How to get a stuck CD or DVD out of a macbook

H

hoarp001

Registered
Hi, I noticed that nearly everytime I put a CD or DVD into my macbook drive it gets stuck. I press the eject button, it whurs and wines and tries to eject the disk. It hits the top edge of the slot and is sucked straight back in again.

This is quite anoying, and it might affect the macbook pro or older models but i worked out how to get the discs out.

Insert a train ticket or a business card into the slot. Make sure you push it upwards gently. The purpouse of this is to guide the top edge of the disc out of the slot and stop it catching. The ticket slides between a metal part inside the drive and acts as a ramp to guide the disk out.

Just slide the ticket in and press eject and it comes out first time. i
 
That would seem like a design/construction flaw and a warranty item.

Did you contact Apple Support/Warranties or the store from where you bought it?
 
Have your tried holding down the mouse button once you hear the Mac startup chime? Holding down the mouse button will force eject the disc in the drive.
 
No, It seems to work ok with the train ticket.

I assumed that it was like this because im using 'premium quality' DVDs which seem thicker than normal. If it is a defect, I dont care that much, i hardly ever use the drive and i cant afford to be without it for any length of time...
 
thanks to hoarp001 and nixgeek!

Had to use both suggestions to eject a messed up school cd from my daughter's laptop.

Definitely does not seem like a good design...

Thanks for your posts.
 
This worked well for me. I had inserted a disc into my macbook, but it didn't fully insert. It was in limbo, I couldn't get the CD to read and when I hit eject it wasn't registering there was a CD. I stuck the corner of a folder in the slot, essentially tricking the macbook. Once it began whirring and making all the usual macbook noises it recognized the CD and pulled it the rest of the way in. After I used the CD it ejected fine.
 
well i tried everything; credit card, business card, shaking it (haha) nothing seems to be working.. am i out of luck? should i just bite the bullet and take it into a mac store and pay $38493 to get them to fix it? or are they hard to put back together if i take it apart?
 
blackswantattoo said:
well i tried everything; credit card, business card, shaking it (haha) nothing seems to be working.. am i out of luck? should i just bite the bullet and take it into a mac store and pay $38493 to get them to fix it? or are they hard to put back together if i take it apart?
Click to expand...

The problem is pressure gets applied one way or another and bends the upper part of the optical slot which is a part of the bottom case. It is only a soft molded aluminum so it doesn't take much. You'll have to pull the top case and then the optical drive. Then what I usually do is wedge a couple black nylon probe tools into the slot to expand the opening and let set apart like that for a while. You have to wedge the tools with the machine apart because otherwise you will likely damage the optical drive itself. Then after reassembly the problem is solved usually permanently unless it gets bent again by misuse or abuse. You can find take apart guides online but if you are not familiar with laptop repair and don't want to potentially break some delicate pieces, or pinch wires since you'll be messing with a lot of routed cables to get the optical out, then don't do it. If you take it to the Apple store they will most likely try to charge you an arm and a leg to replace parts or quote it as abuse, unless you find a genius that is a real tech.
 
This might be useful for some of you-

I tried the reboot method, the holding down mouse button method, pressing the eject...etc. but they all didn't work so my CD was stuck in my mac for the whole night until I tried the card method properly.

The first time I tried I slipped the card in breadth-wise because I couldn't get the card to slide into the middle part but it didn't work so I tried again to slide it in length-wise- pushing the card over the disc when it got to the middle (required some effort) and it worked!

Thank you hoarp001
 
thanks so much.... it really works and saves my time going to the service center instead.

nixgeek said:
Have your tried holding down the mouse button once you hear the Mac startup chime? Holding down the mouse button will force eject the disc in the drive.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the advice. Being an old PC guy I naturally was disappointed to not find the "paper clip hole" .... but then, this is a sleek, elegant Mac. Who would go poking holes in such a nice system??

Anyway, I grabbed one of my business cards and it worked like a charm. My business cards are more durable, not the floppy print-your-own style. A credit card was too thick, however.

In my case the CD that was in the drive was actually bent, not the drive itself. Hopefully I didn't break anything while I was fumbling through the repair .... my wife's employer might be a bit miffed at me. (Their laptop....)

Cheers.
 
davestahr said:
In my case the CD that was in the drive was actually bent, not the drive itself. Hopefully I didn't break anything while I was fumbling through the repair .... my wife's employer might be a bit miffed at me. (Their laptop....)

Cheers.
Click to expand...

I hope you wife goes easy on you. :eek:
 
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