[SandiC.]

Ok, Macs aren't perfect. Close but not perfect. I got a 27" iMac, the photographers'/scrappers' dream machine, a few months ago. Love, love, love it. Recently I've moved my exercise area to my home office and have been using my iMac to play my workout videos (I don't have a TV). And the stupid thing won't eject the DVD. Now I'm mad at it. LOL. I've tried all the methods recommended by Apple and a few from other discussions....nada. When I try to eject the disk, it just reopens and I hear the beach body theme again. I've schedule an appointment at my nearest Apple store....3 and a half hours drive from here. And that iMac is a big heavy machine. Good thing I've been doing those workout videos, so I'm strong enough to load it into the car. And I'm very glad I got AppleCare.

[Sara Arell]

Sandi, I'm sure you've already tried this, but once in awhile this has happened to me and I've restarted my computer and the dvd would then eject - just an idea if you haven't tried it?

[AggieB]

I don't know about mac's, but PC's have a tiny little hole that you can stick the end of a paperclip in to force the machine to give up the disk.

[tiza126]

Oh now that is frustrating!!!

[CRS]

That would make me mad! Plus a 3 1/2 hour drive to get it looked at? Yikes!

[elibar]

AggieB, on 23 May 2012 - 07:40 AM, said:

I don't know about mac's, but PC's have a tiny little hole that you can stick the end of a paperclip in to force the machine to give up the disk.

Thanks, Aggie - that's good to know!

[LaLo1103]

I've had this happen several times and it is EXTREMELY frustrating. I've tried holding down the eject button on the keyboard - like for 10 seconds. That seems to work sometimes. Also, if you reboot and hold the eject button as it reboots that can also help.

I also found this on line that sounds like it may help: "If you listen carefully, you can probably hear your optical drive powering up & down over and over again. As long as the disc spins, it’s not coming out. The first step is to get your hands on a very thin piece of cardboard or even a folded business card (so it’s twice as thick). Now restart your Mac and hold down the mouse/trackpad button as you poke the cardboard inside the SuperDrive slot. The goal is to slip it above the CD or DVD — towards the left side of the drive — and gently jiggle it around to put pressure on the disc. You might have to continue this for up to a minute or so, but it often works when all other methods fail." <--- I'm going to remember that for the next time this happens to me.

Sometimes it just doesn't like the DVD and it refuses to cooperate. I don't know why Apple didn't give us the little button to push like the PC's have!

[AnnBK]

I agree with Sara. I've had this happen before and turning the machine off seems to force the disc out of the player. Hope you get it figured out!

[Sara Arell]

Did you get the dvd out, Sandi? So hoping you didn't have to drive 3 hours to get it fixed!

[SandiC.]

Sara Arell, on 23 May 2012 - 12:56 AM, said:

Sandi, I'm sure you've already tried this, but once in awhile this has happened to me and I've restarted my computer and the dvd would then eject - just an idea if you haven't tried it?

Yes Sara, that has been tried as well has holding down the mouse while its restarting....that bypasses the software issues. And I've tried using disk utilities and all the other things Apple support has suggested.

[SandiC.]

AggieB, on 23 May 2012 - 07:40 AM, said:

I don't know about mac's, but PC's have a tiny little hole that you can stick the end of a paperclip in to force the machine to give up the disk.

No hard eject available on the mac...a design error to be sure.

[SandiC.]

LaLo1103, on 23 May 2012 - 09:13 AM, said:

I've had this happen several times and it is EXTREMELY frustrating. I've tried holding down the eject button on the keyboard - like for 10 seconds. That seems to work sometimes. Also, if you reboot and hold the eject button as it reboots that can also help.

I also found this on line that sounds like it may help: "If you listen carefully, you can probably hear your optical drive powering up & down over and over again. As long as the disc spins, it’s not coming out. The first step is to get your hands on a very thin piece of cardboard or even a folded business card (so it’s twice as thick). Now restart your Mac and hold down the mouse/trackpad button as you poke the cardboard inside the SuperDrive slot. The goal is to slip it above the CD or DVD — towards the left side of the drive — and gently jiggle it around to put pressure on the disc. You might have to continue this for up to a minute or so, but it often works when all other methods fail." <--- I'm going to remember that for the next time this happens to me.

Sometimes it just doesn't like the DVD and it refuses to cooperate. I don't know why Apple didn't give us the little button to push like the PC's have!

I read some things about using something in there like you suggested....but I also read it strongly recommended not to do that. The disk does stop as long as I don't try to eject it, but something in the eject process is just telling it to start running again. Since this is a fairly new machine, I'm a little leary of trying that method. What the problem seems to be is the optical reader is out of alignment. So it would make sense that it would work. Still, I'm a little scared to try it. Wouldn't it be crazy if the vibration of the road on the trip up to Eugene would cause it to go back into place. Maybe I'll load it up in the car and drive around with it and try again before I head up the road. LOL. Nah, I want to go to Costco anyway. LOL. We are really isolated out here on the coast. If I were back in KC, its 15 minutes to nearest Apple Store.

[Cheri T]

I just wanted to chime in and say it IS a good thing you've been working out, lol - I had a Mac performa (or something like that) in college. During my year of PA rotations around the midwest, I lugged that sucker around in my little Saturn car. I strapped it in to the passenger front seat (yep, seatbelt and all) and always considered it a minor miracle I didn't throw my back out carrying it!

Good luck with it Sandi - and ugh to the long drive to have it looked at.

[Sara Arell]

I do hope you've gotten your little (big) dilemma all fixed by now Sandi - if it helps any, I had a new battery put in my laptop just a month ago - brand new one and it goes down after thrity minutes while I'm on my laptop so It's time for me to make that trip to my Apple Store too!

[SandiC.]

Problem all fixed up now. And I got it taken care of myself. I just shut the silly thing down overnight and then when it woke up the next day, it was much more cooperative. Was able to cancel my mac help appointment and didn't need to drive to Eugene on a holiday weekend. If you've never been to my neck of the woods, hwy 101 traffic on summer holiday weekends is not a fun thing to deal with.

[teecee]

YAY! Glad to hear you got it fixed Sandi. Have a great holiday weekend!

[AnnBK]

Isn't that interesting? Just give them a little rest and they are ready to go back to work....almost human!

[April Showers]

Glad you got that figured out! I hope it doesn't happen again.

[Sara Arell]

So happy to hear you figured it out, Sandi - keeping my fingers and toes crossed it doesn't happen again - even a Mac likes a wee bit of rest! LOL LOL

[CrystalH]

I have had that happen several times - I go to Applications->Disk Utility and there is an eject icon there that will get it out. On right hand side, click on the device you want to eject and then click on the eject icon at the top.

[SandiC.]

CrystalH, on 24 June 2012 - 07:19 AM, said:

I have had that happen several times - I go to Applications->Disk Utility and there is an eject icon there that will get it out. On right hand side, click on the device you want to eject and then click on the eject icon at the top.

Yep, tried that too, but it didn't work until after the thing had a good nap. LOL. But I've used it dozens of times since and no problem. It really did need to just reset itself.

Sure do appreciate all the suggestions. Somewhere I found a message board where all this and more had been posted. Hope I don't have to go looking for that again. I had to get a PC laptop to use for work because our programs we use aren't supported on a mac. Still glad I made the switch. Windows 7 is still a wanna be compared to Snow leopard or lion. There's a new macBook Pro out.....there is no way I can get it, but wow! what a machine!