Tray Won't Open
 

Hi. New to this forum. I have a Pioneer Elite and a Denon Blu Ray Player that are having a very similay issue. The tray will not open unless there is a disc in the tray. Kinda strange behavior. I have taken the cover off of each and find that if I push down a little on the top of the tray while it is trying to open, they both open. I then put a disc in, and they open and close with no issues. Any ideas as to what causes this and what a fix might be? I'm thinking it's the gears that open the tray that need greasing but not sure.
Thanks in advance.

Does the empty tray start to move and stop after a little bit of motion, or does it not even try to start o move? Perhaps a motor tries to start and stalls.

When you push down on the tray is there any noticeable downward movement of the tray (not in the opening direction)?

Is this a changer, or a single disc player?

You could try carefully clean then lube the gears and the track/slides, and look for any binding points or burrs that might impede opening.

If it fails to even try to start to open look for a sensor. Also, check all ribbon cable connections and perhaps clean the contacts. I've seen strange behavior on DVD players (and other gear such as even dishwashers :huh1:) that was traced to corroded ribbon cable contacts.

It definitely tries to open but just doesn't quite. I lubed the gears the best I could (they're hard to access) and it seems to be working now. We'll see if it continues to work.