The other day all the sudden my plextor 24/10/40a cd-rw drive WOULD NOT open. I stuck a blank cd in and it was taking forever for it to be recognized so I reached for the button and pushed it and the drive makes this loud repetitive "clicking" noise. It sounds more like a woodpecker than clicking, but anyway. The drive WILL NOT open and I have no idea what else to try. I've taken apart the drive to see if the tray went off track but everything seems normal on the inside. I re-installed the firmware for the drive and that didn't work either. Any ideas?

Does it have an emergency eject? Look for a small hole about 1mm in diameter on the front or rear of the drive. Then try pushing somthing strong and [i]straight/i] into the hole, the drive should be forced out then.

Sorry if you already knew about this.

Kristian

Yeah I forgot to mention, I tried that too and it wouldn't eject.

Pop the lid off again then and push in the emergency eject and pull on the drive tray. You often cant simply pull or push the tray out unless you are pushing in the emergency eject.

If that doesn't work, then hunt around for the motor that controls the tray. You'll see it will have a very small cog on it more than lickly, try rotating it to simulate the motor turning and see if yu notice anything. Its no good turning the larger cogs though, due to the gearing of the system.

If it still doen's work, i have no more ideas for you, i'd be tempted to comletly strip down the drive and then reasemble it. Not recommended unless you know exactly what you are doing though, i bust my first drive after i stripped it down.


Hope ya get it sorted,

Kristian