Powerbook DVD burner no longer recognized

[GeeYouEye]

I've got a 1.5Ghz PB G4 (128MB Radeon 9700 model), and it would appear that the DVD burner is no longer being recognized. It's out of warranty. I've opened it up and verified that the cables are all connected. I know it is receiving power, because it spins up when I tell the computer to shut down. Symptoms: disc in the drive does not mount, eject key does nothing, Disc Burning in System Profiler says "No burning device was found. If you are using an external device please make sure that it is connected and powered properly.", disc in drive is not seen by Disk Utility, ATA in System Profiler only shows my hard drive.

Is there any way to test which component is failing (motherboard or drive), and if the drive needs to be replaced, how do I get my disc out!?

Thanks.

 

[Albal]

Possible solution for disk ejection - hold mouse button down on startup.

See if that works.

 

[GeeYouEye]

Possible solution for disk ejection - hold mouse button down on startup.

See if that works.

Doesn't work, and freezes up the computer until I hit a key on the keyboard.

 

[Albal]

What disk is in there?

OSX disk?

Or something else?

 

[GeeYouEye]

What disk is in there?

OSX disk?

Or something else?

Yes, as a matter of fact, a Leopard seed from earlier this summer. I already tried holding C. no effect.