Why won't my CD ROM tray open?!?

Question

This happened last summer. I just came home and started up the computer and a blue screen came up saying, "www.dell.com
Loading PBR for descriptor 2... done.
NTLDR is missing
Press Clrl Alt Del to restart". Well it turns out that I had to reboot my computer entirely and lose everything. And before all that started to happen, my CD ROM wouldn't open....

So now, computer up and running, scary blue screen flashing up with the NTLDR thing just to freak me out, the CD ROM won't open. Usually I can just press it and press it and it will spit out. But not this time.

I tried with the pin hole thing and I'm so scared that I will screw up my computer even more. With having to reboot entirely, this shouldn't be happening.

I have a Windows XP if that helps any.

Answer 1

Since you have a Dell, you can tap the F12 key on boot and then tell it to boot to the CD in the drive. To get the CD in the drive, you can put a paper clip in the hole to manually release it. The paper clip trick is easy and you are unlikely to damage the drive doing it. With the CD in, perhaps reboot and tap F12. Make sure you do not tap F12 more that once a second. Tapping it quickly can make things freeze. With the CD in the drive, tell the system to boot from it. The next screen should read "push any key to boot from CD" which you will have to do quickly. If that screen does not come up, then your system is not booting to the drive and you might have to replace the drive, but it doesn't seem like it given the info you have provided.

Answer 2

The not opening can be a Windows problem or a hardware problem. To find out turn the system on and tap F2 to enter the BIOS setup screens. While there press the button the CDrom drive and see how it performs if it opens every time without problems then Windows is the problem. You can try removing and reinstall the drive in device manager to reload the device and driver info in Windows.

Answer 3

try moving into abode windows explorer to my pc. go with the cd-tension , suited click and decide EJECT. If the strain opens you have a difficulty with the buton on the strain. If it doesnt open the little gears that open and close it ought to have stripped or the motor has burned out .