iMac DV has jammed DVD-ROM drive

dlloyd

dlloyd

Official Pianist
Well, here is the story:
I was planning on reinstalling the OS on our family's old iMac DV SE today. I backed up all the important files to CD-R through my iBook, however, when I am finally ready to actually do the installation I found out that one of my enterprising younger siblings has decided to save time by inserting two CD-ROMs at a time, instead of the usual one!
Now, being the nice big brother I am, I think to myself 'No biggie, I'll just hit the force eject button and it'll come right out', so I do this. I hear the mechanism grinding away for a few seconds, but no luck!
So I go to Google to find out what I should do to remedy this unfortunate situation, and I discover that, unless someone knows of something else I can try, it looks like I am going to have to do one of two things: either find some way to take the iMac apart, or send it in and have Apple fix it.
Now, I think with my Dad's help, I could probably do the first option, if I can find some directions for hacking an old iMac but the second does not look so good, because it appears that is will cost about $500, more than the computer is worth anyway.

What can I do? If I the rest of my siblings can't use the CD drive, then the computer is pretty much useless, because almost everything they do involves CD-ROMs.
I have issued a moratorium on use of the iMac until further notice, and I am OK for now because I have this wonderful iBook (haven't used the iMac for about two months anyway), but my sisters (I say sisters, not siblings because the primary culprit in this crime is my brother, who, being only 2, doesn't use the computer anyway) are going to start to make noise if they can't play The Sims soon!

Help!!!!
 
get a paper clip - straighten it out. insert the end in the little hole/indentation (normally on far right hand side) and push til you feel it click. this will manually eject the disk. best done with the mac shut down. takes a bit of a feel to find it, but once you do you'll know it.

never use an imacDV cd without a paper clip handy. :D
 
Will this still work for slot loading drives? I was under the impression that the only way they ejected were under their own power.
 
no, this is the method i have used with my slot loader since the first week i got it and had a cd that wouldn't eject. even with an apple tech guiding me, it took a minute to actually feel the spot so just probe around a little bit and eventually you'll hit it.

his post title says a DVD-ROM drive, but i'm assuming from his description that he means the slot loading cd-r/dvd-r.
 
Yes, it is a slot loading, if you remember, the iMac DV SE (which was the first Graphite iMac), had a DVD-ROM drive. Your one has a CD-ROM, but later models had a CD-RW. I don't think any were shipped with a Combo or Superdrive, but I could be wrong on this....

Thank You Ed! I will try this. I REALLY don't like the idea of taking the iMac apart, I have heard that it is a pain in the a**.
 
I just tried that, no luck. I think that maybe it doesn't work with the DVD drive.
I guess I'll just have to take it apart.
 
there's got to be a way to manually eject. i've never seen any type of removable media that doesn't have one somewhere. it's just too common for them to get stuck one way or another.
 
Thank you everyone, 'specially Ed!
I took off the bottom panel (very easy, by the way) and just pulled the second CD out. Fortunately it hadn't been pushed all the way in.

I am so happy!
 
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