i mac has not being accepting any disc for a couple of weeks i need it to work
iMac (27-inch Mid 2011)
I found a lot of people on the internet were complaining about the same issue and discounting the first crazy (so i thought) bit of advice I read I set about reinstalling drivers, rebooting, reinstalling Snow Leopard, PRAM reset, deleting permissions etc etc to no avail. So as a last resort, totally fed up at this point and resigned to buying a new DVD drive / Macbook I remembered the first bit of advice I read.
I took out my Tesco Clubcard, wrapped it in a Vision Express lense cloth, jammed it about 3 cm's in to the optical drive slot and wiggled it about a bit. I couldn't beleive the amount of crud that came out of it. I used the same method with several baby wipes and guess what...
It worked!!!
I can now play all my DVD's and CD's
Wish I'd just done this in the first place.
Matt
OMG it worked. Thanks so much @mattcurtis777. Sounded a bit dodgy and I'd caution against overdoing it with cheap wipes (mine tore a little bit in the drive but came out whole), but I figured, hey, it's a 2007 iMac, nothing to lose. And a SuperDrive to gain. 🙂
yep the baby wipe x credit card thing worked for me
but then when I inserted a blank dvd, after a while it ejected it and the system encountered a thing and proceeded to restart
might have overdid it with the baby wipe because the blank dvd came out wet
thought it was the grey screen of death for me there, thank goodness my 2011 macbook is ok
I had the same issue with the same make, model of iMac.
To fix this issue I did the following:
1. Downloaded the most recent bootcamp drivers onto a 8GB USB stick formatted at FAT32.
2. Load windows (10) in my case.
3. Open Windows Explorer and browse to the USB drive.
4. Browse to \Bootcamp\Drivers\Apple\
5. Run the 'AppleODDInstaller64' in Windows 8 compatibility mode and run as Administrator.
6. Reboot your computer.
The next time you load Windows your CD/DVD/Optical drive will work.
Hope that works for you as well, cheers.
Well the trick worked but what I did was blow into the slot and it was all clear. I figured it will be because I opened the mac to upgrade my SSD drive and noticed it was very dusty inside. I figured its the same problem and windows PC where they don't get normal use, then they will get stuck or not read anything until you blow out the bust on the lens.
I can't believe 30 seconds of cleaning ended probably over two years of a dysfunctional CD drive. First-aid sterile wipe (perhaps a bit less harmful, less soapy cloth than a baby wipe [?]) and a metro card worked for me.
hahahahahahaha, this is ridiculous because something so simple as this has been my headache for a long time. I cant believe I was almost at the point of taking it to the repair center. Thank you so much.
I had given up on fixing or replacing my DVDR drive and followed the instructions that were given to used a version of one solution offerred. I sprayed a paper towel with lysol household spray till it was damp. Wrapped a credit card around it and slid it into the slot, about 2 inches and then brought it across the entire opening and pulled it out.
IT WORKED!!!!!
I'm having a similar problem. I have a late 2011 13" MacBook Pro (8,1) and I don't usually use my DVD drive, but after a while I tried to put in a DVD, and it tried to spin it up 4 times, and after 15 seconds it spat it out. Couldn't figure out what was wrong, put in a 3x5 notecard, and it seemed to fix it. Came back several months later, tried again, same problem. Similar solution but only seemed to fix it once and then putting in a disk after it loads doesn't work. I've tried vacuuming it, puffing air in it, I tried the credit card trick where I wrap it in a glasses cleaner cloth or moist fabric and whatever I do, it seems like at best I get one use out of it before the problem returns.
So what should I do? Does it sound like I just need to clean it better, or is my drive bad?
Is there a replacement drive I should install? (We have an old unused white MacBook, would the superdrive from that work?) It does look a little more complicated to replace the DVD than just putting in new RAM so I'm a little hesitant to even remove it to clean better.
I've considered getting an external DVD drive but that's not really an elegant or portable solution.
The credit card and lens felt help the CD player to stay active a little longer, so I knew there was an improvement, so I then used a can of compressed gas and finished the cleaning with it blowing into the CD slot. That fixed the problem and now I an using the CD slot normally. Thank you.
I had a similar problem.
My MacBook Pro did not read music CD's or data cd's, it just ejected them after trying to read. No fix worked until now.
Updated to the new Sierra OS and all problems solved, the drive now reads everything no problem.
Never use compressed air to blow inside of an iMac!
You will only be pushing and building up more dust. dirt, lint into your iMac that you will never get out, causing your iMac to heat up more, until your have to bring your iMac into an Apple Store or Apple authorised service center for an internal cleaning.
Have you tried one of the available dry brush CD/DVD lens cleaning discs like this?
My wife just got a late 2011 MBP online, and we found the SuperDrive unresponsive unless the Disk Utility was opened - and then it just spat the disc back out.
We tried the trick you've recommended, and - amazingly - it did the trick. Thanks for the suggestion!
Super Funny!!! this totally worked for me also, thanks!!!! 🙂
Worked for me too. Genius!
dvd and CD drive not working it will not accept any disc
