Mac mini optical drive ejecting discs

Hello, All
I'm using a Mac mini late 2006 model (1.83GHz Intel Core Duo, 1GB RAM, Snow Leopard 10.6.1) and a few days ago the machine started ejecting optical discs without reading/mounting them. Once a disc is inserted, the machine whirs a but and then ejects the disc.
The problem affects all discs - blank CD, DVD, published CD and DVD.
Can anyone offer any help as to why? I've not had any problems with the optical drive before and have used it reasonably regularly because prior to upgrading to Snow Leopard and plugging in an external hard drive to use Time Machine, I was using Back Up - which obviously requires me to use the optical drive.
I must say I'm a bit confused as to why. The machine has not been dropped or even moved since the drive has gone from functioning to not working. I keep my software up to date. I have heard that Snow Leopard seems to be causing the odd strange issue but not come across this one. The drive has functioned properly since the SL install a month or so ago.
Any help or advice is really welcome.
One last thing (sorry!), and this is probably completely unrelated but I thought I'd mention it so that all info is out there. A couple of weeks ago (also post-SL install) my wireless Mighty Mouse stopped functioning properly. It wasn't the batteries or dirt, etc. I could move the pointer around the screen but just not click on anything. I thought at first that the Finder had crashed but upon using a replacement mouse, it became apparent what the problem was. I tried re-booting, switching the mouse off and on, the usual stuff. Few days later, I tried the Mighty Mouse again and it worked fine.
Thanks in advance, all.
Matt

Hi there
Apologies for the delay in coming back here, been kind of busy.
I tried the canned air solution and unfortunately, it didn't work. However, having spoken to a number of people about this since my posting and the help posted to this forum, using the canned air generally comes highly recommended because it usually does solve such problems.
So, I've also looked for a cleaning disc and am still searching (to be fair, I've not yet looked very hard) but the problem seems to be that most stores sell cleaning discs designed for drives with a CD tray, rather than the slot loading mini approach (which also has fabric to held clean the disc on its way in, rather negating the benefit of using any fluid or gel on the disc).
I'm going to keep looking and will post back here to let you know if I have any luck or not. Do try the canned air solution - it may work, also please post to let us know if you solve it or not. I fear that there's a proper problem with the drive...
Good luck and thanks, All. Will post again.
Regards,
Matt

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