Hi. I was testing out Vmware fusion on my 20" iMac. It loaded Windows perfectly. It works fine. But now my iMac won't spit out the disc. Just makes really weird noises and stays in. Please someone help me. Thanks.
Hi Had my iMac for 2 months, just started to use slot dvd in anger to get some work done and low and behold it refuses to give back my discs. A work around that works for me is to shutdown and restart holding the alt key down until i get the option to choose between mac and windows. Then it spits out the trapped disk. Now i don't use the built in drive. Use an external writer instead. Far less hasstle - shame on apple for such a letdown on what is a tremendous piece of design.
Have to agree -- shame on Apple. On one hand I feel fortunate that this is the worst problem I have ever had with a machine in over 10 years of using Macs -- on the other it is practically disgraceful that Superdrives have had these problems since the iMac G5s and still continue to be troubled by them even on the aluminum iMacs. The next time I see the new Apple Christmas commercial, I'm going to remember that I can't install the almighty Leopard on my iMac because there's already another disc stuck in the drive. Ask not what your iMac's Superdrive can do for you, ask which external burner you should buy for your iMac... sound familiar?
Hi mac4ever,
Barkingmad here. I am not the person you suggested to try disc utility but I just tried it again and I just hear a click and the disc icon disapears from the disc utility drive list and then the drive acts as if I had just put in a disc and it starts whizzing and booting iTunes and stays in the slot.
Been there tried it all. I am wait to here about someone who has found a drive that is
better quality that can be put in place of the turkey that the Mac comes with. Warranting this one will just get me back to "when is it going to eat another disc".
Someone suggested a Panasonic UJ-846
?! this is not listed for iMac just laptops and mini
a Toshiba that came up when I entered Panasonic UJ-846
in google = Toshiba uj-846 though again there is some question whether or not this is the proper drive for my early 2007 iMac duo 17"
I am all about Toshiba. Their products work very reliably for me; especially our dvd player in our entertainment center.
Until then I use an iomega super dvd external optical drive. It has a bit of vibration that concerns me. I have used it only a few times. Works great however and is faster than said turkey.
Just some feedback here. I actually had the same problem this morning. Turned out to be related to VMWare Fusion. I'd had the virtual machine running XP and I was getting ready to do a restart (so I had to shut down the VM), and the minute windows shutdown, lo and behold, the disk I had in the drive showed up on my desktop and I could eject it w/o a problem.
It was related to the fact the VMWare was letting Windows control the drive.
Might want to try restarting your windows Virtual Machine and see if you can eject the drive from that side (right click the drive in My Computer in Windows and select Eject).
You might want to also make sure you've installed the VMWare tools on the Windows VM.
That might resolve the issue. I know you can "Disconnect" the drive from Windows in VMWare as well. It's an option under the Virtual Machine menu.
I have a new 20" iMac just started to load all my music into iTunes then one disc refused to eject I tried restarting holding down the mouse key, nothing then I shut down but it wouldn't start, finally I removed power cord and thank goodness it restarted and ejected the disc.
I am now very wary of loading any more music this is very frustrating I have a vista machine any problem ejecting a disc on there and you shove a pin into a hole.
Such a shame I was really chuffed with this machine, even contemplating ditching Windows for good reading the above and after my experience I think I'll hang on
Hi, I am far from a expert on computers but in the past I have had these same problems with different discs, example I purchased a pack of 10 discs, 9 worked ok, the other one played up, I have found that any finger marks on your disc can give problems, the best tip I have found on these discussions was sent in sometime ago which suggested you keep tapping the eject key, it has worked for me, good luck.
Pre
The one and only stuck disc in my machine loaded and burned fine. I could play all the music on it every time no problem. But the only way I could get it out was to return to an Apple store for a new machine. Tried all the tricks and they go back for years if you start looking through this forum. Left the disc in there for two months. Poking the eject key (a whole lot) just made him laugh and grind his teeth in contempt!
However I agree there can be a disc in a pack that is demensionaly different. See my disc measurements entry. The thicker disc is the one that got stuck. In reality I am not convinced that is why it got stuck; the dif. in thickness was on the order of .03mm (.001 inch). What I think caused the disc to stay in drive was some little whats it popped off a whozit in the drive and so the "linkage?" could no longer carry the disc to the slot. I hate to resort to technical jargon. Forgive me.
Surly there are some gear heads out there with a mic that can measure a disc that got stuck in their machine or know a gear head with a mic and we can get this varified yes or no.
If this is the case then there needs to be a varification of disc compatibility (dimensions) as it goes through the slot before it gets loaded; perhaps with a disc shreader function for the discs that don't measure up as it were.
Rather than measure all my discs (or empty a bin full of shredded discs) before I put them in I just use an external optical drive and I suggest any one buying an iMac to figure that and an external hard drive for back up into the price of the machine. The machine is still more worth getting by far than the boring old alternative pc.
Still waiting for a suggestion for a better after market drive that will fit into the iMac case
Roger Wilmut1 wrote:
First step, if you haven't already tried it: restart the Mac, hold down the mouse key until the Finder has loaded. The disk should eject.
Thank you!!! I just had the same problem. When it happened I remembered your post, came here and followed your directions. It worked for me. I appreciate the help.
I bought my brand new shiny 24" 2.8ghz iMac on Friday and on Monday installed my brand new shiny Final Cut Studio. Everything was going fantastically well; however the 3rd disc wouldn't eject properly. A nice Apple man suggested various methods, including the Terminal in Utilities, holding down the mouse at restart etc, but the most successful method was teasing the disc out with a stiff card. I thought this would be the end of it but no...the 4th disc, 5th etc all had problems ejecting. I tried other discs including dual layered & they all popped out fine...the only ones which I had problems with were the Apple ones, even the Leopard recovery discs! Sometimes the disc popped out enough to catch the edge with fingernails before the disc jumped back in.
Obviously something was not right, so I called Apple and was told the problem was most probably mechanical. To cut a long story short the choice was to take it back to the seller (2- 10 days) (& to add, I had installed lots of new software and started editing work and so was not keen on an exchange or refund) or to the Regent Street Apple Store in London where a Genius would, I was told, replace the part 'while U wait'⚠ or he might decide to give me a new one and transfer my data. Fantastic!! Win/win. When I got there a Genius explained that they couldn't repair on the spot, but would have to take it in, and all going well, a couple of days to get the part, a couple of days to repair, 5-7 days max. Having lugged this slab across town I gave in & handed over my iMac.
5 days later: 'Repair in Progress' which a nice lady from Apple told me meant they were still waiting for the part to arrive. I don't know if this is a particularly common problem but I would have thought, judging from these & other forums, it is common enough to warrant keeping a spare batch of optical drives around just in case.
Dear rez@mac,
From the long study of putting english on my Mac to eject a disc (sorry couldn't resist); it seems the trick of squeezing the upper right corner, near the drive slot may have actually helped in your case. Sounds like the disc may have been hitting on the slot as it was ejecting. Wasn't an issue on mine the disc never even started out; I could see a metal part baring the slot that would not retract.
Surprised though that they did not give you another machine like the other guy I read about. They gave him another Mac and his disc back; he took them home and he got the same disc stuck in the replacement machine. It was an important one of a kind disc he was working on for his employer. Wasn't pleased. Sure you want another one of these same drives put in your present Mac? I don't.
Well that was how long it took for him in any case.
Love my MGB GT ! Maybe we need Lucas electrics of England to build these drives rather than China.
Ok I have to clean a few contacts in a switch every thirty years, some people call that unreliable I call it maintenance. If I could get the bloody drive out without death defying surgery who knows.
After a week of waiting for a shipment of parts from China and then being told that it might arrive at the end of week(!) I asked to speak to the Manager. Miraculously, a drive appeared (a part not used for another repair, apparently). Then after a day of waiting around, another call...bad news, good news. Bad: problem not rectified with the replacement drive; good: the Apple Store agreed to swap for a new machine and transfer all my data.
I think you are right about the disc hitting on the slot. Initially, I thought it might have had something to do with the weight of the discs but it seems it was the casing impeding thicker discs.
So here I am, enjoying my newer new iMac & you'll be pleased to know that it spits out discs like there's no tomorrow. I love my Macs too.
