CD burner won't work in Help! G4 Powerbook drive problems

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bearpaw45

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I just slipped in a CD and it won't mount. The Drive doesn't appear to be working at all. I tried all the tricks for getting the CD to eject and nothing works. Is there a manual process that I can use to get it out? That's my first wish: To retrieve the CD. Secondly, I think I have a problem with the Drive.

Everything was working fine up to this point...I'd been burning a CD and then switched over to a portable hard drive to place photos on it. All went well.

Next I put my previously burned CD back in the drive and dead silence and no mounting like it always did before.

Do they die this suddenly? Or could something else be stopping it from functioning?

I've got OS 10.2.6 on a G4 Powerbook.

I'd appreciate any help on what I could do next.
Peg
 
The CD-ROM drive on this computer, the G3, stopped fully functioning a while ago. Sure, it can still read commercial CD's like Starcraft, but CD-R's and music CD's were out of the question. After a massive overhaul, including reformatting and reinstalling everything, it works most of the time, except for certain CD-R's.

You should take your computer in to have someone look at it and either fix or replace your drive if it is nonfunctional. As for the ejection problem, look for a small hole near the CD insertion point, whether tray- or slot-loading. It may be hard to find, but it should be there. Now take a paper clip, unbend one end so you can shove it with ease, and shove it into this hole until your CD ejects. Rather a standard procedure.
 
There is no hole near the CD, at least on my G4 Powerbook.

Hold the mouse, trackpad button down and restart. The CD should eject.
 
Thank you for your help.
I finally gave Apple a call and she walked me through the process. There's no hole anymore and all the standard ways didn't work.

Here's what made it eject:
Hold down the Apple key, Option, key, and F.
Then hit the Power button and immediately hold down the O button.

When you get a screen, you can type in the words: eject cd

Out it'll come. This got to the firmware and after running Disk Repair (no problem there) and trying several kinds of CDs , they all mounted. Somehow the firmware became corrupted.

I run Norton System Works 3.0 and I wonder if it didn't have something to do with it???

Thanks again for your help. Whew. I'm sure glad the disk works and the photos are OK.
Peg
 
Yes, the drive is working again. She said somehow the firmware got corrupted and the procedure we did helped get it working optimally.

I forgot to mention before doing that restart with the 4 fingers, you need to shut down the computer and then restart it with that technique.

The drive is under warranty until November so if anything else happens, I'll be taking it in. I still think it's awfully slow working but the Mac tech person said that was normal.
She couldn't say what caused the corruption to the firmware.
Peg
 
Okay, so how do you repair stuff in Open Firmware? This is a new technique to me, and something I intend to try if I know how to get results.
 
Hi Arden,
I don't know the answer to your question on Open Firmware.
Repairing the disk and repairing permissions from the CD is what she recommended in the way of repairs.
This was my first step into firmware repair. Sorry I can't tell you more.
peg
 
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