I personally got so fed up I started banging on mine.  After awhile I learned that if you look straight at it, then stand it up on the left (chord) end and bang your fist on the bottom right side (while still almost leaning inverted) it would sometimes read a disc.  Nowadays, it will read only half a CD.  I would love to get mine proffesionally fixed for good.
                 Jonathan
                
 April 2007