Optical Drive hates me - It refuses to open!

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Just booted up my computer, when I noticed something strage, the light on my Optical Drive stayed solid on, no blinking until I logged onto windows. After that, I wanted to go on my favourite Sims 2 Expansion pack. I was about to load the disk in the drive, but THE DRIVE WON'T OPEN!!!! The light just stays solid on again for a long time. After forcing a paperclip in the small lock hole, it forced the drive open. After I loaded the DVD game disk, I rammed the drive shut and now it opens as normal. This is not the first time, the last time, it swallowed my friend's Simpsons Season 5 DVD! He was very angry until I forced the drive open again. No doubt, the drive will break like this again.

Can anyone offer help?
It's a HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H21N

Drivers registered as "Ok" and in device manager, it registers as "This device is working properly."

 

[Anon_F]

How old is it?

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

It's about 1 to 2.5 years old.

 

[Ian]

It sounds more of a physical fault if it jams like that, you might only be able to fix it by buying a new drive (about £20).

 

[Abarbarian]

http://uk.freecycle.org/

A good source for just about anything.

An as the name suggests it will be free.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

It sounds more of a physical fault if it jams like that, you might only be able to fix it by buying a new drive (about £20).

Any idea what could be jamming it? I really don't want to replace it.
Or are the motors dying or dead? I HOPE not!

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Got a new one, fitted the seemingly damaged drive into my other system and it works fine!
Don't know why it don't like my home built PC.... The new one works.