Now the CD-rom drive won't open. I may have to take it back and grab a different one (he had a stack of them and said I could just take one).
this is a pretty common problem. the case uses some funky contraption to pass through the button press. if the drive, or the outer plastic shell is not in the right place, the force won't be transferred. on top of that, the opening for the tray is exactly the size of the tray. so any offset means it won't come out. thank goodness for slot-loading drives, since apple has never been able to design a drive-bay flap to save their life