DVD-ROM & CD-RW drive doors won't open

[solaya]

Have Sony VAIO UCV... and periodically (more and more frequently) the drive doors refuse to open. 

They always open if there is media in there and sometimes one will open and the other not. 

For a while I could always get the DVD-ROM (Pioneer DVD-117R) to open if I opened the CD first. 

??  Rebooting does not help and I don't see a way to manually open them (no place to stick a pen point or anything). 

They will also work after a system recovery, but right now I can't get the disc in to perform one.   Any ideas appreciated. 

[beanhead07]

I don't know if this would help or not, but I would make sure you have all the latest drivers for those drives and if so it may just be time to think about getting a replacement drive?

[patio]

There should be a pinhole on the front of each drive...a straightened out paper clip pushed in there gently will open the drive in an emergency.
But they should open and close normally and i don't believe this is a driver issue....
How old are the drives ? ?

[solaya]

There are no pinholes.  I uninstalled the drive and rebooted and, after re-installing, the DVD-ROM door opened.  But now windows won't recognize the CD-RW drive (F:).  I don't get it. 

I tried to update the drivers, but it just kept spinning its wheels.  That's when I tried re-installing the drive.  At least now I can get a disc in and recover if necessary.  Fortunately I backed up everything when it was the F drive that was working.  But I'll have to keep discs in to keep them from disappearing again.  Why would that matter?

oh, forgot to add- the drives are 5 years old. 

[homer]

quite honestly, i would simply buy new drives. with SATA DVD burners being only $30 each, its not worth the headache of trouble-shooting them.

[CBMatt]

I'm with homer on this one.  Optical drives don't have a very long life expectancy.  Although some will last quite awhile, 5 years sounds about average for drives to start failing.  Many don't even last that long.  If I were you, I would shop around on Newegg a bit...new drives are actually quite reasonable.

[patio]

If they don't have pinholes they're way older than 5 years...every one i ever saw had them.

[ianbell]

Had the same problem with a 5 year old CDROM drive and found that if I whacked the top of the PC case with my fist it opened right a way!   However, my tech friends tell me this method of opening the unit is rather frowned upon, delicate internal components or some such crap.   What use is a machine that you can't punch once in a while [ thank god keyboards are cheap].

[Chippy]

Sounds like you have the same Sony Vaio that I have pcv-rx650.
I have the same problem and now I can't even get them doors open. All the little tricks I used to get them open stopped working. Thank goodness I have 4 other computer. I been asking how to fix this for at least a year. The computer still runs nice and smooth the only trouble I have ever had since buying it feb 28,2002 at circut city is that the drives are stuck. I will be watching this post to see if  someone doesn't know how to fix this. Good luck to you.

[patio]

The advice has been given...replace the drives.
They are relatively inexpensive right now...a dual-layer DVD burner can be had for 40 bucks shipped from newegg if you're in the States.