I foolishly had Staples install a new hard drive in my iBook, and since that time, I have had trouble with my DVD drive, notably that I can't insert a disc as something seems to be blocking the drive. Staples managed to jam a CD when I asked them to fix it, but now I can't get their CD out. It spins up fine and works to read the CD they stuck in, but I can't make it eject. They tried booting with the mouse button in, and I have tried everything I can think of.
Any ideas? What is keeping the disc inside? It appears to be about the mid point of the drive slot, and it is about a 1/4 inch wide, which is just a guess from trying to force it open.
Thanks for your help.
G4 iBook DVD stuck in drive
May 31, 2008 - 12:59pm
#1
G4 iBook DVD stuck in drive
First try a Restart while holding down the mouse button.
If that doesn’t work, look at these links:
A dozen ways to eject or unmount a recalcitrant CD or DVD
http://www.osxfaq.com/dailytips/08-2002/08-12.ws
Ejecting media in Mac OS
Removing 'stuck' CDs/DVDs
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041011075232575
PowerPC-based Macintosh: How to eject a disc when other options don't work
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106752
Power Mac G4: How to Open the CD/DVD Tray
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25345
Cheers, Tom
This is the curse of slot-loading optical drives.
If the software-based and open-firmware based methods don't work, and something still seems to be physically blocking the disc from ejecting, then it means the drive is physically stuck - a metal lever, and a white plastic "column" are preventing the disc from being ejected or removed. You can force the metal lever out of the way, but the plastic bit is part of a little arm-like mechanism and is virtually impossible to move out of the way without destroying the drive. So you need to disassemble the iBook, and then the drive itself, to remove your disc.
A friend's Titanium Powerbook G4 had this problem, and that was the only way I could fix it.
The bad news is that it's a huge PIA to disassemble a G4 iBook. But ifixit.com has great guides.
The good news is that when you actually take the cover off the drive, remove the disc, reassemble everything, and boot up the iBook, the optical drive will almost certainly reset itself (retracting the physical barriers that currently prevent your disc from coming out the normal way), and will most likely work fine in the future.
But before any of that I would take it back to Staples and tell them you want your money back.
M