pjensen4

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

When I insert a DVD or CD, after about 10 secs it spits it right back out. If I continue to insert the DVD or CD right after it ejects, the computer will finally accept it on about the 6th time and everything works fine. Is this a drive issue or software? any ideas?

Thanks

Imac, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Aug 2, 2008 12:07 PM

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

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  • by Gerard Surprenant,

    Gerard Surprenant Gerard Surprenant Nov 22, 2011 1:22 PM in response to pjensen4
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 22, 2011 1:22 PM in response to pjensen4

    I am also "enjoying" this same problem... Cannot play burnt CD's on my iMac 27 just past warrantee... The CD's play nicely on my G4 and my old PowerBook... There is terrible noise on the drive. Professional CD's and DVD's play fine... I've used different brands of CD's to no avail... You would think there would be a fix or recall on this situation since it apparently has been occuring for some time...

  • by Imaboss500,

    Imaboss500 Imaboss500 Dec 1, 2011 8:25 AM in response to DLHx
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 1, 2011 8:25 AM in response to DLHx

    This procedure has worked perfectly for me thus far.  Have moved my machine a few times recently so that could have been the root of the issue.

     

    Thank you DLHx!!

     

    Started experiencing the same problem and became seriously frustrated until I remembered advice from one of my computer science instructors:  "Start with the simplest reason the problem may be occurring."

     

    This is a solution for getting the Mac to read the media, not a fix for the design of the iMac cd/dvd drive, which would be nice.

     

    The media has difficulty being properly seated in a vertical drive.  Literally lean the Mac downward (backward) at approximately 120 degrees and insert the media.  Wait until it engages then replace the Mac upright.

     

    This would be terribly irritating if I used the drive on a frequent basis; fortunately I don't.  But the fact that an iMac will not boot from an external drive made me determined to find a solution without having to have the drive replaced (sending in to Apple!!)  

     

    Hope this works for you.

  • by kericson,

    kericson kericson Dec 7, 2011 8:58 AM in response to pjensen4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 7, 2011 8:58 AM in response to pjensen4

    I'm installing Adobe CS5.5 Suite right now in my new iMac!  Oy!  Thought I was dead in the water.  Here's how to do it:

     

    1. Insert your CD/DVD- (the monitor can be at any angle).
    2. Open Launchpad.
    3. Open Utilities
    4. Open Disk Utility (this is where you read DVDs in Lion little strange after the PC... )
    5. Click on the DVD you are trying to read.
    6. In the bottom left side (gray frame) you'll see Mount Point and a blue link > double click to open mine said- /Volumes/CS5 5 Prod Prm1.
    7. Double click the install icon on the DVD.

     

    And presto!  So relieved thought I spent all that money on Adobe and yikes!!!  I'm thinking this was originally a security measure to prevent virus attacks.  But dunno for sure.

     

    Hope this helps!

    Karen

  • by beaucleo,

    beaucleo beaucleo Dec 13, 2011 9:10 AM in response to pjensen4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2011 9:10 AM in response to pjensen4

    I'll add my name to the mix.  My 17" iMac G5  has a problem only with DVD media.  No problem with CD or DVD-DL.  DVD media won't mount and gets ejected after about 10-15 sec.

    Found that if I rotate the computer so that the bottom corner rests on the table (~30 degrees) the drive will accept and mount DVD media. I can then return the computer to the upright position and r/w with no problem. Doesn't solve the fundamental problem with the drive, but is an easy work-around for me.

  • by martinmpls,

    martinmpls martinmpls Dec 15, 2011 7:43 PM in response to beaucleo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 15, 2011 7:43 PM in response to beaucleo

    I also found that tilting the iMac so the bottom left corner rests on the table "fixes" this issue for me.  I can get most DVDs to mount now.  Thanks!

     

    21" iMac

      Model Name:          iMac

      Model Identifier:          iMac10,1

      Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo

  • by Mark Jaffrey,

    Mark Jaffrey Mark Jaffrey Dec 31, 2011 12:51 AM in response to pjensen4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 31, 2011 12:51 AM in response to pjensen4

    I have owned three Macs, and they have all suffered from Panasonic/Matshita SuperDrive failures. A 2003 Titanium Powerbook - drive lasted one year before it failed. A 2006 Intel iMac - drive lasted two years before it failed. And now my 2008 Intel iMac. The superdrive has been flakey for some time - accepting some disks but not others, being very picky about which blank discs to burn, but now it won't read most DVDs including my Appe install discs.

     

    I have tried every idea and "fix" in this thread, but nothing works.

     

    As I live in Egypt, there is no recourse to AppleCare and I am not carrying the machine back to the USA where I bought it to have it fixed, so the only option is to buy an external drive, which is what I did with the other two machines.

     

    Apple, please can you change your SuperDrives to another manufacturer so that they will be Super again and not total duds that end up frustrating your loyal users and costing them huge amunts of time, frustration and lost productivity.

  • by Gerard Surprenant,

    Gerard Surprenant Gerard Surprenant Dec 31, 2011 5:17 AM in response to Mark Jaffrey
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 31, 2011 5:17 AM in response to Mark Jaffrey

    I finally had to do the same thing... easier than going through all the trouble.... I've owned Macs forever starting with an Apple II and never had this type of problem... Please Apple... change this psuedo super drive. . .

  • by louisfromstrasbourg,

    louisfromstrasbourg louisfromstrasbourg Jan 4, 2012 12:38 PM in response to Gerard Surprenant
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 4, 2012 12:38 PM in response to Gerard Surprenant

    Same Pb as many of you, here in France.

     

    For the last 4 weeks, Video DVDs were lesser and lesser to be accepted by my iMac which is just above 12 months old. Data CDs and music CDs are OK.

    Tried to tilt the beast, worked once, but the second time it didn't.

     

    By chance I bought the warranty extension...but I'll have to live without it for some time.

     

    I saw some times Apple/Mac girls and boys do give tips and answers to issues, why are they so stunt with this discussion?

     

    Hope It'll be fixed at the store, but it is really frustrating.

  • by James Ball1,

    James Ball1 James Ball1 Jan 5, 2012 6:39 PM in response to louisfromstrasbourg
    Level 3 (715 points)
    Jan 5, 2012 6:39 PM in response to louisfromstrasbourg

    My 24" iMac will burn a CD or DVD but will not read (almost all the time) a commercial music / audio CD. It makes some grinding noises and ejects the CD. I took my iMac to the Apple Store in Columbus at Easton Shopping Center. They ran some tests and said I should try reinstalling the operating system (10.6) and that I had too much stuff on my 1TB hard drive. I had about 250G available. I took it home, reinstalled the OS and it still does the same thing. They told me the drive had no problems and it was some "software glitch". All in all, an unproductive day at the Genius Bar for me.

  • by James Ball1,

    James Ball1 James Ball1 Jan 5, 2012 6:55 PM in response to James Ball1
    Level 3 (715 points)
    Jan 5, 2012 6:55 PM in response to James Ball1

    I just checked and the drive reads a burned CD perfectly. It is only commercial audio CDs that don't work.

  • by dznutz42,

    dznutz42 dznutz42 Jan 10, 2012 12:54 PM in response to pjensen4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 10, 2012 12:54 PM in response to pjensen4

    Add me to the list of frustrated/disappointed customers...

  • by James Ball1,

    James Ball1 James Ball1 Jan 10, 2012 2:23 PM in response to dznutz42
    Level 3 (715 points)
    Jan 10, 2012 2:23 PM in response to dznutz42

    I bought a LaCie external drive, plugged it in, works just fine. The Superdrive still won't play a CD.

  • by Elite_Marketing,

    Elite_Marketing Elite_Marketing Jan 11, 2012 12:20 PM in response to Imaboss500
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 11, 2012 12:20 PM in response to Imaboss500

    It worked, thank you!

  • by raymondfromcalgary,

    raymondfromcalgary raymondfromcalgary Jan 13, 2012 9:26 PM in response to pjensen4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 13, 2012 9:26 PM in response to pjensen4

    Had the same problem with my 21 inch iMac. I got a windows 7 for christmas and tried running it on my imac with bootcamp. Guess which error I got? Yep the same one everyone else has. So, I tried unplugging it and waiting for a minute, still same problem. Tried running movie DVD's. Same problem. Tried running CD's, same problem. Re-ordered another replacement DVD from microsoft as per the advice of one of the Mac support people over the phone. Ran the new Windows 7 DVD's. Same problem.

     

    So, I take it in the Mac store, and one of the "genius'" put in one of their Mac DVD's and it read fine. I reiterated that it won't read windows 7 DVD's or movie DVD's. They said they would replace the optical drive and call me in up to five days. So they took it in for five days, I called them on the sixth day to see if it was fixed, they said it was so I hauled my *** to the mac store to pick it up elated that I might actually get Windows to dual boot on my computer. Get home, put in all of my windows 7 DVD's. Same problem. Tried movie DVD's. Same problem. *** apple?! I would have thought the apparent "genius" working on my computer would replicate the error I was getting, fixed it, then tried to replicate the error again to make sure it was fixed. That's generally what you do when you fix a computer! Now I'm going to have to call Mac again, disappointed at the shoddy work they did on my iMac and possibly haul this stupid and heavy computer back to the Mac store. Wait, I'm disabled, I can't do that. I have to pay someone to do this for me! Sure they might have looked at the drive, but did they fix the error? No. I'm thinking I'm going to pick an asus desktop just so I won't have to deal with this BS again, but I want to desperately see this error resolved! I am highly frustrated.

  • by Rogerdon,

    Rogerdon Rogerdon Jan 20, 2012 7:10 PM in response to raymondfromcalgary
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 20, 2012 7:10 PM in response to raymondfromcalgary

    My 27" iMac just started DVD rejecting. It wouldn't take any DVD's, 10 seconds of noise, it tries to read then spits it out. I tilted the screen back to almost horizontal with the desk and voilå it worked. I guess I'll be doing that from now on. If it gets worse I'll give the compressed air trick a go.

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