Drive Problem

[jessiah141]

i have an imac that is a little over a year old. all of the sudden i am having an issue with the cd drive. it will no longer take. when i go to insert a disc, nothing happens. the machine doesn't receive it, and the disc just sits in there, and springs back, leaving 1/16th of the disc visible out of the side of the machine. its like the drive mechanism that brings the disc in is broken.

i've tried restarting, tried forcing (though not excessive) the disc in, done some searches but am thus far fruitless.

does anyone have experience with this problem? any input would be great, i'm hoping i don't have to replace the drive, but i'm thinking that is what the problem is.

costs of new drives would be helpful too.

thanks very much.


edit: i see someone else has a similar problem down the list, but mine is different because mine won't take the disc.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

i've tried restarting

By this, do you mean you inserted the disc then started the iMac?

What are the exact specs of your Mac?

Go to "About This Mac" then "More Info ..." and tell me what it says in System Profiler under:

System Profiler ~> Hardware ~> Disc Burning.

 

[jessiah141]

By this, do you mean you inserted the disc then started the iMac?

What are the exact specs of your Mac?

Go to "About This Mac" then "More Info ..." and tell me what it says in System Profiler under:

System Profiler ~> Hardware ~> Disc Burning.

no. i can't get the imac to receive the disc. i restarted the cpu without the disc in (because it won't accept a disc)

when i go blah, blah disc burning it says: "no burning device was found. if you are using an external device please make sure that it is connected and powered properly"....

which leads me to believe i should replace the drive. input?

 

[jessiah141]

not sure what you mean by "exact specs" but the imac is the one before it went skinnier and silver with black trim.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

If the disc is +R or +RW the drive would spit it out as you say. From what I can gather, your iMac is accepting the disc but rejecting it as unreadable. What types of discs have you tried other than the one in question?

 

[jessiah141]

If the disc is +R or +RW the drive would spit it out as you say. From what I can gather, your iMac is accepting the disc but rejecting it as unreadable. What types of discs have you tried other than the one in question?

no. the imac isn't rejecting the disc as unreadable... the imac won't take the disc. as mentioned above, i can never put the disc totally in. i can't even make the disc totally disappear into the imac. i can see about 1/16 of the disc sticking out the side of the imac.

am i making any sense?

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Can you shine a torch into the slot for me and see if there is something caught there?

When you place the disc in the slot and push it gently in, will the drive make any noises at all?

The fact that you write the disc is only showing 1/16th makes me think that it wants to go in ... Do you have AppleCare?

 

[jessiah141]

Can you shine a torch into the slot for me and see if there is something caught there?

When you place the disc in the slot and push it gently in, will the drive make any noises at all?

The fact that you write the disc is only showing 1/16th makes me think that it wants to go in ... Do you have AppleCare?

i tried the torch thing and can see nothing obstructing the drive. the drive makes no noise at all when i go to insert the disc.

i could insert the disc the entire way if i held it in with my hand. when i remove my hand, the disc springs back (no sound at any time) and that is when the 1/16 of the disc shows out the side of the imac.

its like the mechanism that receives the disc and brings it into the cpu is totally dead.

i have no applecare.

i do hope i'm articulating this problem appropriately for you to understand. i could take a video if that would help more.

thank you very much for your input so far.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Have you tried other discs Jessiah? I understand your issue fine ... I've tried to find a replication of it on the web but have had no luck whatsoever.

Is this a standard size disc ... believe me there are several shapes and sizes that people have put into their Macs drive before ...

 

[jessiah141]

Have you tried other discs Jessiah? I understand your issue fine ... I've tried to find a replication of it on the web but have had no luck whatsoever.

Is this a standard size disc ... believe me there are several shapes and sizes that people have put into their Macs drive before ...

i have tried various discs (blank cds/dvds, dvd movies and audio cd) none will take. i'd say positively that these are standard size discs.

when i hit burn disc in itunes (obviously without a disc in) itunes says "disc burner or software not found).

it seems its just died as i've burnt discs/played dvds on this imac as recently as 4 days ago.

can i use my laptop as an external cd/dvd drive/burner for my imac via my home's wireless network?

thank you again for your input.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

If you wanted to burn a disc from your iMac via a laptops drive, I don't know if the necessary data would be properly transferred ...

Can you read post #2 and copy/paste the relevant info about Disc Burning here .....

I found others with your issue:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6912366

 

[jessiah141]

If you wanted to burn a disc from your iMac via a laptops drive, I don't know if the necessary data would be properly transferred ...

Can you read post #2 and copy/paste the relevant info about Disc Burning here .....

I found others with your issue:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6912366

don't get this part. that link looks like my problem. but no real solutions there.