Q: Imac will not accept DVD's or CD's

My optical drive stopped working about 5 or 6 months in, and since I'm still under warranty and the Apple store here is only about a half hour away, I took my 24' iMac in and had the drive replaced. Got it back today and nothing's changed, the exact same symptoms as you all have described.

That's why I'm looking at an external CDRW-DVDR drive. (I would like to try a MacBook Air drive -it's bus powered only, or similar superdrive), because this problem is too huge and widespread to be a Hardware Only problem.

Maybe down the road there'll be a cure or fix all.

It's getting very frustrating, it's almost like Apple doesn't Give a $h*# anymore. I don't think I'll ever go back to the PC-Windows platform, but maybe my next computer will be a Freebsd Desktop with Dell Hardware.

Apple has to realize that there's at least 50K persons with this trouble (from these forums and Google's), and that those persons could possibly be persuaded to purchase another brand of computer. All we ask for is an acknowledgement that they're actively investigating these situations.

I have this same problem, although on a slightly different degree. My friend made mea DVD and iwan to import it, so I insert it. Then I have to wait about 2min. after that it just say " You have inserted a blank DVD what would you like finder to do with it? " then ifitakeitoutitwill play just fine on my 17" MacBook Pro. Anouther starange thing about it is that it won't play anyof the DVDs that get from netflix, but it will play all of the DVDs that I own. I think I will be heading to the apple store.

Add me to the list with this optical drive problem. It even happens when I am running Windozzzzzze through VMWare Fusion, so it is definitely a hardware problem.

With so many complaints, perhaps Apple will take their optical drive vendors to task and fix this problem on their dime.

Luckily(?) for me, I have had TWO HD replacements so they keep extending my warranty. I'll have to have the optical drive replaced.

Has anyone had any luck with having it done same day?

I believe Apple is focusing on iPhone, iPad, etc. and allowing the Mac business to wither on the vine.

Encountered same issue on a 6 month old iMac 27 i7. Despite infrequent use of the OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H drive (firmware: 3AHB) the drive began to suddenly reject CD/DVDs. As others indicated, would accept the media, spin up, scan the disc but fail to display a drive icon on the desktop. ultimately the media would be automatically ejected seconds later. This began to occur on only commercial media then later affected all media. Took the Mac into an authorized Apple service center this afternoon. They suspect a drive calibration issue which they aren't equipped to fix. Instead they intend to order a replacement optical drive from Apple. Typically Apple overnights new hardware to service centers. Hope to pick up a working machine tomorrow.

I too had been experiencing this issue and have been using an older lampshade iMac to load CDs and DVDs that would not load on my 2008 24" iMac. Today, I couldn't get a CD to load on my 24" iMac again, but this time I tried tilting the iMac's screen back so that the CD/DVD drive would be more horizontal instead of completely vertical. The CD loaded! I don't remember which of my other CDs and DVDs previously wouldn't load so maybe this forum can test out this tilting method =).

Thanks!

Dear Apple,

Do you need to issue a RECALL?

Yours truly,

My iMac won't accepts random dvd's and cd's.

Yeah, good luck with that!

This problem is clearly a latent design defect: Putting a laptop drive in a desktop that is essentially a metal box, with insufficient ventilation, then installing it 90 degrees from the correct orientation.

Apple must remain in denial about this because it would collapse the company to recall every iMac out on the streets. They would need to replace the entire aluminum case and will not do it.

They are concentrating on their ipods, iphones, ipads, etc. and do not care about the home computer business.

He he, this is getting ridiculous. With all the complaints in so many forums, and (mostly) useless suggestions like resetting permissions, changing media brand, cleaning, restart, changing user, etc etc, ColRay here probably hit the nail. And the ridiculous part? Yes, Every time I have to burn a DVD I have to tilt my iMac physically to a horizontal position. But the disc actually stays inside! Wow. My iMac is now 2 1/2 years old. The first year I only burned 2 or 3 DVDs. After that it started throwing up when I tried, so no free repair. And now I have to tilt it to make it work. He he. If I was Jobs I don't think I would like to suggest this solution. A little embarrassing, shall we say? Denial is so much easier.

Hi there, i don't know if this is the same problem but i've been having prob's with intermittent sound quality so it was surguested to try updating the system firmware so i clicked on the 10.6.4 which is what i was using button and updated now i've got no optical drive working it will not accept any disk any idea's on this?
Thanks

I have iMac twins with the same problem. Add two more to the list. I had periodic issues with the DVD/CD drives but I would get them working eventually or write it off as a bad disc. Yesterday both MAC optical drive stopped working completely, odd.

I got one to recognize a disc once. But the other completely stopped halfway through a OS X reinstall. It worked fine through reinstall disc one but will not see disc two. Just spits it out. I have two sets of official apple grey discs so I know it is not a bad disc.

I am out of warranty and extended care. I might also add, that I have to reinstall OS X because it got all messed up from hooking up a replacement iPhone to it. After time on the phone with Apple iPhone support they told me that was what I had to do. I now have to replace the replacement iPhone because this one wont turn off (the first lost its backlight). Apple has lost the battle for quality. My old Macs ran and ran and ran and ran...

I am running 10.4.11 and have the Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846 Revision: FB2U optical reader.

My one computer has been sitting with the blue screen asking for the second disc for two days. I am scared to turn it off. Any ideas? I tried most of the suggestions here on the computer still working (all 12 pages worth). Was there a recent update to OS X 10.4.11 that may have caused this?

Dear Apple, We would love to hear from you.

Hi I have the same problem I think. I noticed that the key to eject a cd does nothing. Then I insert a disk. It goes in makes the same noises for a few seconds , then spits out the disk, any disk. I think its software related. Can you tell me what the software was? Was it snow leopard?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Oh my! I can not believe all the posts on this subject! My issue started about 2 weeks ago. It started spitting out dvd movies after about 5 seconds. I bought my warranty through another retailer that will remain nameless since I have nothing good to say about their computer repair department. I called their 800 number and was told by a young lady (who by the way kept trying to give me PC instructions!) that my MAC had a virus. Ok...well...I did have a trojan. Trojan is now gone and still having issues. So I took it into the store. Told them to run diagnostics on the computer but under no circumstances were they to do anything else to the computer. They called me that evening and said that the OS needed to be reinstalled. Told them fine that I'd take care of it myself. I picked it up the next day, plugged it in and can't even get to my login screen. Pretty grey screen with a pretty little apple in the middle. Thank goodness I bought the missing manual book because I was able to restore my computer. The superdrive worked for a couple of days and then I started having the same issues again. But I absolutely refuse to take it back to that store. I love my MAC so I am truly heartbroken that Apple is not stepping up to the plate on this one. These computers are not cheap by any means and I do expect them to be more reliable than this. I have had mine for just under 2 years. I had the same PC for over 10 without any superdrive issues.

same problem. maybe 1 out of 40 disc it will take. the rest, whether burnt, commercial, dvd, etc will make some noise for about 10 sec and then spit it out.

Thanks to a very helpful Apple Genius Bar expert, I have just saved over £100. After reading this forum I tried everything suggested to get my superdrive to accept my DVDs and to get my iDVD to produce a slideshow. After two weeks of frustration I took the whole iMac to the shopping mall. The genius reached into the counter draw and held a can of compressed air.After a minute of squirting the air into the dvd slot all my prayers had been answered. He told me that cleaning the drive like this work on about a third of all his clients. I have now bought a can of compressed air from Amazon for £4 and have it ready for the next problem the arises. (I have tried the same technique on the unruly kids, but it does not seem to work on them!)