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Cd Drive will not open on imac g5

Good Morning Team,


I have an imac g5 no OS but I cant get the CD Drive Open so I can put in my Install disk..


Any help would be great thank you...


All the best from Alan

iMac

Posted on Apr 12, 2016 3:11 AM

Reply
12 replies

Apr 12, 2016 8:29 AM in response to finelock

Some slot-loading optical drives used by Apple during that period did have a "bar." Should the drive fail, a blocking device would move across the slots to prevent insertion of disks that could not be later removed. However, I agree with Duane--check for a stuck disk first.


If you can see a disk in the drive, restart the computer and hold down the mouse button while it restarts. That may eject the stuck disk.


If you shine a light in the slot and can see a bar, then you know the drive has failed and need replacing. Given the difficulty in finding compatible older-style drives and the cost of labor, a used external optical drive--preferably with FireWire connectivity--could be the cheaper option.

Apr 14, 2016 5:55 PM in response to Duane

That is news to me. I have taken apart many CD/DVD drives and haven't seen a bar to block non-drawer drives.


Dear Duane,


Sorry to be late in returning. T'was a busy couple of days.


Back when the G5 iMac was hot stuff around here there were a number of posts where people said they thought a disk was stuck in the drive but, on shining a light in the slot, saw a metal piece in the way instead of a disk.


There is mention of a safety arm and its possible malfunctions in this iFixit Q&A:


https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/3762/my+cd+is+blocked+in+optical+drive+%21+i +can%27t+unlock


A similar question, same site, different responder:


https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/92125/Repair+%22blocked%22+optical+drive


Here's an old ASC MacBook Pro discussion where the OP says something is blocking the slot without any disk inserted:


MacBook Pro Optical Drive blocked! Drive is empty


Another similar question with answer on a site I never heard of before Googling "blocked optical drive":


http://earthwithsun.com/questions/194613/macbook-optical-drive-blocked


This "arm" is apparently integral with the drive unit, not part of the mounting bracket as I once thought. Its purpose was to prevent insertion of a second disk but it sometimes deployed before a disk was inserted. I found this picture of a Mac slot drive opened up and, from posters' description of the "block" being to the right of center, I believe the part I've indicated with the red arrow is the "safety" arm, or at least part of it:

User uploaded file


Anyway, respectfully offered for your consideration!


Allan

Apr 15, 2016 5:22 PM in response to Duane

Duane,

I wonder if this blocking action is completely unintentional and really just a failure of the mechanics of the drive.


From my reads it appears the primary purpose of the device is to prevent us from inserting a disk when one was already there. I bet you remember some of the old "I have two disks jammed in my slot-load drive!" posts in the AD days. I remember them from the CRT iMac forums.


However, I also get the impression that there are two malfunction modes, one possible intentional:


1) When it is time to eject a disk the arm fails to drop out of the way, trapping a disk in the slot. One of those articles I linked has a youtube video showing this problem. The person in the video suggests the problem can be either "one off" or repeating.


2) The "maybe intentional" one: should the drive fail, the arm deploys to prevent insertion of a disk into a non-working drive. Hard to tell if this is a variant of mode #1 or a proative design feature.


I have a non-working 2007 MBP (a victim of the infamous nVidea Curse) staring at me. Maybe I need to extract its optical drive and study it from the inside!

Apr 16, 2016 12:57 PM in response to finelock

If yours is an earlier iMac G5 (of a few shown to be able to use this replacement) a suitable

replacement optical superdrive from OWC appears on this page; and there are others...


• Mercury Super-MultiDrive -- compatible with iMac G5, and iBook G4, etc:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MIBG4SD8XDL/


Not sure the level of difficulty required to replace an optical drive in iMac G5; there are a

few repair guides at iFixit.com to gather some visual information; also OWC has videos.


Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Cd Drive will not open on imac g5

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