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Question

How to eject unrecognized CD from iMac?

Sep 24, 2011 7:58AM PDT

Holding down the mouse button while restarting no longer works in Snow Leopard. Help! I didn't know the advance CD I inserted doesn't yet exist as far as GraceNote knows...
And can't call AppleCare till Monday...

Discussion is locked

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Answer
A lot of times
Sep 24, 2011 8:47AM PDT

A lot of times if you just wait a little bit, it will spit the disc out on its own if it can't read it. If that doesn't work, the drive's probably gone bad, and the problem with slot loading drives like Apple loves to use, is that you can't use the paperclip trick.

Not sure why you have to wait until monday to call, since AppleCare reps should be available pretty much 24/7, and could probably schedule an appointment at a nearby AASP or retail store. Of course unless they have a drive in stock, you're looking at Tuesday as the absolute earliest to get this repaired. The replacement drive wouldn't ship out until at least monday, then assuming everything goes as expected, they'd get it tuesday, put it in, test it a little, and then tell you to come pick it up. Just make sure that when you check the unit in, you TELL THEM that there is a disc in the drive. If the tech who works on your system is anything like me, they're overworked and will not check the drive for anything left in it unless there's a reason to. Once FedEx picks up the old drive to be sent off to Apple's receiving warehouse, that's it, you're not going to get that disc back. When I left work on Friday afternoon, I think I had something like 25 customer units on my shelves, and 2-3 more in the incoming cart. On a good day, I can do maybe 5-6 units, and apparently that's way above the average. So if for some reason your system came to me, it might be 4-5 days before I even get a chance to look at it. Be prepared for the possibility it may take longer.

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How to eject disc.
Sep 24, 2011 11:07AM PDT

The drive is not bad, it's a fairly new iMac.
Didn't know AppleCare wasn't M-F only - will call them.

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How to eject disc.
Sep 24, 2011 11:09AM PDT

You're seriously misinformed. AppleCare is only M-F 8 to 8 Central Time!

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I'm still waiting
Sep 24, 2011 12:41PM PDT

I'm still waiting to hear about your experience with repairing Apple computers, which must be the thing of legends if you can just brush aside my diagnosis of a bad drive.

And I'm sure I don't need to tell you, with your "fairly new iMac" that holding down the mouse button on a magic mouse will not work. I can just skip over the technical details of why, because as we've already established, "it's a fairly new iMac." Surely you wouldn't be the type who comes asking for help, then gets all p!ssy when you get an answer you don't like. I must have missed something, because it just seems hard to believe that you would fail to understand such a basic social dynamic as when you want a favor out of someone, you don't get to cop an attitude.

IW coverage doesn't include on site repairs, you never said whether or not you have APP, and I do believe I said that the earliest you could get this fixed would be Tuesday. I believe I even mentioned that in the best case scenario, the part doesn't ship until Monday. So I guess you're just going to have to tell me which lines you're reading between, because I can't figure it out.

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Sure sounds bad
Sep 24, 2011 11:34AM PDT

Sure sounds bad... You put a disc in, it won't eject, and it even fails at the EFI level. Sounds like a classic case of a bad drive to me. But then what do I know? I've only fixed probably around 1,000 Apple computers in the past couple of years. Clearly my collective experience is but nothing before you, as you just brush my idea aside based on the fact that it's a "fairly new iMac." I humbly bow before your experience which must be absolutely awesome in the truest sense of the word.