iMac hard disk drive won't take disks

Greetings. My problem is my iMac suddenly stopped taking my disks. It almost seems as if it's now permanently in the "out" position because any disk (CD or DVD) I put in the drive only goes exactly half way in and won't budge any further. I gently stuck a piece of thin cardboard in the drive and it definitely did not feel like a disk was stuck in there (I didn't feel anything round in there).

Does anyone know what happened? Is this common? And most important--is there a remedy?

Thanks very much in advance for any and all help you can give.

Brian

It is somewhat common for slot loading drives. How old if your iMac? Do you still have Applecare?