Installation DVD fails to eject

K

knapkin

Registered
I upgraded my 1.5 GHz G4 Powerbook (slot loading drive) to tiger last night. Everything seems to work, but I cannot eject the DVD. I have tried the following things:

1. Drag icon to trash/ eject from finder.
Results in icon dissapearing but volume still exists under /Volumes

2. Open iTunes and use eject button there.
Same result as above with the addition of a spinning balloon for a little while.

3. diskustils eject [voume_name]. Tried this with and witout full path.
Error message, fails to eject. However, volume does not exist in Volumes anymore. Tried this both as user and using sudo.

4. Unmounting the drive first and then each of the three methods above.
1&2: Tiger gets confused about the alias to a drive that is not longer mounted. Would not eject.
3: Did not eject, no substantive output.

5. Reboot into firmware (apple-option-o-f), eject CD.
Did not eject. Error message about not being able to eject. Also tried eject DVD as a last guess.
 
If the disk is actually stuck, and won't physically eject, then you are stuck.
Try this: Shut down, then restart holding either your Trackpad button, or the eject key on the keyboard, while the system starts up. Your drive should attempt to eject. If you still can't get the disk to eject, you may have to take the powerbook in for service. There's only one way to get a stuck CD out, and that means disassembly of the powerbook, and opening the drive itself to get the disk out.
 
Thanks. I will try that tonight. I'm not sure that it is stuck. The drive still operates normally (minus ejecting). When I try to eject, there is no mechanical noise at all.

From my online searching, this appears to be a unique issue... service it is :(
 
i would disagree... If you can't get a disk out, it's not operating normally.
One more try...shut your PowerBook down, and then take a junk CD you might have, GENTLY push it into the slot, not to jam it in, but just to 'nudge' the disk that is in the drive now. Gently push on the disk, trying to slide the disk forward, sometimes it's just enough to get the disk in an 'ejectable' position, and then will eject when you try on the next boot. Good Luck!
 
Mouse button down on reboot is supposed to eject the disk in the drive, so you might want to try that too.
And welcome to the forum.

EDIT: Sorry Delta. Didn't read you mentioned that before..
 
Adding on. If you have another firewire-equipped Mac available, start your disk-stuck Mac up in firewire target-disk mode, and drag the icon of the stuck disk to the trash on the second Mac. Hopefully, it will eject. As a last resort, try the firmware approach:

1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the system startup tone, press and hold the Command-Option-O-F key combination. The computer starts up to a text-only screen, indicating that you are in Open Firmware.
3. At the prompt, type: eject cd
4. Press Return.
5. Type: mac-boot
6. Press Return
 
(He already tried the OF way, from reading the first post.)

Really, if it doesn't give the thing out on reboot with mousebutton down, it's physically stuck.
 
fryke said:
1. (He already tried the OF way, from reading the first post.)

2. Really, if it doesn't give the thing out on reboot with mousebutton down, it's physically stuck.
Click to expand...
1. Yep, I missed that.

2. I've seen cases where reboot/mouse down doesn't work, while open firmware does.
 
Followup:

The reboot with the mouse down worked, so I didn't have to try Delta's cd jiggle. Thanks for the help.

Any thoughts on the cause? I assume that since the drive was able to eject the drive (eventually) and I was able to read the disk while in the drive that it was not physically stuck. It would be nice if I could isolate a cause so as not to repeat this.
 
Well, basically the reason _should_ be that the system thinks it still needs the disk. I.e.: Some process was active in a directory of the disk. Sometimes this happens to me when I use the Terminal to browse a directory ("cd /Volumes/someDVD/somedirectory") and forget about it. Then when I try to unmount the volume, it just doesn't.
 
Right, I had thought that might be the problem which is why I tried unmounting the drive first--which was sucessful--but the disk still didn't eject. Also if this were the case I would have expected the reboot into open firmware to eject the disk.
 
Right... Well. I think the best thing to do right now would be to enjoy Tiger and keep the disk away from your Mac and forget about the problem - until it happens with another disk. ;)
 
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