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eh1255 Author

Level 1

10 points

superdrive won't draw discs in

I ejected a disk from my iMac (fall 2010) this evening, and now I can't put it back in. Discs just sit in the slot - it has stopped pulling them in.

Any advice would be appreciated.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Feb 1, 2012 3:35 PM

Top-ranking reply

Rick Dykstra

Level 1

19 points

Posted on Nov 30, 2017 3:47 PM

Same problem - now solved. Quick answer - Open Terminal and type the command drutil tray eject

Our 2009 iMac, running High Sierra, had a Superdrive that was totally unresponsive. It would not accept disks, even if they were pushed in to the point where the springy resistance is felt, when they are about three quarters of the way in. Pushing them all the way in, against the spring pressure, had no effect. The disks would be pushed out by the mechanical spring force, but the Superdrive was dead.

First, I did a System Management Controller (SMC) reset, by Shutting Down and then disconnecting the power cord from the back of the computer for a minute or so. Apple website says to allow 15 seconds. Plug the cord back in and start up. We noticed that the laggy behaviour of the iMac in general went away, which was excellent - point to remember! However, the Superdrive did not start working.

Next, I tried a PRAM reset, by holding down Command+Option+P+R at startup. The first time I did this, the iMac booted into a recovery drive. Weird. Shut down and restarted and did the PRAM reset again, five times in a sequence. No change to the Superdrive problem. Still completely unresponsive.

I googled and found suggestions to try Terminal commands, to make the Superdrive go through some ejection sequences. The command drutil eject did nothing, but then I found a suggestion to try drutil tray eject . Upon pressing Enter to run that command, I heard a click from the Superdrive. I put in a disk, it sucked it in, recognised it as a DVD, fired up DVD Player and started playing the movie. Fixed! :-)

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67 replies

iEye1

Level 1

4 points

Apr 27, 2016 7:16 PM in response to iCare

"How far are you able to insert the disc? Does it feel like it is hitting anything solid when it won't go in any further?" iCare, this is my exact problem. On top of this, every time I start up my white macbook from sleep, restart, or shut down, the optical drive makes the noise it makes as though if you just inserted a disk. The problem is that I dont have to insert a disk for it to make a noise. What would you recommend?

evstein

Level 1

15 points

Aug 26, 2016 10:42 AM in response to eh1255

I have this same issue. It occurs with the drive on all machines. When the computer boots up, I hear 4 drive noises.

The drive accepts the disk being pushed all the way in until the edge of the slot and then a spring pushes the disk back out. It never draws the disk in.

OS 10.11.6

MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2012)

Evans-Air:~ evanstein$ drutil info

Vendor Product Rev

Apple SuperDrive 2.03

Interconnect: USB

SupportLevel: Unsupported

Profile Path: None

Cache: 768k

CD-Write: -R, -RW, BUFE, CDText, Test, IndexPts, ISRC

DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW, BUFE, Test

Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

I have tried 'drutil eject' with no disk, disk pushed all the way in, and disk halfway in. The drive is stored in the box and is used infrequently.

Nov 22, 2016 3:34 PM in response to eh1255

i had the same problem all i did was put a cd/dvd into the drive till you cart get it anymore keeping that held in launch terminal and type drutil eject then press enter it will take the disk in after it has done that re start your laptop and it will work fine

hope with helps

Dec 8, 2016 6:06 PM in response to eh1255

Had the same issue on my MacBook Pro.

The cd drive was not accepting discs - only went in 50%.

I turned it off and restarted the mac, tried putting in the disc while it was re-booting and the disc was accepted.

Working just fine now.

eh1255 Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 1, 2012 3:56 PM in response to iCare

I gave it a shot, but no luck.

Feb 2, 2012 10:46 AM in response to iCare

i tried a already burned dvd and it read it. then i pur in another blank cd and it read it. dont understand why it was spitting them out before.

Nov 19, 2012 1:59 AM in response to eh1255

"drutil eject" with a disk stuck halfway in worked for me as well! Had to try it a couple of times, though. Working like new at the moment...

Aug 11, 2013 6:32 PM in response to eh1255

in Terminal, type : drutil eject internal

a funny noise then all works fine.

zappymx

Level 1

5 points

Aug 11, 2013 8:55 PM in response to zappymx

to check more, i now try to burn some movie from archives, using "one step DVD" option from Idvd. working fine, so the laser "writes" and there is no problem of hardware...

zappymx

Level 1

5 points

Aug 11, 2013 8:49 PM in response to zappymx

actually now "encoding" , so meaby not writing "yet" ... wait and see...

zappymx

Level 1

5 points

Aug 11, 2013 10:12 PM in response to zappymx

i mean is it possible to verify through terminal the status of the laser or lens laser hardware or logic board functions ?

zappymx

Level 1

5 points

Aug 11, 2013 10:57 PM in response to CaoYong

could try the command drutil getconfig so to check if the drive is "working" or not ... I keep learning..

zappymx

Level 1

5 points

Aug 11, 2013 11:02 PM in response to Blumman

did you check the option "drutil getconfig" ?

Joda83

Level 1

8 points

Dec 19, 2013 2:00 PM in response to eh1255

Hi guys Im brand new to this also - How do I find the terminal to type in Drutil Eject etc?

zappymx

Level 1

5 points

Feb 2, 2014 5:13 PM in response to CobraX

suppose your prob was "mechanical".. here my iMac Cd-Dvd drive never worked again, and an external reader was installed. "my" problem was software, hot hardware , failure in the original reader

superdrive won't draw discs in