DVD stuck in disc drive

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Level 1

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DVD stuck in disc drive

Hi everybody,
I currently have a DVD stuck in my disc drive. I fell asleep yesterday night watching the DVD using the "DVD Player" application that is the default for playing a DVD. When I woke up, DVD Player wouldn't quit and I had to force quit the program. I didn't use the DVD Player for the rest of the day, but in the evening, I tried to reopen DVD Player to finish the DVD. It said: "There was an initialization error. A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]" I tried to eject the disc by pressing the "eject" button on the keyboard, but that did absolutely nothing. Now the DVD is stuck in the drive, not showing up on my computer, and I am not able to eject it. What can I do to get it out?
Thanks
-Marsha

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Nov 13, 2009 1:52 AM

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Answer 1

louie

Level 4

2,950 points

Nov 13, 2009 8:44 AM in response to marsharachel

Try shutting the computer down, restarting, and holding the clicker button down, which should force an eject during startup. If that fails, you may have a hardware failure and might have to take it in.

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Answer 2

marsharachel Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2009 10:58 AM in response to marsharachel

I did that and it worked! Thanks

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Answer 3

macitect

Level 2

480 points

Nov 14, 2009 4:39 PM in response to louie

By clicker button do you mean the eject key? If not, what? ...I've got the same problem here.

Thanks

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Answer 4

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Nov 14, 2009 4:42 PM in response to macitect

The "mouse" (ie trackpad) button, macitect

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 5

macitect

Level 2

480 points

Nov 14, 2009 5:04 PM in response to Rod Hagen

Thanks for the quick reply, Rod.

Unfortunately this didn't work for me, although I arrived here by doing a search and didn't even realise I was in the "macbook" section. I am on an iMac - don't know if that maybe makes a difference... I'll continue the search and hope it is nothing too serious.

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Answer 6

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Nov 14, 2009 5:28 PM in response to macitect

Apart from the fact that you would need to use the mouse button, rather than the MBP's trackpad button, no, it shouldn't make any difference. Try shutting down the Mac (rather than restarting), then booting it up again while holding down the primary mouse button.

Another trick is to start up Disk Utility and , if the disc is visible, eject it from there.

Sometimes, if the problem is actually due to the drive itself not being recognised as present, a "PRAM reset" will make it appear again.

On PowerPc Macs you can achieve the same result using "open firmware" commands, but unfortunately these don't work with the Intel models.

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 7

SCSU11

Level 1

0 points

Jan 10, 2010 8:11 AM in response to marsharachel

I had this same problem. I knew the drive was working because it would start up and spin the disk but would not show up on my desktop. Make sure to shut your computer down all the way. Do not just restart it. Keep your computer shut down overnight then turn it back on. The DVD should now show up on your desktop and work fine. Try this before anything! Apple quoted me $300 to replace the whole drive.

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