dvd & cd drive opening & closing

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

Hi, my out of town relatives' pc's cd & dvd drive is acting up lately. Its
an 1 1/2 year old HP computor Before I get info on this pc, and go to HP
site for support on this issue,I'd like to trouble shoot but need your
advise on things to try. Heres what it was doing this past weekend.
The cd drive would NOT open; no matter how many times I pushed the button.
The dvd drive (which is above cd drive) opens and plays cd's. BUT, when we
pushed the button to close it to remove cd in there, it would start to close
but retract and open again. everytime we pushed, it would start closing but
would open again. It had to be pushed in mannually in order for it to stay
closed.
Before I jump to the conclusion that its broken, I am hopeful that maybe I
need to do some trouble shooting first.
* * * * *
Is it possible for a virus/malware to cause this kind of behavior??I have
been cleaning up this infected computor and installing security programs
little by little; but I'm not finished so it is vulerable to attacks.
* * * *
I will probably try the things you all suggest on thanksgiving when I go
there. So please give me all the info I need on this issue. thank you in
advance