Okay, this is starting to frustrate me. A friend of mine gave me his computer in hopes I could get it running, and I've done so, but twice I've left it overnight to download an update or something such and woken up to the DVD drive ejecting and closing at random, sometimes instantly, sometimes faster. I hold it out in place for about ten seconds and it stops trying to pull altogether, not trying to retract; however, when I let it go it almost instantly pulls back in. What the hell is going on, is this common? Is it virus-related or hardware? Can I fix it? Thank you in advance.
Goblins.. not gremlins?? Something is sending a tray open, tray close signal.. possibly mucked up burning application or similar. Try pulling the IDE cable and see if it stops. If it does then you have a hunt to find which application is running that could send a disk request.. Turning autorun off for the drive may help. If it carries on with just the power connected then what is up is probably something up in the tray detection switching.. maybe a mechanical switch or optosensor blocked or broken, or it can be electronic.. the control chip on the board can go mad.
