disk caught in macbook pro
November 12, 2007 8:10 PM Subscribe
MacBook Pro: Disk is caught in the drive and _will not eject_. Please Help have tried everything.
Have tried _all_ the tricks including the restart and button hold down, the credit card thing etc. Now drive is continually trying to eject the disk without success and I am worried computer will melt. Can i just cut power to the optical drive somehow? Does anyone know any other last ditch methods? Have tried tweezers, credit cards, you name it nothing that worked before is working now.
Have tried _all_ the tricks including the restart and button hold down, the credit card thing etc. Now drive is continually trying to eject the disk without success and I am worried computer will melt. Can i just cut power to the optical drive somehow? Does anyone know any other last ditch methods? Have tried tweezers, credit cards, you name it nothing that worked before is working now.
Not too familiar with MacBooks, but a lot of optical drives on laptops have a little hole somewhere on the faceplate that's just big enough to stick a straightened-out paperclip into. Doing this presses a mechanical eject lever which pops open the tray. Also, counter-intuitive as it may seem, pushing _in_ gently but firmly on the tray while it's trying to eject and then letting go abruptly sometimes helps. Other than that, it will probably have to be opened up to get the disk out. Good luck.
posted by Death by Ugabooga at 8:22 PM on November 12, 2007
posted by Death by Ugabooga at 8:22 PM on November 12, 2007
1) Try opening up terminal and entering everything on the next line as it appears:
drutil eject
2) Pull power on the unit (no AC power, no battery; or hold the power button down for ~5 seconds). Restart the computer. When you hear the boot chime, hold down on the trackpad button immediately and don't release until the disc either ejects, fails to eject or you see the Apple logo and spinning gear.
3) Stop jamming things in it! If the drive is experiencing a mulfunction, you're only making the situation worse. You're scratching the disc, marring the metal casing and making it harder to take apart. If it's under warranty, take it where it can be repaired under warranty, as I consider all cases of stuck discs to be failure (failing of course, double or triple disc insertion, foreign objects, and other abuses).
posted by now i'm piste at 8:27 PM on November 12, 2007
drutil eject
2) Pull power on the unit (no AC power, no battery; or hold the power button down for ~5 seconds). Restart the computer. When you hear the boot chime, hold down on the trackpad button immediately and don't release until the disc either ejects, fails to eject or you see the Apple logo and spinning gear.
3) Stop jamming things in it! If the drive is experiencing a mulfunction, you're only making the situation worse. You're scratching the disc, marring the metal casing and making it harder to take apart. If it's under warranty, take it where it can be repaired under warranty, as I consider all cases of stuck discs to be failure (failing of course, double or triple disc insertion, foreign objects, and other abuses).
posted by now i'm piste at 8:27 PM on November 12, 2007
Death by Ugabooga: I know of no slot-loading optical drives that have that hole of which you speak. That's a feature prevalent on older, larger tray loader models.
posted by now i'm piste at 8:30 PM on November 12, 2007
posted by now i'm piste at 8:30 PM on November 12, 2007
I assume you tried holding down the trackpad/mouse button during startup? Not sure about MBPs, but that's the traditional way to do it on Macs.
Otherwise, if you're hearing motor noises coming from the drive, it's probably a mechanical problem for which you would need a new drive.
posted by neuron at 8:31 PM on November 12, 2007
Otherwise, if you're hearing motor noises coming from the drive, it's probably a mechanical problem for which you would need a new drive.
posted by neuron at 8:31 PM on November 12, 2007
Yeah, I don't think you'll find a lot of new answers here. You say you did the credit card trick, did you use a plain old business card as well? (For future searchers, the idea is you turn off the machine, put a business card or a thin piece of cardboard above the top of the disc and press *gently* down, this prevents the disc from spinning and triggers the eject mechanism when you turn the machine on.)
Maybe try this while holding the machine at 45 degrees?
good luck.
posted by jeremias at 8:32 PM on November 12, 2007
Maybe try this while holding the machine at 45 degrees?
good luck.
posted by jeremias at 8:32 PM on November 12, 2007
Try a post-it note. You might be able to get it stuck on the disc.
posted by nathan_teske at 8:46 PM on November 12, 2007
posted by nathan_teske at 8:46 PM on November 12, 2007
Here's something that has worked before (for me).
Turn the system so the drive is vertical. See if it now ejects.
posted by filmgeek at 8:53 PM on November 12, 2007
Turn the system so the drive is vertical. See if it now ejects.
posted by filmgeek at 8:53 PM on November 12, 2007
Assuming:
1) you've told us everything relevant in your post (the MacBook Pro hasn't been warped by dropping it or anything, you did not put a disc in when one was already in there, your kid did not stuff the drive full of wheat thins at some point, etc), and
2) you've tried everything suggested above to no avail, and hence the optical drive appears to have suffered a mechanical failure,
then you just need a new optical drive, plain and simple.
If you're out of warranty, you're probably looking in the neighborhood of $100-$150 for a new drive with installation.
If you're in warranty, don't do anything further yourself. Take it to an Apple-certified repair place and have them put in a new drive free of charge. If you're bending or scratching the case or drive housing trying to get this disc out, you're leaving signs of "abuse." You don't want it to look like the original problem was caused by abuse because then it will not be covered.
Either way, you should get the disc back when you get the computer back.
posted by churl at 9:04 PM on November 12, 2007
1) you've told us everything relevant in your post (the MacBook Pro hasn't been warped by dropping it or anything, you did not put a disc in when one was already in there, your kid did not stuff the drive full of wheat thins at some point, etc), and
2) you've tried everything suggested above to no avail, and hence the optical drive appears to have suffered a mechanical failure,
then you just need a new optical drive, plain and simple.
If you're out of warranty, you're probably looking in the neighborhood of $100-$150 for a new drive with installation.
If you're in warranty, don't do anything further yourself. Take it to an Apple-certified repair place and have them put in a new drive free of charge. If you're bending or scratching the case or drive housing trying to get this disc out, you're leaving signs of "abuse." You don't want it to look like the original problem was caused by abuse because then it will not be covered.
Either way, you should get the disc back when you get the computer back.
posted by churl at 9:04 PM on November 12, 2007
Last minute trick: As you try to eject the disk, tap firmly on the wrist rest above the dvd drive as you do, it may cause the disk to pop out.
(I've seen this work in real life).
posted by mrzarquon at 9:13 PM on November 12, 2007 [1 favorite]
(I've seen this work in real life).
posted by mrzarquon at 9:13 PM on November 12, 2007 [1 favorite]
(also, try to make sure you hard drive isn't doing anything disk intensive).
posted by mrzarquon at 9:14 PM on November 12, 2007
posted by mrzarquon at 9:14 PM on November 12, 2007
2nd mrzarquon. I have not only seen this work, I've witnessed it firsthand. And I'm a complete macidiot.
The very first *week* I had my MBP, it did this twice. I was a PC user up to that point, had never really even dealt with an Apple machine up to that point. It never occurred to me to do anything BUT give it a firm tap on the spot just above the slot. Not a hard smack, just a "hey, gimme that!" kind of deal.
Both times it worked like a charm.
I have had my MBP since April 06. It's only ever done this twice, and hasn't done it since.
*crosses fingers, scowls at machine*
posted by lonefrontranger at 9:22 PM on November 12, 2007 [1 favorite]
The very first *week* I had my MBP, it did this twice. I was a PC user up to that point, had never really even dealt with an Apple machine up to that point. It never occurred to me to do anything BUT give it a firm tap on the spot just above the slot. Not a hard smack, just a "hey, gimme that!" kind of deal.
Both times it worked like a charm.
I have had my MBP since April 06. It's only ever done this twice, and hasn't done it since.
*crosses fingers, scowls at machine*
posted by lonefrontranger at 9:22 PM on November 12, 2007 [1 favorite]
This happened to my son's macbook. A new motherboard fixed it.
posted by caddis at 9:51 PM on November 12, 2007
posted by caddis at 9:51 PM on November 12, 2007
Open the terminal. Type
diskutil list
Click enter. There will be a list of disks. Look for your DVD drive. It might be disk1s2 or something like that. Remember what it is as #.
Now type
diskutil eject #
posted by daviss at 1:47 AM on November 13, 2007
diskutil list
Click enter. There will be a list of disks. Look for your DVD drive. It might be disk1s2 or something like that. Remember what it is as #.
Now type
diskutil eject #
posted by daviss at 1:47 AM on November 13, 2007
daviss: That accomplishes absolutely nothing that can't be done (much easier) by simply running the Disk Utility in GUI mode, and clicking eject, or by rightclicking on the disk in Finder and choosing eject.
The drive is clearly borked, physically. If the machine is still under Applecare, get thee to your local Genius Bar. If not, I would open the machine up and try to surgically extricate it. Only try this if youre handy and unafraid of opening up computers. It's not terribly difficult at all (I replaced my MBP's harddrive myself with little difficulty, and im a bit of a klutz...but i saved $100 by DIY'ing it).
Possibly dangerous advice, but just throwing that option on the table.
posted by melorama at 3:23 AM on November 13, 2007
The drive is clearly borked, physically. If the machine is still under Applecare, get thee to your local Genius Bar. If not, I would open the machine up and try to surgically extricate it. Only try this if youre handy and unafraid of opening up computers. It's not terribly difficult at all (I replaced my MBP's harddrive myself with little difficulty, and im a bit of a klutz...but i saved $100 by DIY'ing it).
Possibly dangerous advice, but just throwing that option on the table.
posted by melorama at 3:23 AM on November 13, 2007
The optical is a little harder than the HD on a MBP, melorama.
Basically, that is not a job for anyone who has not disassembled and reassembled at least a couple of prior laptops not worth 2 grand or so. The possibilities for an inexperienced person to do totalizing damage are too great.
I also have sometimes had luck by holding the machine vertically, whichever way it points the CD tray down, while performing the mousekey-restart routine.
posted by fourcheesemac at 6:53 AM on November 13, 2007
Basically, that is not a job for anyone who has not disassembled and reassembled at least a couple of prior laptops not worth 2 grand or so. The possibilities for an inexperienced person to do totalizing damage are too great.
I also have sometimes had luck by holding the machine vertically, whichever way it points the CD tray down, while performing the mousekey-restart routine.
posted by fourcheesemac at 6:53 AM on November 13, 2007
This happens to my fairly borked Powerbook G4 on a weekly basis. My solution: Gently pull the top of the drive up with one hand and the bottom of the drive down with the other hand while ejecting. This gives the G4 an added millimeter of space and ejects the stuck DVD every time. Not for the faint of heart though.
posted by Izner Myletze at 10:06 AM on November 13, 2007
posted by Izner Myletze at 10:06 AM on November 13, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
Sounds like you've tried all the usual repairs -- the only thing I would suggest at this point is (a) make the call (1-800-GO-APPL) if it's in warranty, or (b) crack it open yourself if out. I've done it to lots of others, but not a macbook pro, so cannot help on the disassembly...but this might help....
posted by liquado at 8:20 PM on November 12, 2007