My cd drive won't accept a cd or dvd

Hi!

My daughter just took my Mac pro to the Apple store, with the same problem and they just told us to buy an external disc drive at best buys or somewhere like that...it seems to me that thee are enough of us with the same problem and Apple is just brushing us off....For such an expensive devide I would expect a bit more support. Thanks for nothing Apple!

If a disc does not go into the drive, there may be a disc in there, even though that disc is not seen by system. Run Disk Utility. There is no optical disc in the sidebar?

Try shutting down (powering off) the iMac and leave it OFF for a few minutes, to reset the hardware. Then, start up with the mouse button held down, which should eject any disc on the optical drive. Even if nothing comes out, after the startup completes, try inserting a disc again.

If there really is nothing in the optical drive, and you cannot insert a disc, there may be a physical hardware problem on the drive that prevents it from accepting a disc. Or the drive may have somehow become misaligned from the slot in the case, so the disc is not going into the drive when inserted.

When you say it won't accept a disc, does that mean it goes in, spins for a few seconds, and gets spit out? Or does it mean the disc does not go completely into the slot at all?

Sorry for the stupid question, but are you inserting it in the correct direction? The top (label side) of the disc should be facing you.

A Mac Pro? The Mac Pro has a different type of optical drive (compared to an iMac and most other Macs). It is full size, with a "tray" that comes out where you place the disc, instead of a slot where you insert the disc. It is also a standard component, not a special part like the one in the iMac.

The Mac Pro (before the newest version that's about to go on sale) is designed to make swapping components relatively easy. Apple provides these instructions

http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA919/en_US/Mac_Pro_Early2009_Optical_Dr ive_DIY.pdf

This web page has more info

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/mac-pro-how-to-install-second- optical-drive-bluray.html#mac_pro_optical_drive_instructions

So, you can actually go to "Best Buy" and buy a replacement drive for a Mac Pro.