Mac Mini won't eject a disc

turn off and press mouse button, hold mouse down switch on and keep mouse down till disc ejects, hope this helps

That's unfortunate, but not my experience.
I've had many Macs over the years, from Dec'84, some new and some used.
The only problems I've had are software, which were fixed with a later SW update. My hardware problems have been almost ZERO. My only problem was the video on a MacPlus after 4.5 yrs of use. I did discover how to repair that.

My latest new Macs were a 7200/120, a G4/1.25 MDD and a Mac mini last year. I also had a used G3/266 and G3/300 since '99.
All those were perfect hardware wise.
I'll admit that being a technical person who has worked in electronics manufacturing I don't buy any product when it first comes out. I observe as many user experiences as I can and usually buy near the model end point, if the product has a good history.

However I know there have been hardware problems over the years on some models, the last sad one being the capacitor problem on the G5 iMacs. I know a lady who was hit by that, but Apple did repair it successfully.
That was an industry wide problem, not limited to Macs.

As for Dells they certainly are priced very aggressively, but they certainly aren't problem free. They do have their hardware problems, some very serious, and users I know have been very frustrated when they attempt to resolve a problem by talking to someone in a far away foreign language country.
At least with a Mac most can carry it in to a dealer for resolution.

Gerry

G4/1.25 MDD 1.5GB 400Gb Mac OS X (10.4.3) Several other Macs since 1984

I purchased my Mac Mini in November and have had serious concern about my disc reader. It continually makes mechanical noises and is clearly "doing something" when in fact it should be dormant. I have in the past 24 hours tried to play 2 audio discs which would not play, got stuck in the disc reader until I rebooted and yet these same discs play fine in my other CD players. It can take over a minute just to read an audio disc and allow it to be played, all the while making horrendous clicks and rattles and hissing sounds. ***? I mean really? What do we need to do to get these working properly thats all I want to know. This cant be expected performance out of these units. This cant be acceptable to Apple.

Im going to my local Apple store tomorrow and talking to them about it. I'll post anything of interest they tell me. So far I love the software but have real concern over this hardware.

OK check that...apparently it will not play any discs now. Not 60 days old and the disc reader dies. This is not good, not good at all.

I don't know why you are running ClamXav.
There is nothing for it to find and it could cause problems as well as use CPU cycles.
I'd dump it.
When the first MacOS X virus is out there you'll hear about it in the Mac community.

Gerry

I don't know why you are running ClamXav.
There is nothing for it to find and it could cause
problems as well as use CPU cycles.
I'd dump it.
When the first MacOS X virus is out there you'll hear
about it in the Mac community.

ClamXav doesn't use 'CPU cycles' - running without the sentry enabled causes it to do nothing at all unless and until set to scan specified directories by schedule or manually, and with sentry running, it triggers scanning only when the contents of the specified directly changes, and then only the file(s) that change. When it does that, the CPU load typically rises to around 3-4% (often less than 2%), and then only for the duration of the scan of the changed file(s).

As to there being 'nothing to find', that isn't so. It's capable of finding infected emails, and thus help ensure that the Mac user is not assisting in the propagation of malware to PC users, it can identify malware in scripts, identifies many of the phishing scams that lead to identity theft and which are platform independent since they rely on fooling users into reacting, identifies and removes macro viruses that can impact Mac users, and identifies a number of Trojans which it is otherwise easy to pass on to PCs.

Running ClamXav is a matter of taking reasonable precautions, being responsible within the community of users as a whole -many of whom ARE vulnerable, and of being prepared for the day that malware for MacOS starts to appear. It also has to be said that if all Mac users take the view that their systems are safe and thus no malware detection software is needed, the only way that we will ever know of a threat is if the commercial organizations who sell defensive software tell us they have found something. They have a vested interest in there being a problem to find, so are not all that trustworthy. Not only that, but by the time users buy, install and use defensive software after it is announced that malware has been detected, it's entirely possible for a virus to have spread like wildfire among Mac users and to have done considerable damage.

It may be that many Mac users either don't want to run, or see the need in running, defensive software but there are those of us who do, and suggesting it's a bad idea to be prepared is perhaps a little misguided.

You say ClamXav doesn't use CPU cycles, but then you admit it does ???
As for PC viruses I'll admit they can be passed on from Macs, if Mac users don't know what they are doing. A little care is all that is needed. Those who pass on broadcasts we don't need anyway.
As for a Mac user not using virus protection being misguided I don't agree, you need to get your head out of the sky. From what I've read of ClamXav it is a work in progress and can cause troubles, as I've seen in discussions.

To be effective a virius checker needs instant updating. I feel this requires a commercial virus checker such from Symantec. Relying on a virus checker that isn't doing the job may be worse than not having virus checking.

Oh by the way, I've been known to use a commercial virus checker to catch some of those nasty Windows bugs. <:)
I made my comments to rest at ease the minds of the obvious new to Mac users who bring their virus paronia to the Mac community.
I feel using the work in progress ClamXav at this time is not worth the trouble.

Gerry<br>
G4/1.25 MDD 1.5GB 400Gb Mac OS X (10.4.3) Several other Macs since 1984

1 - I said ClamXav doesn't use CPU cycles except when sentry is actively checking a modified file.

2 - For Mac users to know what they are doing, they need to be aware of the issues, and a little care is not sufficient if a blinf eye is turned to the issue in total.

3 - All antivirus/malware scannwers are a 'work in progress'. They'd be pretty useless if that were not the case. And the advantage of an open source application over a commercial one is that rather than a product targeted by marketing requirements as in the commercial variant, open source is the result of broad community work. That tends to make them more effective. Less elegant because there's less interest in a nice interface to sell the product, but more effective even so. Last I checked, by the way, ClamXav has tended to be updated at greater frequency than Symantec or McAfee.

4 - It is not 'virus paranoia' that suggests a cautious and reasoned approach to the subject, but common sense. We don't know what threat exists, or when it will occur. We believe MacOS is invulnerable, but we don't know. Using a good antivirus product is little different than buying insurance or getting vaccinated. Both wise precautions when the risks aren't known.

Apologies to the OP for the thread hijack by the way. There have been plenty of versions of the antivirus discussion that it didn't need another rehearsal so soon after the last, but an interesting and not blinkered comment on the subject can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4609968.stm for those who are interested.

is there an emergency eject on Mac Minis?

is there an emergency eject on Mac Minis?

The options listed here are the mini's 'emergency eject'. Holding F12, holding the mouse button down during startup, using the eject button in Disk Utilities etc, are all common methods of removing CDs. In the OP's case however, it appears that the mini's casing may be interfering with eject, in which case the system would required some attention.