[clue-talk] cd

[Jim Ockers]

Hi J,

J wrote:
> 
> I will freely admit that I am lazy to such an extreme that I have never 
> bothered to look for solution to this problem and as such I can not really
> bill this post as request for help, but rather more a desperate attempt 
> to reach out to others who have suffered the same affliction in shame and
> darkness for fear of being ridiculed for their lameness.  
> 
> Have you ever fought the CD drive door by pushing the dang button 
> over and over? 

The Linux kernel tries to lock the drive door if the CD is mounted
somewhere in the VFS.  I assume this is a Linux system, and you've
unmounted the CD volume before trying to eject the CD?

If it's a Windows system, try rebooting it.

I have one CD-ROM drive that thinks it needs 60 seconds to think 
about ejecting the CD when the button is pressed.  It starts busily 
flashing its activity light when the button is pressed, but it 
doesn't eject for about a minute, flashing the whole while.

Personally I think it shouldn't need more than 1 or 2 seconds to
decide to eject the CD after I press the button.  Luckily I don't
use the drive very often or it would be in a landfill (scuse me,
Computer Components Recycling Facility) long ago.

Oh, and get this.  If I push the button an even number of times
then it ejects after the huge delay and IMMEDIATELY retracts the
tray back within the little trapdoor.  Needless to say I am always
too startled by the tray ejecting to be fast enough to grab it
while it's ejected.

It's infuriating to have waited that long for the stupid thing
to eject, only to face the prospect of waiting another minute
just to get the CD out.

I now keep a straightened-out paper clip on the computer to execute 
a manual override and force the tray open.  (There is an access 
port about the diameter of a paper clip on the front of the drive.)

Perhaps you could try this?  Push hard (on the paper clip).  Pushing
the button more than once probably won't do anything if the drive
door is locked.  And in some cases pushing the button an even
number of times could have a zero sum effect.

Hope this helps,
Jim

-- 
Jim Ockers, P.Eng. (ockers at ockers.net)
Contact info: please see http://www.ockers.net/