My USB SuperDrive won't recognize or eject a disc. What can I do?

This is a known problem with the Apple branded Superdrives whether they are installed inside the system or one of the External units. They seem to fail all to often. You could try cleaning the drive but if the disc isn't ejecting at all then more than likely the drive motor for the ejection process has failed.

In tha case just Chaulk is up to experience and go out and buy any other brand external DVD drive that connects by USB port and it will work with your Mac. It does not have to have the Apple name on it for it to work with any Mac computer, or any computer of any brand.

They are usually better drive and a lot less expensive than the Apple external Superdrive. Also 99% of them are Tray Loading which in my honest opinion are better to begin with.

I too had a major problem with the Apple External Superdrive not ejecting many of my DVD and CD disks. I would have to turn the dive upside down to get it to eject the disk in it …. completely unacceptable coming from Apple. You would have thought they would have bench tested the current Superdrive design, and fixed this issue before releasing it for sale.

Well, it looks like they may have tried to make a fix on some of the more recently produced Superdrives, I'll explain ….

If you are able to open the bottom plate of the Superdrive, take it off, you'll see that Apple has placed a small black foam square pad (about 1/2" square), at the top of the internal unit (at the top near the entrance slot). This small square foam rubber pad is not evident on some earlier Apple Superdrive units, indicating that Apple had figured out the internal unit was "hanging up" some disks inside by not being aligned with the slot properly (the tolerances were obviously designed very tight by Apple. So what they did was a "fix" where a piece of rubber was added to the internal component, that raise the internal drive better to allow the disc to eject better.

Here's the problem though, I my case, I had that small rubber piece in my Superdrive …. but it was still not ejecting discs like it should.

So after looking around youtube, I got an idea from a youtube video (thanks to "TheHobbieCollector"), and did it one better.

What needs to be done is just to follow-up on Apple's "fix" effort, but one better. The small rubber pad just needs to be "boosted" by placing another small rubber/foam pad (the same thickness), on top of the existing one (or a double thickness pad if your unit has no small rubber pad in the first place).

I hope the following photos are self-explaining as to what has to be done to "fix" the Apple Superdrive "ejecting" issue. I immediately noticed I had practically no more "eject" issues after having performed this single "fix" … but yes, I still have that rear occasion to have to turn the drive upside down to eject a stubborn disc … but this is very very rear for me after the "fix".

Hope this helps all with the same Superdrive "eject" issue

1. Before opening the bottom plate, protect it from scratching …. open with a thin dinner knife or putty blade.

2. This is what the bottom plate looks like, taken off, Note where the metal clips are located

3. Note the two small locator pins in the front of the bottom plate. It's important these are put in first

and correctly located when putting the bottom plate back on.

4. This is a close-up of what the bottom plate clips look like. They are metal and pretty strong.

5. This is the small rubber pad I mentioned, Some early Superdrives may not have this.

6. Another angle view of the "original Apple pad applied to the inside unit.

7. The FIX … Applied another (same thickness as original), over the Apple original pad. This gave enough

of a "boost in internal drive "alignment-to-eject slot" … without affecting the dive performance!

Use cut thin rubber strip, or foam (same thickness as Apple original pad) …. and double-sided tape, or

glue to affix on top of the existing Apple rubber pad.