How I removed a CD stuck in my MacBook Pro
- January 15th, 2007
- Posted in Mac
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[UPDATE} It appears the best method is the credit card with double-sided tape. read about that approach in the comments. My problem was that the CD (likely the case for DVD disks as well) was physically stuck because of a clear plastic label placed over the playlist side of the CD. I didn't notice it when I inserted it, which increased the thickness of the CD beyond the tolerance of some aspect of the MacBook's eject mechanism. I fiddled around with it for quite a while, trying all the various solutions on the Internets, but none worked.
The slot has a felt dust remover that makes it hard to see what's happening inside. Finally I noticed a metal spring that acts as a kind of door in the middle of the slot. The spring moves up and down when you select eject, which allows the disk to pass.
I suppressed the spring from the top toward the bottom using the very tip of a fine-bladed knife and hit the eject button. A very thin-tipped flat screwdriver would probably work as well, but the business card trick did not hold it down. The drive tried to eject the disk repeatedly and finally I saw the tip of the disk emerge.
Over the last year, many other people have shared additional approaches on this thread, so read further if my method doesn't work for you.
If this happens to you, be patient, keep trying, and you'll get it out without wrecking the drive or spending a lot of money to have someone else remove it.
Well a good way to remove it .
1) Sit in a chair.
2) Hold your mac book pro
3) fall down and drop your mac book pro
4) CD comes out .
It was a “kodak” moment.
Who knew ..falling down would actually do me something good? ..Downside you might scrapped your elbow.
thanks for everyones advice - after disc being stuck for 2 years Ive just wedged it out with 2 butter knives!
Poor Fantastic Mr. Fox was jammed and the computer wasn’t even recognizing that it was in so frustration and panic kicked in. The credit card trick wasn’t working for me so I closed my laptop then shook it..up and down…up and down. I opened it back up and the disc icon showed up so I pressed eject and it worked!! I put it back in and it played perfectly.
TRY THE SHAKING METHOD
Ha,ha! Yes! After 2 years, I really wanted these 2 (both were brand new at the time and I haven’t even got to listen to them) cds that were jammed into stereo out! Put a little double sided tape as suggested on card - easily and quickly got one out and ejected the other. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THIS TIP!
OK, I had the physically stuck DVD problem.
I’ve read gobs of web pages devoted to explaining how to get the DVD out. Most of them are really missing key details. It’s a lot of stick this in here, stick that in there, try cardboard, try credit card, try one plastic card above and below. It’s unclear how far to push the card in or even what it’s supposed to be doing! Some even involve the terminal, where one can issue commands to unmount the DVD and even eject it, which really don’t seem to help.
A big problem is that there are no pictures of the inner working of the super drive, showing what’s going on and what one is trying to accomplish.
Yours was the first place that at least discussed a key element– that physical barrier in the middle of the drive that comes up after the drive is inside.
I was leery, though, of inserting a metallic object into the drive–and wasn’t certain how far to go with or exactly what to do.
I found, however, a comment somewhere that another key is stopping the DVD from spinning. And that can be done with a plastic card.
HERE ARE SOME DIRECTIONS!!
Here’s what worked for me. I did not have to reboot the laptop, hold it at an angle, shake it, hold it upside down, etc.
THE ESSENCE
It involves sticking the *corner* of a plastic card in from the left-side of the drive, contacting the DVD to prevent it from moving, pressing the eject button, and being ready to grab the DVD when it comes out.
THE STEPS (in detail, to ensure this works!)
1. Make sure that the DVD drive is not operating. No sounds, no spinning.
2. Close all applications that could be using the DVD drive, or are using it, for example, DVD Player.
3. Take a plastic card (not cardboard), such as a vend-o-card or copying card (for Kinko’s, university copiers). I’ll bet a credit card would work.
4. You insert the *corner* edge of the card at an angle (about 45 degrees) coming in from the left side of the drive. (This is for a 2008 Intel based MacBook Pro.) You do not stick this card into the center of the drive, or straight in at the left side.
5. It’s going into the drive at an angle.
6. You want to make contact with the round edge of the DVD that’s in there. You’ll have to take some time to find this and get a feel for the DVD.
7. —->> The key is that you are pressing it up against the DVD. You want to prevent the drive from spinning after you press the eject button on the next step. <<—–
8. BE READY TO GRAB THE DVD WHEN IT COMES OUT ON THIS NEXT STEP.
9. While holding the card against the DVD, press and hold down the eject key for a couple of seconds (the eject symbol will show up on the screen).
10. There will be the usual eject, spinning, horrible sounding noises… but the DISK WILL POP OUT.
11. Grab it quickly, pull it out, and breathe a big sigh of relief!
12. From here, if you are under Apple Care, send the laptop in. I’m not sure I’m ready to go through this again and I have other problems AC needs to cover.
I hope this helps someone. It could still use pictures–both of how to hold the plastic card, where it slides in; but also of the inner working of the DVD drive so that one can tell what they are trying to do.
Appreciate the blog post here, though, as it helped in my quest for a solution to this!