CD/DVD Drive Won't Open

[AngeloR]

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PROBLEM SOLVED
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Hey everyone,

I'm putting together a new PC and this is one problem that I can't quite seem to figure out. I've put together numerous PC's before, so I'm fairly certain I haven't screwed anything up.

Basically I am putting in a new CD/DVD combo drive into a machine. It's brand new, and there isn't any OS installed on the hard-drives as of yet. There are two hard drives connected at the moment (SATA) and the CD/DVD combo drive is ATAPI/E-IDE. I figured there wouldn't be a problem if I mixed/matched. But we shall see..

Basically after all the proper connections (CD/DVD drive is set as Master, HDD Cable hooked up properly, power connection secure) the machine boots up, and BIOS recognizes that the drive is present, but it refuses to open at all. As you can see, this is a pretty major problem, considering I need the drive open to install the OS.

I thought it might just be a faulty drive (it was an old drive that I had lying around) so I went out and purchased a new one but I had the same problem. I even tried swapping HDD cables thinking that it MAY be the problem.

As of right now I have no idea why this is happening. The drive flashes when I press on the Eject button, but that's about all I can get from it.

I'm thinking it could possibly be the power supply, as it is a rather small 400W one, so I am going to try replacing it and hoping it works, but incase it doesn't, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to get the drive up and running.

Thanks,
Angelo R.

EDIT:
It turns out the problem was the power supply. Apparently 400W is not enough to run the machine and upgrading it to 500 was more than enough.

 

[Chase]

Personally, I would open the drive manually (via an uncoiled paper clip), then turn the computer on and attempt to close it with the button or find out if it will close itself. In a case where the drive successfully closes with its own mechanics, you can obviously rule out the power issue.

Aside from this, try unhooking every drive in the computer except the optical drive and attempt to open the drive with its button.

This is just a classic case of troubleshooting here, and it could be BIOS related or hardware related, so just keep trying new configurations of the items you already have before you go out and drop more money on new items that may or may not fix your problem (even though sometimes you have to take a step out on a limb and swap for new parts, given troubleshooting with your current setup fails).

Hope that helps some.

-Chase-