Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

DVD stuck!

F

flyaway

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 19, 2006
6
0
HELP! I somehow managed to get a DVD stuck in my Macbook's drive, and nothing will get it out! It's making the most awful noises, I think it's still trying to read it but can't. I am pretty sure it was a normal-sized disc, I got it on my travels (one of those DVDs you buy when you go on an activity you can't bring your camera on). But when I inserted it in, it just felt wrong. Thicker, somehow? I ignored my instincts and inserted it in anyway. What a mess.

My Macbook won't stop trying to read the disc and making horrible noises and I am near tears. Argh!

Edit: (I've tried all the stuff in the Mac help, including the paper clip and NOTHING WORKS.)
 
i personaly have trid this and it workd for me.

get the cardboard from a pack of batteries
insert a corner into the dvd player until it comes into contact with the disc, insert it a little bit more and then twist the cardboard, this would stop the spinning disc and force the player to spit the disc out.
 
Sounds like perhaps it had a homemade label on it that wasn't very friendly.

If nothing else, drop by your local Apple Store and see what they can do for you.
 
Thanks so so so so so very much, teckisnow, that trick worked! Now to see if the drive still works after all that noise...

(Yup I did try restarting and holding the mouse button, eva01, unfortunately it didn't work.)

Any idea why the DVD caused that to happen? I put it up against another DVD I had to compare their sizes, and it's a standard size. But, like I said, the resistance as I was pushing it in felt very slightly different. I'd really like to know if there's any way I can tell what won't work so as to avoid giving myself any more heart attacks.

Edit: realityisterror: Actually, the DVD does have a homemade label. Well, it's a sticker with the company's logo and stuff on it. But why would that cause the whole thing to jam up like that?

Guess I'll have to watch my skydiving video on someone else's computer...
 
If holding the mouse button at startup didn't spit it out, it was physically stuck. That trick would force it out no matter what software problems there were.

As to why it got stuck, it is likely that the label was the culprit, making it ever so slightly thicker than expected. Since you know how to get it back out now, you could try again and see if the disc is the culprit or if it was a one in a million error.
 
slot loading DVDs are a fickle bunch

your welcome :) glad to be of help
slot loading has a known problem with disc thickness and stuff that youu put on it.
that y most notebooks out there use the traditional cd/dvd readers which has a pinhole to physiically release the catch.
in the design of all mac notebooks, they were traditionally steered away from looking like another PC notebook clone thus slot loading. essentially it is more of a design thingy so there will be that occasional stuck dvd again! :rolleyes: but now that you know how to get it out again (no worries about spoiling the player, it won't) and if you use a wireless mouse, kb, it makes sense to have a pack of batteries with you! :D now you have even more reasons ;)
 
Thank you! Thank you!

My Macbook had a serious jam too so I was freaking out. I put a CD in that had a homemade label. My computer spun the CD then started making these awful scraping noises until it ground to a halt. Then it attempted to eject the CD over and over again all the while making this awful grinding noise.

I googled the problem to figure out what to do and I found your post suggesting I use the carboard from a pack of batteries. I really didn't think this would work because i was convinced the label had peeled off in the heat and permanently jammed itself in my drive. So I farted around for a while with a piece of thin cardboard. I could not distinguish the drive parts from the CD and there didn't seem to be anything i could slip the carboard under. The cardboard was also bending and getting all dinged up. So I gave up on that and got out my driver's liscence. I shoved it in and waited for my computer to try ejecting the CD again and to my absolute shock it worked! The CD came out perfectly intact.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for that brilliant suggestion. I was sure my computer was completely f**ked. I'm so happy that I got that CD out. You've saved me hundreds of dollars in repair costs. I would never have thought to do that.

Just some humble refinements to your suggestion, I found the driver's liscense easier because it was clean and rigid so i could poke around a bit more. It also doesn't have the raised numbers like a credit card. (I tried my credit card and it wasn't working.) Also, I found i had to shove it in to the side of the drive closest to the mouse button and just hold it there. I couldn't get it in on the side closest to the screen, nor could I insert it near the center of the slot. The only other thing that helped me was waiting for the computer to try ejecting the CD itself. When i pushed the eject button using this technique it didn't work. It only popped out when my computer did the ejecting on it's own.

I hope no one else has to go through this! PLEASE don't put CDs or DVDs with homemade labels in your computer!
 
Another HINT !!!

My DVD stuck , I FIND NEW WAY TO REMOVE DVD. Method above work for me one time, but now i try another one. See steps:
1) Remove your battery
2)Hold down botton to try force eject
3) Place any card to hold and after three times, dvd try eject, but if not dvd pull out
4) When dvd try read 3 times, will try force eject, take off energy power cord at eject and BEFORE DVD is loaded again. You need take off energy at a moment dvd try eject, to set dvd free to drag with any hard paper, card ou battery pack. I did it and remove jusk shake macbook pro up and down.
Can u underestand my hint ?
Good luck
 
macbr said:
My DVD stuck , I FIND NEW WAY TO REMOVE DVD. Method above work for me one time, but now i try another one. See steps:
1) Remove your battery
2)Hold down botton to try force eject
3) Place any card to hold and after three times, dvd try eject, but if not dvd pull out
4) When dvd try read 3 times, will try force eject, take off energy power cord at eject and BEFORE DVD is loaded again. You need take off energy at a moment dvd try eject, to set dvd free to drag with any hard paper, card ou battery pack. I did it and remove jusk shake macbook pro up and down.
Can u underestand my hint ?
Good luck
Click to expand...

You make my head hurt, A LOT!

The answer to your last question, "Can you underestand my hint?" is umm..... No! ;) but anything that involves shaking my MBP up and down, i'm gonna stay away from! :D
 
I have nothing to say about MB's CD drives, but my 3-year old stuck 3 (three) DVD's into an original slot-load iMac's drive once. Well, twice, actually. In those cases is was necessary to disassemble the entire computer to physically remove the offending discs.
 
flyaway said:
Actually, the DVD does have a homemade label. Well, it's a sticker with the company's logo and stuff on it. But why would that cause the whole thing to jam up like that?
Click to expand...

CDs/DVDs must be nearly perfectly balanced, else they'll wobble when they spin. The paper could have had enought weight difference to throw the disk out of balance, so it actually makes contact with parts inside the drive unit (thus the "horrible" noise)
(have you ever tried to balance a ceiling fan? Same principle, much higher RPM)

Slot loaders have very close tolerances; it's possible the thickness of the label went a bit too far, or, the paper was too slick, and the rollers that take in/eject the disk could not get a good grip.
 
i have a normal DVD stuck in my macbook...
tried all these tips... none worked... gettin annoyed...
any suggestions?? please....
 
I Had Teh Same Peoblem

:apple::apple::apple:Your MacBook frame is bent , you need to take it to a Apple Store.:apple::apple::apple:
 
one more option before taking it for repairs.

I've had similar problems in the past. It wasn't "Stuck" so much as it didn't seem to detect the disk. You might want to try:

Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility.

When you open Disk utility on the left side will show all the current drives, including your disk drives. If you click on the disk drive (even if there is something in there but it hasn't recognised it), then click "eject" form the top of the manager.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back