iMac won't recognize DVD/CD drive anymore

Hi patohco

Welcome to Apple Discussions

First reset the iMac's SMC > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543
and startup resetting PRAM and NVRAM > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
then test to see if it will burn a music CD.

Dennis

Hi,
did you resolve this? i just exactly the same issue

Thanks

Exact same problem, except I have a DVD stuck and can't get it out since drive is not recognized. Yay!

I've already posted about this, tried all troubleshooting, and emailed Apple. Nothing works, including emailing Apple, whose submit page says they do not reply to emails. So why do they even have it?

If out of warranty, you can pay $30 for privilege to call Apple, who will tell you it needs to be repaired. Supposedly there's a cable that normally goes bad that Apple stores can fix for around $100. But it's also common for the entire drive to go bad, which is $500 to replace.

I really don't want to lug the 24" beast through the mall to bring to the local Apple store, but that's my plan. I just hope its the cable. Otherwise I'm spending the $500 on a Dell.

Lately, I left my iMac on while I was sleeping. Couple nights ago, the optical drive made a funny noise and woke me up. It sounds very similar to opening up Disk Utility on my MacBook Pro, it looked for the internal optical drive. First, I didn't do further investigation on my iMac.

Yesterday, I happened to do some 'housecleaning' and attempted to slide in a data CD. The drive didn't response, so the CD was stuck. In the past, I had opened up numerous iMacs and they were getting more complicated model by model. I am certified to perform the repair, but since this iMac is covered under AppleCare, I decided to make an appointment with the MacGenius.

I did perform a PRAM reset earlier.

Do you have 'put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible' checked under Energy Saver?

Out of all the Macs with slot-load optical drives built-in I have owned, this is the first malfunctioning I have ever had.

I have the exact same problem. Disc went in and won't come out. Computer does not recognize the existance of an ATA or disc burning device. I replaced the disc drive with a known working used one and there is no change. The drive won't except a disc unless it is shoved all the way in with tweezers. Then it spins the disc, but never reads it and no icon appears. Can anyone explain this faulty cable idea? I've had the computer apart six times. Each time so I could remove the stuck disc. I'm getting to the point where I can have it all apart and back together again in about 20 minutes.

I have the same problem. DVD went in and now no drive ! Did you take yours in jasonsuavo? What did they say about it if you did?

I have the same problem. DVD went in and now no drive ! Did you take yours in jasonsuavo? What did they say about it if you did?

My imac has quit recognizing CDs and will not let me eject the inserted CD (I miss the old paperclip trick!). No disc displays and the system profiler does not even recognize the disc burner.
This seems to have coincided with the latest software update to 10.5.8 ....hmmmmm.
I have an external DVD/CD burner I can use but would like to get this disc out of my machine. Any thoughts?
Tried sleep/eject button and reboot/hold mouse button with no luck.

I hate to say it, but I ended up having to extract my stuck CD by cutting away the felt flaps at the opening of the drive, and then using needle nose pliers to finish the job. No alternative method worked, and I tried everything within reason. I bought my iMac used, so it's not as if it's under any kind of warranty still. The drive is not being recognized by my system anymore, and the galling thing is that I have Roxio Toast installed because the CD/DVD burner used to work. I've read a seemingly endless amount of forums in which people are having the same problem. What a lousy design, and why bother to keep using it?

** UPDATE **

Well... I fixed mine, thought I would pass it on.

Mine is OUT OF WARRANTY as I bought it used. So I don't recommend you attempt this as it will void any warranty.

I looked online for instructions on how to take the 20" iMac apart (thanks Youtube) to see what was up with it and it was really easy to disassemble. My issue turned out to be a bad drive. I replaced it with one off of eBay (searched for the model# 85JCA). It was only $59.00 with free shipping. All you need to change it is a suction cup and a torx bit set T6,T7,T8,T9,T10. Add a little patience and care and you can save a bundle.

Hope this helps someone out.

Again.... at your own risk.

Just encountered this problem with my iMac. System profiler no longer recognized my drive, and the DVD within it was firmly stuck. Restarted my mac with the mouse button held down (and the eject button pushed repeatedly), but no luck. The drive was still invisible to my mac.

I followed the step-by-step "before you reset the SMC" advice from the "reset the iMac's SMC" link below (does the iMac even have an SMC?).

One of the first suggestions was to put the iMac to sleep using the command in the Apple menu, and then wake it up. Lo and behold, when I woke my iMac I could hear my superdrive spin into life. It still didn't mount the disc inside it, but my eject button worked. Performed another restart, and the drive reappeared in System Profiler and returned to normal operation.

It was just a worrisome blip, in my case. Hope that helps at least some of you!

I think I figured this out. There's an application somewhere that's created a disc image and it confuses the cd drive. In my case it was the stupid Verizon Access Manager. It kept putting the icon of a cd on my desktop. I tried the fix: putting the computer to sleep using the apple menu. It would not stay asleep. I finally deleted the VZ access manager and then put it to sleep. It stayed asleep. I woke it and restarted it and it recognized my drive and the CD in it. I was able to eject it and now it works fine.

I had this problem and i shut my computer down, unplugged the power, held down the power button for 5 seconds to reset the system management Controller, then i plugged it in and pressed the power button and before the grey screen shows up press Command, Option, P, R. hold those down until you hear the second startup chime. this worked for me so hopefully it should for you too.

FF4GUNNERS' and den.thed's suggestion worked for me too! Thanks! (Read on, if you want details)

I had a similar issue with my iMac: Put an audio CD in, it didn't play and then would not eject. At first, I thought it was the media, but when I restarted the computer, the iMac no longer recognized the drive. Tried various solutions from these forums, but resetting the SMC and then the PRAM and NVRAM, as suggested here, did the trick for me.