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Author Topic: URGENT! CD won't eject  (Read 2515 times)

Offline jwboyd

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URGENT! CD won't eject
« on: January 31, 2004, 04:22:11 PM »
Think slot-loading iMac.

Dragged a CD to the trash. The icon disappeared from the desktop but it did not eject. The straightened paper clip doesn't do it either.

Have restarted, ran Disk First Aid, rebuilt desktop, etc.

CD is still in the drive, with no icon on the desktop. What to do next? Is there a keyboard routine that would help?

Thanks to all.

Joe
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Offline kelly

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URGENT! CD won't eject
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2004, 04:25:04 PM »
Have you restarted with the mouse button held down? smile.gif
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Offline pendragon

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URGENT! CD won't eject
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2004, 04:32:03 PM »
If Kelly's tip does not work, sometimes CDs can be ejected by launching iTunes, and then clicking on the CD Eject icon in the lower-right of the iTunes window.

Harv
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Offline beacher

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URGENT! CD won't eject
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2004, 03:46:28 PM »
JW, could you please post your results, and tell us what CD it was?  Might save some others the same hassle.  Thanks!
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Offline jwboyd

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URGENT! CD won't eject
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2004, 06:25:23 PM »
I came back to this thread to do exactly what beacher suggested -- report in.

Neither of the suggestions worked, so I asked, "What if we take another CD and push it in just far enough to push the 'stuck' CD back just a bit?" Guess what? The "stuck" CD popped right out!

However, any CD we now try to insert gets pulled in only about halfway, and then spits out. This leads me to believe the drive has a mechanical problem.

New question: How hard is it to replace a combo (CDRW/DVD) drive in an iMac?

P.S. It's a "snow" egg-shaped iMac, not a flat-panel machine.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2004, 06:36:05 PM by jwboyd »
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Offline Paddy

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URGENT! CD won't eject
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2004, 07:45:52 PM »
Replacing the drives isn't too difficult - there are good take-aparts available online. The only problem is that the darn drives aren't cheap, and they seem to be hard to find!

MCE - $299 and out of stock to boot....

WeLoveMacs.com - $249

CDRW for $189

I think I'd give cleaning the drive a shot before investing $$$. RadioShack has drive cleaning kits. Worth a try (at about $10). Of course, it may spit that out too.

Have you restarted? (just in case it's confused)...
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Offline krissel

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URGENT! CD won't eject
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2004, 10:05:19 PM »
We had a thread long time ago on this problem  (search archives isn't working right now)but what I remember is that often the problem was merely a small piece of plastic that is slightly off and the CD refuses to try to go past it.

My sister's slot iMac had some problems with this and when it happened she would put a thin sliver of cardboard in under the CD and this was enough to encourage it to come out. This happened to me once while using her machine and I used a tiny piece of tape and slipped it on top of the CD and pressed down with a toothpick enough to make it stick and this pulled the CD out when eject command was used or mouse down on startup.

Anyway, you probably would be better off if you can replace the drive but these are some temporary measures you can use.
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Offline FLASH1296

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URGENT! CD won't eject
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2004, 02:45:51 PM »
I know for a fact that there is a very simple  UNIX command to run via TERMINAL that cures this problem; I just cannot recall it.  S O R R Y.
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