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DVD with a Disk Cover refuses to come out of iMac

B

BrainlessMacint

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 18, 2012
3
0
I inserted a DVD with a plastic disk protector into my iMac's disk drive, but I cannot eject it. The machine will make the "ejecting" whir, but no disk comes out and I hear a the disk being pulled back in. I know the disk cover is causing the problem, but I have no idea how to get the disk out. I know how to eject disks, but this one cannot be ejected! :(
Please help!
 
I had a the same issue this weekend. The disc stuck in my iMac was just a CD.
So, I had tried everything and was resolved to paying for a service of the iMac until I read on this forum about one last trick to try.
When booting the mac I held down the right mouse button. (in my case the right trackpad click as I do not use a mouse).
Once the OS was up the CD showed as usual as a CD on the desktop, I hit eject and out it popped.

I had tried everything for days to get it out, my imac was at one stage stuck in a repeating cycle of attempting to eject the disc, some how the mechanism just failed to 'grab' the disc and spit it out.

It may help, but I suspect you have an extra issue because you state there was a plastic protector that went it as well.

i have resolved never, never use that optical drive again, this is not the first time I have faced this issue. Never again. Serious design flaw in my opinion.
 
GilesM said:
I had a the same issue this weekend. The disc stuck in my iMac was just a CD.
So, I had tried everything and was resolved to paying for a service of the iMac until I read on this forum about one last trick to try.
When booting the mac I held down the right mouse button. (in my case the right trackpad click as I do not use a mouse).
Once the OS was up the CD showed as usual as a CD on the desktop, I hit eject and out it popped.

I had tried everything for days to get it out, my imac was at one stage stuck in a repeating cycle of attempting to eject the disc, some how the mechanism just failed to 'grab' the disc and spit it out.

It may help, but I suspect you have an extra issue because you state there was a plastic protector that went it as well.

i have resolved never, never use that optical drive again, this is not the first time I have faced this issue. Never again. Serious design flaw in my opinion.
Click to expand...

No, it didn't work. Curse it, this is such bad news to report. How much did it cost to have it repaired, and how long did it take?
 
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A credit card inserted into the slot can help put some extra pressure on the disc and rollers to get the CD to eject. Takes a few tries to find the right spot. I've had good success with this method.

btw what is a plastic disc protector?
 
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I have had this problem on my 2008 iMac. Tried it all before taking it in for a tech to look at. Turned out that the ejector arm had come loose and would try to eject but just couldn't. Lucky my computer had applecare as the drive had to be replaced as when the arm came loose it caused it to break. Sorry I can not give you any suggestions on how to remove the disc but thought this info might help you should you not get it removed. Maybe save you some frustration as I have been there. The actual cost to repair was around $300 but since I had applecare it was no charge.
 
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Ok, thanks everyone for your help, I may just have my father look at it, he's used Macs since they came out. I won't be surprised if the credit card method works. I'll be back in a day to tell you if any methods work, thanks everyone!

Ugh, in light of recent, total failures (random freezes while posting on forums, random lined blue screen of death, and now a DVD getting stuck) I doubt I'll be buying an Apple in the future.

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Knoodles said:
A credit card inserted into the slot can help put some extra pressure on the disc and rollers to get the CD to eject. Takes a few tries to find the right spot. I've had good success with this method.

btw what is a plastic disc protector?
Click to expand...

Thin, clear plastic circle that has little plastic grips on the edge, it simply snaps onto a disk and keeps scratches off. Not my decision to use, my father bought them. But you would think the all-powerful iMac could manage a protected disk.
 
Plastic protectors. Probably not a good idea to use in a slot load DVD player. Also with the credit card you don't just stick it in the slot. You hold onto it and jiggle and move it around while trying to eject.
 
BrainlessMacint said:
No, it didn't work. Curse it, this is such bad news to report. How much did it cost to have it repaired, and how long did it take?
Click to expand...

I got the disc out this way, so I did not need a repair....

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I don't think it will be long until Apple hardware no longer even has an optical drive, all of this is moving to the cloud.
 
yep.. throw i high! I agree it is unsettling for us now to think of an imac with no optical drive, but I am sure it will happen. Latest MAC OS has already moved to download or USB only, no CD's... it's the future I am sure...
 
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