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iMac parts questions

Scarlet Fever

Scarlet Fever

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 22, 2005
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A while ago, my 800MHz G4 iMac died, so i decided i would make use of its Superdrive and HDD, seeing as they are both better and bigger than the ones in my MacBook. I gutted the iMac, leaving only what was needed. I know how to connect them up to the computer, and i've tested both, and they work fine (except the superdrive required PatchBurn to be recognised).

When i tested it outside of its hemispherical case, the SuperDrive was great, except i needed to press the eject button to open the tray. My question is; How can I get the tray to open without pressing the button on the Superdrive? Can I assign a key combination to open it?

Cheers

Lee
 
I don't have anything to test this on, but maybe try OPTION-EJECT or SHIFT-EJECT or something. I imagine the regular EJECT key is still associated with the internal drive, right? :)
 
try holding F12 down, don't just hit it once. I know on my girlfriends PowerBook that if she just taps it, dashboard does come up. But if she holds it down, the eject symbol comes on the screen and CD will eject.
 
Thanks for the help, Mad Jew, Sawtoothdude and wwooden. Very much appreciated :)
FN-F12 was dashboard, and holding it made Dashboard come up, and disappear when i let it go. :(

A better question may be, how is this done in the Mac Pros, or the G4 PowerMacs that had 2 optical drives? I'm guessing its somewhat similar.
 
I'm pretty sure it's OPTION-EJECT for Macs with two internal optical drives. On the laptops, if FN-F12 doesn't eject the disk then F12 should, unless you changed something in the System Preferences (Keyboard & Mouse pane) or you have a third party key changer running. :)
 
mad jew said:
I'm pretty sure it's OPTION-EJECT for Macs with two internal optical drives. On the laptops, if FN-F12 doesn't eject the disk then F12 should, unless you changed something in the System Preferences (Keyboard & Mouse pane) or you have a third party key changer running. :)
Click to expand...
For me, F12 brings up Dashboard. If i hold it, Dashboard stays open until i release the key. FN-F12 has the same effect. I unchecked the Dashboard keyboard shortcut in System Preferences, and it still doesn't eject. I don't know of any third-party key changers, so i wouldn't think thats the problem.
I've tried every possible key combination with Command, Option, Control, Shift, F12 and Eject, and none of them made the drive eject. Again, thanks for the tip :)
 
Okay, unless it's different for MacBooks, there should be a box in the Keyboard & Mouse pane of System Preferences entitled Use The F1-F12 Keys To Control Software Features. Is this checked or unchecked? It is unchecked for me which means F12 is eject. For ease of use, I then changed Dashboard to F8 via System Preferences. :)
 
mad jew said:
Okay, unless it's different for MacBooks, there should be a box in the Keyboard & Mouse pane of System Preferences entitled Use The F1-F12 Keys To Control Software Features. Is this checked or unchecked? It is unchecked for me which means F12 is eject. For ease of use, I then changed Dashboard to F8 via System Preferences. :)
Click to expand...
I've just realised, on my MacBook's keyboard, the eject key is a seperate key to the F12 key, unlike your iBook, which shares an F12 and Eject key. I followed your steps above (checked the box, changed Dashboard to F8, but it still didn't work, so i tried it with the box unchecked, still nothing), and now when i press F12, it makes an alert noise at me, which i assume means the OS doesn't have a command assigned to that keystroke.

I'm starting to think its something which can't be done through the OS. Do you know of any applescripts which would do the job? Looking forward to the cricket season, Mad Jew?
 
Okay, well have you tried holding OPTION with this EJECT key? If that doesn't work then I don't know of any other way, sorry. I'm not sure of any AppleScripts to do this. :eek:






Cricket season? I'm still getting over the footy... :D
 
mad jew said:
Okay, well have you tried holding OPTION with this EJECT key? If that doesn't work then I don't know of any other way, sorry. I'm not sure of any AppleScripts to do this.
Click to expand...
nah, doesn't work. looks like i'm going to have to get creative with a drill and a means of pressing that button. :cool:
Thanks again for your help, Mad Jew. :D
 
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