DVD Player in early 2009 iMac doesnt show up

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Peggo Author

Level 1

0 points

DVD Player in early 2009 iMac doesnt show up

Processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 2 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB

Software OS X 10.9.5 (13F1603)

I put a DVD in the side slot to watch it on screen. No icon appeared on desktop. Eject key on extended key board does nothing. I went to Applications > DVD Player and was greeted with an error message: "...initialization error -70012 occurred." Any way to get DVD player back? What about suggestions for retrieving the inserted disk?

Ran Disk verification from Disk Utility with no negative results.

iMac (20-inch Early 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Feb 10, 2016 6:45 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 10, 2016 6:56 PM in response to Peggo

It sounds like the drive has failed. I had a similar failure in my 2009 Mac Mini (but was still under warranty at the time, and got it replaced). To eject, you might try rebooting, holding down the mouse button until you see the desktop. Otherwise, there is a paperclip hole in the physical drive (once you remove the iMac's front bezel) that you can manually eject with if worst comes to worst.

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Answer 2

MichelPM

Level 10

80,952 points

Feb 11, 2016 12:50 AM in response to Peggo

The optical drives in older aluminum iMacs is, usually, the first hardware component to fail.

Due, basically, to its orientation in the iMac as well as being exposed to excessive internal heat.

You could try cleaning out the drive, by powering down your iMac, unplugging it from wall power, take a credit card wrapped in a microfiber cloth to see if you can get any of the dust and dirt out by pushing the cloth in and out one movement at a time (cleaning the cloth off each time you pull it out of the slot) until no more dirt comes off on the cloth. Plug your iMac back in, boot up your iMac and try the drive, again.

If it has failed, plan B is to purchase an external optical drive.

The Apple made external optical drive only works with newer Macs that no longer have a bulit-in Super Drive.

If you need an optical drive that works with your year and model Mac, look at these.

Not all optical drives are Mac compatible.
Most Mac compatible drives you will only find to be purchased online.
Here are two on Amazon.com that are cheap and Mac compatible
http://www.amazon.com/LG-GP10NB20-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B004K2Z4MS/ref=sr_1 _3?ie=UTF8&qid=1398883289&sr=8-3&keywords=Mac+compatible+external+LG+optical+dr i ve
http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Portable-External-GP40NB40/dp/B009DS6OFU/re f=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1398883289&sr=8-7&keywords=Mac+compatible+external+LG+opti c al+drive
Here's another source for Mac compatible optical drives. These are better quality optical drives.
These are also tray loading drives.
Tray loading optical drives are more reliable, plus they are capable of playing those smaller mini sized discs.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/VLU2SD24XS/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MR3F82SD24S/
Good Luck!

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