What Causes a DVD to Get Stuck?

[Amie]

I could not eject a DVD from my iBook. I tried EVERYTHING. The only thing that saved me was holding down the Command + Option + O + F keys while restarting and then typing in "eject cd" at the Open Firmware screen and then "mac-boot." After it ejected, I re-inserted the same DVD (call me dangerous) and it ejected fine (by pressing the Eject key) every time after that.

That said, what could've caused the DVD to get stuck?

 

[sirstaunch]

Was the DVD in use by another application?

 

[Amie]

Was the DVD in use by another application?

That's the message I kept getting: "The DVD is in use and could not be ejected. Quit all applications and try again." Or something to that effect. But it WASN'T in use, and ALL applications were quit. I even waited a LONG time and tried ejecting it again. Several times. No such luck. There's no way it could've been in use for that long with no applications running. The DVD was The Sims 2 game. I just played for a little while and didn't even save the game when I quit. There were no other applications running and the disk had stopped spinning (I could hear/feel it) and still would not eject.

Does that help?

 

[Mikuro]

There are always processes running, though. Open Activity Monitor, and you'll see a couple dozen invisible processes running at all times. One of these might have been holding onto a file on the DVD for some reason.

It could have also been the Finder. Did you try quitting the Finder? And did you try just logging out before restarting? That would ensure that any user-specific invisible processes would quit.

Similar things have happened to me a few times. Drives me bloody insane. It seems to happen more often when I have Classic running, although I don't know why. I'll usually start killing invisible processes from Activity Monitor until I can eject it. If push comes to shove, I restart while holding down the mouse button, which I think is pretty much the same as your Open Firmware method, but a little easier.

 

[Amie]

There are always processes running, though. Open Activity Monitor, and you'll see a couple dozen invisible processes running at all times. One of these might have been holding onto a file on the DVD for some reason.

It could have also been the Finder. Did you try quitting the Finder? And did you try just logging out before restarting? That would ensure that any user-specific invisible processes would quit.

Similar things have happened to me a few times. Drives me bloody insane. It seems to happen more often when I have Classic running, although I don't know why. I'll usually start killing invisible processes from Activity Monitor until I can eject it. If push comes to shove, I restart while holding down the mouse button, which I think is pretty much the same as your Open Firmware method, but a little easier.

Thanks, Mikuro.

Actually, I tried holding down the mouse button while restarting before I did the Open Firmware thing. Didn't work. Maybe because I have a trackpad mouse? (I have an iBook.)

The good news is that I've inserted that very same DVD several times since then and it ejects perfectly every time. I don't know what happened that first time, but I hope it doesn't happen again. I was near panicking. But, at least now I know what to do if it ever does happen again.

 

[pds]

I had a dvd get stuck on me; it would start to eject and then reload itself before coming out of the case. I pried the slot open a bit with my fingers and it came out. Since then - no problems, even with the same dvd.

(oh - on an iBook)

 

[Amie]

I had a dvd get stuck on me; it would start to eject and then reload itself before coming out of the case. I pried the slot open a bit with my fingers and it came out. Since then - no problems, even with the same dvd.

(oh - on an iBook)

Yeah, the DVD slot on an iBook is a bit different than the ones on desktops. I found something in Mac Help about inserting a straightened paperclip into the emergency eject hole and pushing firmly until it clicks ... and I wasn't about to do that, no way. The Open Firmware command really saved my butt ... and my DVD.