My DVD drive just suddenly stared acting up. I was just installing a new video editing program and when the time came to insert the second disc I closed the tray and now it keeps opening again after a couple of seconds ( even when empty ). It will only close when I restart my pc with the tray open ( but not when I shut down ) and even after restarting although it stays closed it does not detect any media in the drive.

Hi theavengingduck, Welcome to PC Guide.

Start your pc in safe mode (F8) then in Device manager (other click my computer\Properties\Device manager or hardware\Device manager in XP) find your cd-rom other click on it and choose remove\uninstall and restart wich will use the hardware wizzard redetect the cd-rom.

Has it fixed it ?

Have you run a spyware scan ?

No that didn't work.

The power, IDE cable to the cd-rom is secure i take it ?
Was the cd-rom ok before the install ?

Mite be worth running HiJackThis (http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html) install to desktop.

If you double-click My Computer and nothing is showing in the drive it might also be that your drive has gone south...:(

Do you have an older drive you might be able to swap and see if the problem persists?

Is there any way you can restore your software to the way it was before you installed this new Prog and the problem arose?
Do you have a backup of the C: partition?
Which OS installed?
If you have WindowsXP installed, can you go back to a suitable Restore Point?
You could try uninstalling the software, but it's not as good as restoring the way things were before it was installed.
It's important you have the ability to reverse as well as go forward!
If you "jump back" and the problem is still there, then it's not a software problem.