PS3 CECHL01 KEM-410FCA optical drive has no power accepts no discs

I own a first gen CECHA PS3 that supports all the avaliable media types at the time and backwards compatable with PS and PS2 games. It stopped reading discs some time ago, so I replaced the optical drive in it and now it's all fine and dandy.

My friend took note and asked me to replace the optical drive in his third gen CECHL PS3 that has a stuck disc and won't eject.

I first powered it on to confirm the problem: it won't eject the disc. It just beeps like it doesn't recognize there is a disc inside. I went on to disassemble the console, remove the optical drive, remove the aluminum casing, and free the disc. I put it back together to quickly bench test the drive and it won't even accept a disc. The mechanism won't engage. I diagnosed it as a completely dead drive and sought a replacement on Amazon.

I selected the appropriate drive for this CECHL model PS3 from Nextec on Amazon (same seller I bought from for my CECHA PS3 optical drive) and installed it. To my surprise it doesn't function either. A brand new optical drive doesn't accept discs and the eject button doesn't beep now and the eject button powers on the console. Super odd. I reconnected the original "dead" drive, powered on the console, and the eject button beeps as expected now.

I wouldn't be surprised if Nextec sent me a DOA drive. They have before when I was repairing my personal CECHA PS3 (seocnd one I ordered works perfectly). So I'm suspecting this is just another DOA replacement optical drive.

I think I found the problem, but I just wanted to confirm if my experience with this was similar with anyone else doing these repairs as I am unfarmiliar with third gen PS3s.

EDIT:

I finally got around to installing the second replacement, and it's showing the same symptoms. I set the drive in the console, connect everything, and the drive just doesn't respond to discs when I try to slide one in. It's almost like it doesn't have power. I can't image Iw as sent 2 DOA drives, have I? I'm stumpped on this one. Assuming it is getting power and the controller isn't bad, it must not be able to send a signal to the console. Has anyone else dealt with this?