Powerbook G4: CD Stuck & won't boot

Question

Level 1

8 points

Powerbook G4: CD Stuck & won't boot

Hello everyone.

Longtime user first-time poster. So thank you for all your help!

Was given an old Powerbook G4 15 inch aluminum that someone was going to trash. Being a nerd, i thought I could fix what seems to be a simple problem.

But I'm stuck.

So, here are the problems and what I've done to fix:

Kernel Panic

[*]Have copy of boot cd, but another cd is stuck in drive

SO...

CD stuck in optical drive:

[*]held down eject button at boot

[*]inserted knife, paperclip and cereal box top in drive to stop or grab cd.

[*]held option control of and typed eject cd at prompt

[*]shook computer to get cd in correct place (in case it wasn't)

I'm thinking my next option is to open up the computer, take out the optical drive and take cd out...somehow.

Any suggestions?

PowerMac G4 A1046, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Feb 3, 2011 6:48 PM

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Answer 1

BGreg

Level 6

17,558 points

Feb 4, 2011 5:04 AM in response to MLSundar

Welcome to the Apple discussions.

Have you held the trackpad button down while rebooting?

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 4, 2011 6:18 AM in response to MLSundar

A dozen ways to eject or unmount a recalcitrant CD or DVD
http://www.osxfaq.com/dailytips/08-2002/08-12.ws

Ejecting media in Mac OS X: Removing 'stuck' CDs/DVDs
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041011075232575

Power Macintosh G3 and G4: About the DVD-RAM Drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=HT3072

PowerPC-based Macintosh: How to eject a disc when other options don't work
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106752

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 3

Knifedge

Level 4

1,605 points

Feb 4, 2011 8:44 PM in response to MLSundar

If you can't get the cd out in open firmware I'd suspect a hardware problem. With a small Phillips screwdriver opening a PowerBook only takes 5 minutes and there's no prying like with the iBooks. The cd drive will come out with a few screws and you can take the top off of that. Also, if by some chance the hard drive cable was replaced with the wrong type it may cause the optical drive to be "invisible" even in open firmware. Go to ifixit.com for disassembly directions.

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Answer 4

BGreg

Level 6

17,558 points

Feb 5, 2011 8:41 AM in response to Knifedge

With a small Phillips screwdriver opening a PowerBook ....

You need a small phillips head screwdriver and a small allen hex key to get out the two screws by the screen. It's not a torx socket.

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Answer 5

MLSundar Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 7, 2011 10:33 AM in response to Texas Mac Man

So I have tried everything and it does not work.

I have opened up the computer and removed the optical drive.

Can I start the computer WITHOUT the optical drive, or is it absolutely necessary to install a new drive before re-starting the computer?

Thanks!
MLS

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Answer 6

louie

Level 4

2,950 points

Feb 7, 2011 1:58 PM in response to MLSundar

It should be no problem to boot without the optical drive. The HD and optical are simply on an ATA bus. IIRC, the HD is the master and the optical the slave.

But it may not solve your boot problems and kernel panics. You may have a bad main board, RAM or RAM sockets, dead PRAM battery or other things.

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Answer 7

gappylus

Level 1

0 points

Feb 8, 2011 9:18 AM in response to MLSundar

I had the same problem with my g4 powerbook and also tried everything short of opening the machine up. But then i went to utilities/disk utilities, selected the stuck cd and simply pressed the eject button at the top of the window and hey presto the disc ejected. by the way my desktop wasn't even acknowledging the stuck cd but disk utilities did.

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