I was in the process of closing down my Dell Dimension 3100 last night when lighting struck nearby and all power went off to the house. Fortunately the computer is on a power surge protector and everything restarted once I restored the house power (30 seconds).

However, now I cannot get the CD/DVD tray to open and the console is making a strange "whoomph" (the best way I can describe it!) noise every 15 seconds or so. There is a disc in the tray.

I use a Mac at work and on it I can push a paperclip into a small hole next to the tray to open it. Being tired, annoyed etc I tried this (after trying everything else I could think of) on the Dell. Probably a dumb thing to do but you know how it is late at night etc.

Any help gratefully received.

The pin hole manual open is fairly common on all standard DVD/CD drives.

Are you able to boot into windows? If so have you tried right clicking the drive under My Computer then choosing Eject?

Does the noise coincide with the light on the face of the CD drive?

Does that light light up at all?

The computer seems to be functioning completely as normal now, apart from the tray, and the odd noise has not returned after restart. Have tried all the obvious routes to eject the disk (including your suggestion) but the only reaction is the egg timer on screen for a split second.

The drive makes the usual whirring sound you expect it to when it's reading a disk so I guess the disk is spinning okay and not jammed. Not sure about the light on the CD drive, will have to check when I get home tonight.

Appreciate your input.