CD/DVD tray opens on start-up

pivo11 said:

G'day,

Suddenly, for no obvious reason, the CD/DVD tray is opening when I boot up the computer. At the end of the boot cycle, the tray opens and I get a small window asking me to "insert a disc" and a large blank window with no title. (see screenshot below) This has no effect on the operation of the machine, but is annoying and I would like to correct it. I have googled the problem and tried many things, all to no avail. All and any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks up front.

My system is Win 7 64bit, 8 Gb RAM, The DVD is a Samsung Super Writemaster.



Cheers,
Fritz

Sometimes the cause is due to a disk being removed and for some reason the DVD doesn't recognize the removal and fails to close down properly. I have found that if you insert a disk, I generally use an audio CD, and let it load then remove it, the behavior stops.

HTH

Thanks much, Sir George. I did try that but, alas, it didn't help. I've looked in the start-up menu and the registry but don't see anything at all that appears to be related.

Cheers,
Fritz

Long time ago there used to be a prank executable called cupholder<dot>exe. Some variations were drinkholder<dot>exe, freecupholder<dot>exe, etc. Usually delivered via email and when the recipient opened the file the CD/DVD tray would open. Each time the computer was rebooted the tray would open. Double check for malware by running a full scan with your installed anti-virus suite. A couple of free on-demand scanners wouldn't hurt, either.

Malwarebytes

ESET Online Scanner

You may also have a damaged or corrupt tray driver. These may help.

Installing and updating drivers in 7

CD/DVD tray keeps opening - Microsoft Community

And there could be dust or dirt in the tray that's causing issues. Can of compressed air may help.

Good you looked into startup menu to decipher anything suspicious of triggering the problem.

Now I shall give you a tool that could do a better job.:)

Download autoruns for Windows v11.34 Autoruns , extract it to folder and run autoruns.exe.

The tabs that should be of interest are Logon and Boot Exe.

Uncheck whatever you suspect, reboot and do your research to find out the culprit, if any.

Marsmimar, Jumanji, appreciate your help, many thanks. I tried "autoruns", but don't see anything suspicious and I have scanned the system with Malwarebytes, but that came up clean. I shall go back and do everything one more time and check into the drivers and let you know. Thanks again for your help with this.

Cheers,
Fritz

Check the app you use to create optical discs, Windows might have files to copy and is waiting for the disc.

Or insert a disc when you boot and see if starts copying.

Right then, I found the source of the problem. It was "Adobe Gamma Loader". Why this would cause the tray to open like it did, I have no idea, I have had Photoshop installed for ages and never had any trouble until recently. Since it's a monitor calibration tool that I have never used, disabling it isn't a problem.

Thanks to everyone for your swift and useful suggestions and help.

Best,
Fritz

Good that you found the culprit.

Now to share a secret, I did recommend autoruns to you after reading this Aug 2010 post elsewhere.

"I think I have solved the problem. I downloaded and ran Autoruns that Patcooke recommended. Under the logon tab I noticed that Adobe Bridge was being launched at logon. (Adobe Bridge is associated with Photoshop CS4.) I recalled I had observed a similar condition when opening bridge in the past. I unchecked Adobe Bridge in Autoruns. Re booted and the tray did not open. I opened Photoshop and went to the bridge. Immediately, the tray opened, and the window asking for me to insert a disck appeared. I went into the Adobe's cache settings and cleared the cashe for the U drive and the problem went away."

Perhaps, I should have mentioned Adobe, but theoretically it could be anything else (similar) too. If one religiously starts unchecking the startups one by one and reboot, one should be able to get at the culprit.

In future, we will make it a point to check on Adobe for a problem of this sort. Thanks for sharing the info.

EDIT: Please mark the thread as solved.

Glad to hear you found the problem. Thanks for posting back.