I can't explain the reading problem, but the tray opening problem sounds like the gears might need some grease.

Yeah was gonna say the same, also the rails. They usually use lithium grease for the gears and rails. Very very small amount.

Cga.8086 wrote:

guys any of you have experience fixing CD-roms from year 2000-2010 ?

I have an HP computer where the CDrom tray does not open, i have to put a paperclip to open the tray. and if i put a CD inside, the tray starts to work perfectly... it open an closes (voodoo magic not 3dfx voodoo!)

Broken sensor or microswitch issue, possibly also firmware. Something doesn't tell the CD-ROM drive it is closed or open when there's no disc, but if it detects a disc something else tells it it can open and close.

Cleaning out dust might help a bit.

For the tray, if it uses a rubber band to couple the motor to the tray gears, it's probably rotted. For the reading issue, some old portable CD players have problems like that. A lot of times it can be related to the disc clamp that usually hangs from the top lid. Bent? Smooth movement of the carriage is of course the other obvious place to look.

You can still get replacement belts fairly easily since they are used in many devices. Even locally if you have a shop around there that sells parts for repairing things.

Cga.8086 wrote:

I have an HP computer where the CDrom tray does not open, i have to put a paperclip to open the tray. and if i put a CD inside, the tray starts to work perfectly... it open an closes

Yeah, I've noticed this phenomenon with many desktop optical drives from about 10-20 years ago. Drive is empty, you push the eject button, and there's a slight "clunk" sound like it's TRYING to open, but is getting caught on something. Leave a disc in the drive (or in my case, one of those clear protective spacers from a stack of CD-R media) allows it to open or close just fine. I personally don't know the exact cause (although I would suspect breakdown of the tray mechanism lubrication, as others have stated), nor have I ever tried to fix this problem since, like you and I have both discovered, simply leaving a disc or blank spacer in the drive seems to be a workable solution.

There's usually a magnetic clasp that keeps the CD in contact with the spindle motor.

Over time, the lubrication breaks down, and the belts+pulleys get slippery, and eventually it just can't overcome the forces holding everything in place.

Like any magnet, the attraction force decreases exponentially with distance, so the disk adding that 1-2mm gap is enough to keep things moving.

The correct fix is to re-lubricate the rails and drivetrain, and replace the belts, but leaving a disk in there is simple and effective.

example video showing potential eject issue and fix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIWs-7J1JT4

A 26-and-a-half-fucking-minute video to explain "a potential eject issue and fix". That's why I hate Youtube "instructions videos". Most of them are just a bunch of blabbermouths who enjoy listening to their own voice.

dr_st wrote:

A 26-and-a-half-fucking-minute video to explain "a potential eject issue and fix". That's why I hate Youtube "instructions videos". Most of them are just a bunch of blabbermouths who enjoy listening to their own voice.

shh, you are scaring the clouds away