brutus04 said:
I read your post about computers and I have a problem that you may be able to help me with. My bottom cd rom drive keeps opening and closing by itself, I ran my virus scan and found nothing. Is it a hardware problem where my cd rom drive is going bad, did someone hack into my computer and is doing this to me? I download music from a chat room and with all the hassle about downloading from the sites like Kazaa and stuff I am just afraid someone is watching what I download. Do I need a firewall to keep people out of my comp and if someone already hacked in how do I get them out
thanks
We're outside of my personal understanding here, there are a lot of people on this site with a much better grasp of the tech side of things than I have.
However, I Googled, and the only references I could find to a CD tray opening and closing itself spoke to Trojan infections. Trojan Horses are programs that can infect your computer (usually by running a file that someone sends you) that allows the person(s) who sent it to connect to your computer and do anything they want to it. Examples of Trojans are SubSeven, BackOrifice and Netbus. I've played with SubSeven myself, and it's actually a pretty interesting program. As a remote user you have more and easier access to the infected system than a casual local user does.
All the major anti-virus programs detect these programs though. Even an out of date copy of Norton or McAfee would find them on a full system scan. So that's your first stop.
I also found some more benign possibilities. There are instructions around the web for "prank" CD open/close functions. I'll include a one below;
http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/entertainment/open_cd/default.shtml
If someone else has access to your computer, and is a practical joker, it could also be something like that.
Beyond those two possibilities, I would assume some sort of device or connection failure. I might power the system down, unplug it, open the case, and make sure all the connections to that drive are secure. I might go as far as to disconnect (one at a time) each end of the data cable, and reconnect it make sure it's firmly and squarely seated. Ditto the power cable. There may also be a small cable running from the drive to the soundcard, you could do that as well.
If we still haven't squashed it, it's time to call tech support of either your drive manufacurer, or the system itself if it's a biggie like Dell or Gateway.
I'm sorry in advance if it's Dell you have to call.
Afraid I don't have any ideas beyond that. Maybe someone else here with a better clue will see this thread and know what's going on with your system.
Oh, one other thing you might try as a longshot. Follow the link for HijackThis in the thread I made that has all the software and tweak suggestions. Download and run it. Then take the output over to the forum (amazingtechs) that's linked from that paragraph and start a new thread asking for help, paste in the HijackThis output. Explain that your drive is opening and closing without input from you, and ask if anyone there might have a suggestion.
Those techs over there are the best. I just about guarantee that if all else fails, they'll find an answer for you.