I can't open the DVD tray

Question

I can't open the DVD tray. There's nothing inside. I hear a sound (a grrrr) but it won't open.
I had that 2-3 times in the last 5 years and I always managed to open it by pushing the "DVD ROM drive open button" while I restart but not this time.
I also tried to put a paper clip in the little hole but that doesn't work either.
In the Apple help site, they say push the "eject media key" on your keyboard; I didn't know where that is but I know now it's the F12 key; when I push it I hear a sound coming from the tray (like a electric screwdriver) but nothing happens.
So what can I do ?
I saw that Andrew Favret had the same problem in October and Don Archibald said:
• Boot or restart the machine, immediately press the Option key, keep it held down. This will bring up Startup Manager. Once Startup Manager has finished loading, press the key combo Command-. (Command-Periodkey). This should open the tray.
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I tried the "Option" key. The Start Up Manager appeared: A display with my 5 drives in the middle, and a Right Arrow icon on the right.
I did click on the right arrow and it started to load normally as it does when you turn the computer on.
So I try the whole thing again and now instead of clicking on the right arrow, I tried the command and period key. I hear again, a sound coming from the tray and I see the icon for "eject" on the screen but nothing happens. Tried 5-6 times. And the F12 key don't have any effect at this time.
If I had a disc in the tray, I'm sure the icons for the DVD drive will appear but the tray is empty.
Not sure if there's a relation but I just upgraded that same day to a new version of iTunes (from version 7 to 8.0.2) and 3 other upgrades: QuickTime player (from 7.1.3 to 7.5.5) Plus Java and Security something.

Answer 1

Usually there is a CD/DVD in the tray that won't eject, but you say the tray is empty. Are there any other users of you Mac, especially kids? Someone may have placed something in the tray that is causing the jam.
Here's the usual fixes.
First try a Restart while holding down the mouse button.
If that doesn’t work, look at these links:
A dozen ways to eject or unmount a recalcitrant CD or DVD
http://www.osxfaq.com/dailytips/08-2002/08-12.ws
Ejecting media in Mac OS X: Removing 'stuck' CDs/DVDs
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041011075232575
Power Macintosh G3 and G4: About the DVD-RAM Drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT3072
PowerPC-based Macintosh: How to eject a disc when other options don't work
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106752
Force Eject (10.3 or later) - Can be used to eject any removable disk that the system will not eject. http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Force-Eject-Download-34780.html
 Cheers, Tom