CD Tray Opens And closes,by itself, for no reason. Ghost!

[srtony1946]

I am reformatting my sons computer, An old Dell 4300. For some unknown reason the tray door opens and closes by itself. without any help of mine. What could cause this besides a ghost?

[Dark Blade]

OK, can you gives us a little more information to deal with? It could be faulty hardware if the computer is old (when did you get it?).

Are you in the process of formatting (it shouldn't take long), or have to formatted already?

[ale52]

Check the cabling.  If all is well replace the CDROM drive.

Alan <>< 

[srtony1946]

The computer is 7yrs old, And no I have not reformatted yet. And al52 what is cabling?

[Dam1an]

7 years old?!?  WOW 

For computer years, take dog years, then multiply that by 3.  That makes it about 147 years old.

Seriously though, does the drive work fine with a CD in it?  If not, it may have very well have just given up the ghost.  If it does, could be that the eject button is weak and gets stuck in the eject position.

PS
By cabling, he meant the cables plugging the CD ROM to the computer.

[CBMatt]

If that computer is 7 years old, I would be quite surprised to see the CD-ROM still functioning properly.  You might be due for a replacement.