM drives are cheap ($20-50), you might as well try
the repair yourself.

With the power off, try the emergency release (pin) as Mark Rode advised
and extend the tray outward. Carefully (and slowly) move the tray in and
out to see if there are any obstructions. Hopefully, you will feel the
inertia of the gears moving with the tray, or are able to re-engage the
track onto the gears.

Then, power up the system and try the tray open/close button. The tray may
retract on its own and realign itself, track on gear. A nudge on the tray
might help put the tray back on gear.  [Note: Users should not push on the
tray to load CDs; this may wear and stress the gears. Instead, use the
open/close button.]

If that doesn't work, you could remove the CDROM drive from the case and
disassemble the drive and try to restore the tracking. There are numerous
drive designs, with many flimsy plastic gears, like a child's toy. Unless
you are mechanically adept and the drive is well-built, chances are you
won't be able to fix it. Also, replacement parts are hard to come by and
probably expensive.

You may have had a failing transport system in the first place, which is
why your husband had the problem removing the CD. Also, your laser seems to
be having a read problem. Replacement may be your best recourse.

If the drive is expensive, a SCSI, DVD, writer, or under warranty, take it
in for servicing.

Good luck.

John Chin

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