Open CD drawer on dead iMAC?????

V

Victor N.

Registered
Help !!!

I am trying to open the CD drive in a flat panel iMac G4 that won't boot (white screen for a while followed by flashing question mark). The CD drive is empty currently, I would like to reboot with my system disk to attempt repairs. Things that I have tried that didn't work:

eject key and F12 on keyboard
restart holding down "C" or mouse button
going into open firmware and typing eject CD
zapping PRAM with keyboard commands and through open firmware.

Victor
 
Holding down the mouse was one of the attempted fixes early on .... but just gets me to the flashing question mark once again.

Victor
 
You state that the drive is currently empty. If there's no CD in it, there's no need to eject one. Am I missing something here? Just insert the installation medium and boot from it.
 
I need to open the CD drawer in order to insert the installation or repair CD for rebooting and hard disk repair. Currently the drawer is shut, I know there is no CD in there, i.e. that it is empty.

Victor
 
Look for a tiny pin hole near the entrance to the drive itself. Not sure if this model has it. If it does, straighten a paper clip and push it in there and it should open.

or Open the following folders:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/

in order to find and double click the:
Eject.menu

This will put an Eject icon on your menu bar that should open it.
 
There is no pinhole on this flatscreen iMAC model.

Since I can't boot the drive, I can't yet make the suggested edits to create an eject button.

Would I be able to boot the dead iMAC as a firewall disk connected to my laptop if I scraped up a cable? Or is this not going to work given I am currently seeing the flashing question mark ...
 
Victor N. said:
There is no pinhole on this flatscreen iMAC model.

Since I can't boot the drive, I can't yet make the suggested edits to create an eject button.

Would I be able to boot the dead iMAC as a firewall disk connected to my laptop if I scraped up a cable? Or is this not going to work given I am currently seeing the flashing question mark ...
Click to expand...

the pin hole would not be on the actual iMac casing, it would be inside the dummy door, underneath the real drawer, a small hole. this releases the mechanism allowing you to open it.
 
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