Mac mini repeatedly ejects DVD drive

At start-up, computer does not chime. No monitor. Just repeatedly ejects the DVD drive. There is not a disk in the drive. I swapped the DVD drive with another computer. The suspect DVD drive operated fine on the good computer and the bad computer persisted with it's repeated eject business with the known good drive.
Any ideas?

It's not something silly like the eject button stuck or broken on the keyboard? Also the DVD will eject if the mouse is held down, so try booting with another (or no mouse) connected.
It could be something not connected correctly after you replaced the drive?

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