Hello.

The DVD Writer drive for my pc won't close.  Whenever I press the button to close it or push on it by hand, the drive will close temporarily and the tray will then pop out again.  When I reboot, the tray will will close in, but as soon as XP boots up again, the tray will pop out.  When I power down the pc, the drive will close and remain shut.  But as soon as I power up the pc again, the tray pops out.  Even if I put a disc in the tray, it won't even PERFORM an initial read of it and the drive will pop out.

I believe this all started when I put in a brand new DVD-R disc.  The brand was a Sony DVD-R AccuCORE (1x-8x/4.7 GB).  It says on the label "Always check if your device is compatible as using this disc on some drives/recorders might damage the disc or device."  Their website (www.dvdhs.com) was neither helpful nor clear.  Is it possible for a DVD-R to damage a writer drive, or am I assuming the wrong cause of this problem?

I tried UPGRADING the firmware for all of my hardware components, but one of the firmware updates (HLDS GWA-4162B 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW DL Drive Firmware Update) seems to require a floppy disk or writable CD.  The pc doesn't have a floppy drive and the writable drive obviously isn't available.  I'm not even sure if this firmware upgrade pertains to my drive (HP upgrade programs will tell you if they do).

I have an HP Media Center PC m7070n running Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition.  The cpu is a Pentium 4 3.20 GHz with 2.78 GHz 1.00 GB PC2-3200 DDR2 RAM.  The DVD writer drive is an HP DVD Writer 640b, and the DVD ROM drive is an ASUS DVD-E616P3H.  Everything is OEM.

Under the Properties\Driver window that I pulled up from Device Manager, the DVD driver information for the Writer drive appears as:
Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date:  7/1/2001
Driver Version:  5.1.2535.0
Digital Signer:  Microsoft Windows Publisher

I have no idea what's wrong with the driver date.

If any more information is needed, then please let me know.  Do you think I should reinstall the device?  I only know how to do it in 95/98 whereby you just delete it from Device Manager and just reboot.

I apologize for the long-winded post.  I would greatly APPRECIATE any help provided.Either your drive is bad or your system is misbehaving.

How to check the drive (mechanical door check):

- disconnect the data cable, but leave the power cable connected.  Power up your system.  Does it STILL OPEN?  If so, the drive is bad.  If it doesn't misbehave, it is likely a problem with your system or configuration.

How to check your system for drive door problems:

- with your drive connected normally, boot your system in safe mode.  If the door opens, your IDE controller or connectors are bad.  If the door stays closed, then either background processes or your drive specific drivers are bad/conflicting or corrupted.  In normal mode, disable all unnecessary processes, especially 'drag to disk' or other DVD/CD specific programs.  Try reloading any DVD writer specific drivers.

- you should be able to remove the drive in device manager and have your system redetect and reload the drivers at bootup.

If the above doesn't identify/solve your problem, let us know what you did and where it failed.

DellShoot.  Apparently, the drive must be bad.  Isn't there any other cause that it could be?

How could this have happened?  The pc is only 7 months old and I only burned ten discs.

So I guess there's no other way to repair the drive.  Any suggestions for a replacement?Lite-On. About $40 at newegg.comYour rather new HP PC and the peripherals that came with it should still be under the manufacturer's warranty.

If you opt for a different drive, I'd personnally recommend the Plextor PX-716A DVDR or a derivative model [<$100/BestBuy].  The price is mid-range, it handles up to double layers, can be user tuned and for me, a real workhorse.  I've burned 100's of DVDs and CDs and have had exactly 2 failures (due to bad media, I suspect).  It usually ships with great bundled software too.

When I purchased this drive several months ago, it was rated in the top ten (mostly #1) by almost every rating system I could find on the net.

I also recommend you avoid drives from manufacturers who also produce content [S*** for one].  They are notorious for built-in copy protection and software (read malware).

DellI fixed the problem.  Apparently, something small had gotten lodged into the drive.  Fortunately for me, it finally came out after I tried a CD write test while using a bundled diagnostic program.

Of all the stupid causes, this was the one I expected the least!  I used a flashlight to check inside the drive earlier, but couldn't see anything.

Coming on here for a solution was like asking a cardiologist for help with a cold.  I'm sorry to waste your time.

The irony was that the media obviously had nothing to do with it, and it was it was stupid to think so.  I was using some Memorex discs before, and out of 10 writes, three were bad.  I switched over to something else and it's working fine.

Thanks for your help.Glad to hear you got it solved ! What type of little bugger did you find in there anyway ? ?

patio.  A rubber washer

I have no idea how it ended up in there.  Even more strange, I have no idea how it came out.  I probably tilted the tower when I was opening up the case.

I guess I lucked out this time.  I'm just glad I finally got more organized.