CD stuck in optical drive

I recently broke my hard drive with a magnet(on accident mind you i'm not a retard) but i put the install cd into the drive and it wouldn't recognize the hard drive that is there. I plan to put in a new hard drive myself but I want to take out the CD that is in there right now

To remove it you will need to be able to boot the computer. Try using your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. As soon as the menu bar appears select Terminal application from the Utilities menu. After the Terminal loads enter the following at the prompt then press RETURN:
/usr/bin/drutil eject
This should eject the disc if it's not stuck and the drive's mechanical eject mechanism isn't damaged or jammed.

Similar Messages

DVD stuck in optical drive

I have my Leopard installation DVD stuck in my optical drive. I can't seem to get it out. I tried all hte usual ejecting methods (dragging it to the trash can, CTRL-clicking and eject). Nothing works.

okey ill tell you my story dude...
i didnt knew that mini discs werent supported by my macbook so i decided to force one in... to my surpise... IT GOT STUCK!! i pushed the eject button did everything i could, the first time i tried eject it made the noise but nothing came out.. i read here in the forums that shaking your macbook could get the cd out.. surprisingly for me it worked... i turned my macbook off, shook it a little and vouala my mini disc came out and i got no damage on my hard drive
this advice is on your discretion only.. im just saying... it did work for me

Disc stuck in optical drive.

My problem is pretty lame. A friend of mine gave me this mini-cd-thingy asking me to check the content of it on my macbook, but once I inserted it I realized that it probably is too small to even be noticed by my optical drive, and so it was, and so it's stuck inside there now.
How on earth am I going to get it out? I tried ejecting, poking and shaking it out, but nothing works. Gezez, how stupid.

This is why your user manual says not to insert any nonstandard-sized discs into the drive.
You might have some success by inserting a thin, flexible plastic card or postcard-weight piece of paper into the drive slot and using it to try to guide the disc to the slot while someone else holds the machine up on edge for you. If not, then having a technician remove the drive, take the cover off it and extract the disc is going to be all you can do. Your warranty won't cover that, nor any damage you or the disc may have done to the drive by then.
Note: It's probably not a good idea to use the machine while the disc remains inside, since starting up, waking, and perhaps other actions cause the drive to spin up and move mechanical parts around. If the disc gets wedged in the wrong place and that happens, you could have worse problems.
Message was edited by: eww

DVD physically stuck in optical drive

My grandson apparently tried to insert his game DVD by himself. I can see/feel the edge of the disc in the optical drive. The disc isn't being recognized by Disk Utility, and none of the usual tricks (eject while holding upside down, restart while holding buttons down, etc.) are working.
The optical drive appears to be working correctly -- it tries to eject the DVD with the usual methods. Is there a way to physically eject the DVD such as the old methods of using a paper clip to release the mechanism? Evidently it isn't physically seated properly.

+Well, I realize that I'm talking myself here but would really like to give Michael credit.+
Thanks for trying but it's been broken for a while and Apple have no ETA on a fix
http://discussions.apple.com/ann.jspa?annID=469
Some suspect it's (getting rid of points) an experiment to see if it alters who posts/how much ...

Mac mini dead, system disc stuck in optical drive

My mini has died:
less than two years old, light comes on but there's no chime and no sound of the optical drive engaging or self-testing or whatever it is usually doing at boot-up.
I have tried everything I know of:
• re-setting PMU
• re-seating the ram
• replacing the hard drive
• using a different mini power supply
• swearing at it
If I remove the ram and power on it hoots so it can at least tell if ram is present....
At first it chimed/light on but (intermittently) nothing more would happen - no sound from optical drive. When it did boot (1 in 3 attempts approximately) it would run without any malfunctions and diagnosis software couldn't find anything wrong.
Progressively less successful start-ups, then start-ups without chime, now nothing.
The techies I have spoken to all say "logic" board is "highly illogical".
Last time it started I put in the OS Install/Hardware Test dvd to run the next time it would boot but its dead now.
Is there any way to manually eject a disc like with the paperclip hole in the larger style of drive?
I have the mini's case removed but I can't see one...
I'm very disappointed, all my previous macs have kept working for five years or more!

I've been using macs for more than 16 years, I've taken many apart to replace RAM, processors, PCI cards and hard disks. I'd like to think I know what I'm doing...
The problems predate my opening the mini up.
Today it booted up long enough to run the Hardware Test!
(still no chime)
No problems found!!
It restarted again, enabling me to install the OS on the re-formatted hard disk!!!
After that, I restarted (no option to eject the DVD disc) and it's dead again!!!!
Here in Australia I think "service" just means replacing the motherboard, which is more than the thing is worth...

How to remove stuck optical drive carrier

I'm in the process of replacing a worn out Optical Drive in my 2007 Mac Pro Tower. When I got to the 'remove the optical drive carrier,' the stinker comes out about 3/4 inch and then no further. I don't want to force it of course. Anyone else ever have the same problem?

I posted same question, got no answer so found a solution? for Mac Pro 3.1 early 2008 version.
This only can be done if you have 2 super? drive bays with lower unoccupied.
In my case it did not move at all in attempt to pull it out - in fact it is stuck on two screws that act as posts and are in slots in the bottom side of aluminum tray that it is supposed to slide out from. You don't see these until you get it out.
In your case with 3/4" opening, first try pulling one side then other, rocking, prying, a small crow bar. Try harder.
no, not the jack hammer.
Failing all else,
1) lay the computer - open side panel down - on the floor.
2) slide the lower unoccupied DVD tray open with your finger and insert a blunt object (I used big old blunt screw driver) into the opening aimed down towards the floor. When you apply force to the inserted object, it is in the direction that enclosure must be pulled to get it out normally and on the side where it is stuck. You may have to strike the object, as I did, before enclosure will come free.

Optical Drive Outer Door Stuck

Can anyone help me ? My lovely little girl posted a small coin into the outer door of my G5 optical drive. The little grey outer door that moves down when the drive opens. It is now stuck with the coin wedged inside. I can easily remove the optical drive but cant see how to get at the outer door. Can anyone suggest how I remove it as it is stuck halfway and the optical drive cannot open past it.
Thanks in advance
dual 2.7 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) 4.5 gigs ram Radeon X800

Hello! To get a better understanding on how it's put together here's a repair manual. Tom

Stuck optical drive door, PowerMac G5Quad.

This is related to the recent thread about the optical drive in a G5Quad but different enough to warrant a new topic (I think):
BDAqua wrote: Slide the door cover down with your fingers…
FOLLOW-UP question re a stuck door cover:
What does one do when the door cover won't budge in any direction?
In my case, I can hear the drive itself opening when I press the Eject button attempting to get the tray open in order to insert a CD or DVD, the tray travels a very short distance, hits the back of the immovable door and promptly retracts right back. There's no disk in it. So, the drive mechanism itself would appear to be OK, but the door itself cannot be manually budged, in, out, up or down.
The machine was badly damaged in transit. The enclosure is a lost wreck, but the computer works otherwise.
Thanks in advance.

BDAqua wrote:
Nice delivery job, was that United Catapult Delivery service they used!?
Anyway, the door only moves down, you may have to use a butterknife or such to pry it down, or open it andsee what you can unbend or do.
Thank you!
Bending was the key. Ruthless bending outwards of the opening in the cheese-grater grill around the opening.
Now that area matches the front feet cosmetically. …and I have a fully functional if ugly-looking PowerMac G5 Quad.
This confirms what I said not too long ago about your advice and help being 100% correct—all the time.
I was able to find a reasonably priced spare G5-Quad enclosure from a well-rated Amazon Marketplace merchant, and that should be arriving anytime in the next ten days.
Now I'll try getting an estimate from a local independent repair shop as to how much it's going to cost to transfer all the innards from the damaged enclosure into the other one.
Thank you once again.

(SOLVED!) Presario CQ56 optical drive button always stuck

Hey all,
I have a Presario CQ56 laptop with what I suspect to be a broken optical drive button. The optical drive itself works fine: if I take off the faceplate, and push the eject button, the drive will eject. If I use the eject button in Windows, or the paperclip hole, it will eject.
However, whenever I try to push the button on the faceplate, the button simply sticks and will not eject the drive.
I was wondering if anyone here could either provide me a picture of the back side of the faceplate, so I could compare that to mine and see if the eject arm or another piece has broken off. If someone has any instructions on how to repair or replace the faceplate, that would be great too.
Again, I don't need to replace the entire drive, I just need to either fix the button on the faceplate, or replace it.
If anyone has any advice on this matter, I'd appreciate it.
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." -Issac Asimov, from his novel Foundation.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

muka3D wrote:
Hey Circanum,
Unfortunately, I don't have one of these exact units available to take a picture of, however perhaps we can work with what you've got.
When you remove the faceplate, you should see a small actuator tab on the back of the eject button of the faceplate (will vary based on configuration). Is the actuator there? Does the eject button "feel" like it is pressing against the eject button?
There's no easy way to repair the faceplate other than replacing it. If you'd like to replace it, you could order one through HP Support - 800-474-6836. You could probably use some tape or super glue to replace the actuator - this is quick n' dirty and will probably affect your warranty status.
Please attach a picture of the back of the faceplate, that way I can take a look and let you know what's going on.
(Great Foundation quote by the way - by far my favorite book series. Now I have to read through them again!)
Thank you for your prompt and helpful reply mula! It is much appreciated.
The actuator, or the little arm, is there, and it does bend when I push the faceplate button. What seems to happen is that it isn't hitting the open button, and it just carries through, causing the faceplate button to stick instead of bouncing back out.
You can better understand what I mean by checking some pictures I took of the faceplate on and off the drive.
I'm glad to hear I can replace the faceplate, rather than the whole drive. It should save me some money too. Of course, I'll try and see if my current button is fixable before replacing it.
Yep, I love Asimov's stories: he's an excellent author. Delighted to have met a fellow fan!
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." -Issac Asimov, from his novel Foundation.

Kid stuck something in Optical Drive

Before I get out the screwdriver, has anyone had to retrieve a foreign object from the optical drive? My son slid something in there, probably a coin. It moves around when I tilt the machine. I know the best thing to do is take it to a repair shop, but the closest one is 9 hours of winter driving away, and I would like to try to avoid mailing it off. Is it easy enough to pop the case apart and get at it, or is it a lost cause?
Thanks
Jon

Can you tilt and manipulate the machine with the optical drive slot facing down? It seems like you might eventually be able to get a coin to just drop out if it's loose in there. Or get it to the edge of the slot where you can see it. If you can see it and it's barely inside the drive, you might be able to snag it with a business card and some sticky two sided tape. But be careful--you don't want to lose sticky tape inside the drive!
Good luck!

Installing Win7 on a macbook pro using a mac mini as external optical drive

hi everyone,
My 2 year old son watches movies on my macbook pro. He stuck something in the optical drive making it unusable. Repairing it is 200 to 300 euros (ouch).
I want to install win7 via bootcamp and I'm using my mac mini (october 2009) as an external optical drive. These are my steps:
1.hold the "t" on the mac mini
2.connect it to the macbook with a firewire 800 to firewire 400 cable
3.Power up and hold the "alt" on the macbook
4.I see the optical drive on the boot screen and I choose it
5.Then I get a blank screen and a few seconds later the "missing operating system" message appears.
Am I missing something? Is it possible to install win7 using a mac mini as an external drive?
PS1:I already have partitioned the HD with bootcamp.
PS2:I've upgraded the hard disk drive of the macbook with a seagate momentus 500GB hard disk. Don't think this is the problem, thought I should mentioned it.

Hi Mike,
For reference it is called "IP over Firewire".
Connect the two computers with a fire wire cable. System Preferences > Network > Configure IPv4: > Manually > IP address: 192.168.3.1 (and .2 on other) > Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0. Leave the other fields blank. Do this on both computers on the computer you want to allow access to or both for two way access go to System Preference > Sharing > Select a service to change its settings. Turn remote Login on.
On the MBP go to the Finder Menu > Go > Connect to Server > Type in the IP address of the Mini 192.168.3.2 (Whatever you gave it)
With this configuration you still have full use of the Mini and certain apps can use Xgrid and use the processor of the mini when it is not doing anything. I would keep the Mini as 10.4 unless you really need both machines running Leopard. As noted before you cannot boot the MBP from a HDD that is Apple Partition Scheme and vice versa you cannot boot the PPC from a Guide Partition Table.
Sweet Polly

Internal Optical Drive not recognized after trying to Bootcamp

Around 3 months ago I tried boot camping my Macbook with Windows 7 but it ended up freezing and I had to restart my computer. When the computer had fully restarted I found that a few things had changed. First, I now had a 70 GB partition called BOOTCAMP but it was basically unusable since the Windows 7 OS was never installed in the partition, and second the Optical Drive wasn't recognized by my computer anymore so it won't work at all and the Windows 7 CD is now stuck in there.
I tried a lot of different ways that I found on the internet to try to eject the CD but nothing has worked. It's not really a huge deal since CDs are starting to become the new floppy disks but it would still be nice to have this working again.
Also, here's the original post that I made back in December. It never got any replies and somehow got moved but I was never able to see where it got moved because whenever I clicked "discussion" in "Branched to a new discussion." I would get a page that said this - "Unauthorized. Access to this place or content is restricted. If you think this is a mistake, please contact your administrator or the person who directed you here." I know the whole post is pretty long so I have a TLDR; at the end of it and I pretty much summarized the problem again at the top of this whole post.
Alright so earlier today I decided to Bootcamp my Macbook and install Windows 7 with a 70GB partition. I was using https://help.apple.com/bootcamp/mac/5.0/help/#/bcmp173b3bf2 and http://www.howtogeek.com/186907/how-to-install-windows-on-a-mac-with-boot-camp/ to help guide me through the process. Everything was running smoothly at first...I had a 32GB memory stick that I used to load the support software onto and I had a Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit DVD in my disk drive.
The first problem I ran into was when Bootcamp wanted to download the files onto the memory stick - it wanted me to format the stick. So I went into Disk Utility, clicked on it, went to erase, then formatted it to the same format it was (because it was already FAT) and then it all worked. After getting the support software onto the memory stick the next step was to partition my disk. After doing a TON of research I finally decided that 70GB would be enough for the OS, a game or two, Sony Vegas Pro, and a few small programs. So I dragged the thing to give the new partition 70 GB and pressed install.
Then, the next problem occurred - a message popped up saying "The USB drive connected to this Mac contains a bootable volume. In order to install Windows 7 from the DVD, the Boot Camp Assistant needs to disable this functionality. No information on the drive will be removed, do you want to continue?" I was hesitant at this point to do anything so I googled it and couldn't find much except this thread - Bootable volume on USB flash drive in boot camp. I decided to try it and press continue since according to the thread it would stop me if there was a problem. Once I did I THINK (I can't remember that it did for sure or not) it dismounted the memory stick, which I remember thinking was okay because I could just unplug it and plug it back in after Windows 7 was installed to install the support software (Also, I NEVER removed the memory stick until after a reboot later on). After that Bootcamp began partitioning my hard drive.
About an hour later the blue progress bar had actually filled up to at least 99% (but it looked like 100% to me) but Bootcamp still said "Status: Partitioning Disk" so I left it alone for another 1-2 hours. After that I started getting worried and googled how long this process was supposed to take and found out that this step normally only took a few minutes for most people. At this point I started looking up fixes for this but nothing matched my problem since Bootcamp itself wasn't actually frozen (when I clicked and held on the icon it didn't say "Application not responding") so I decided to check to see if the partition had worked. Then, Disk Utility froze like a few seconds after opening it up so I had to force quit that. My next option was to check under "Storage" in "About this mac" so I tried that and it froze as well. While all this was going on I kept checking back to Bootcamp and it never froze.
Now I was getting extremely worried and with no solutions on Google and no idea what to do I decided to just try and restart my computer and pray to god that it would reboot fine. Luckily, it did...for the most part. After rebooting all my applications seemed to be working fine (I can confirm that Terminal, Disk Utility, System Preferences, System Information, and Safari are all working or at least loading). I also had all my files still on my computer so that was good. Next, I checked Disk Utility to see if the partition had actually worked and it did, or at least it is showing up as "BOOTCAMP" under my main hard drive. Then, I tried using Bootcamp again and this is when I noticed something new - a warning on Bootcamp's first page that wasn't there before, "You need an optical drive to install Windows. Connect an optical drive to your computer. You cannot install Windows with a remote optical drive." I can't guarantee that it wasn't there the first time but I really don't remember it there. After reading that I checked my Desktop for the mounted Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit DVD and it wasn't there. Then, I checked Disk Utility and it wasn't showing up there either. The only things I can see on Disk Utility are my main hard drive with both partitions, my memory stick, and a random dmg file called decryptedFile.dmg (the size of this file is only 15.6mb so I don't think it could be the OS DVD).
So now I am trying to figure out how to get my computer to recognize that it does have an internal optical drive and that there is a DVD inside of it. I looked around on Google to try to find answers but all the regular options to fix this don't work since the computer itself is not realizing it's there. I don't know if this helps to prove that it doesn't realize this but I checked in System Information -> Hardware -> Disk Burning and it says "No disk burning device was found. If the device is external, make sure it's connected and turned on." And since a "Superdrive" can read disks I'm assuming it can burn them to and would be shown under that. (I don't know that much about computers though so I could easily be wrong)
Anyways, sorry for the extreme detail that I went into but I wanted to get as much information about what happened as I possibly could. For those of you who don't have time to read all that I'll put a little summary.
TLDR; Basically, I tried to Bootcamp my Macbook to run Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I ran into a few problems and then Bootcamp wouldn't move on from "Status: Partitioning Disk" so I had to restart my computer. After the restart my Macbook doesn't recognize that it has an internal Superdrive and therefore doesn't realize that there's a Windows 7 Ultimate DVD disk in it. I looked around for answers but none of the simple ones (using key commands on the keyboard and typing something into terminal) worked. Now I'm looking for help to get my computer to realize that it does have a Superdrive inside so I can get the disk out.
Thanks in advanced! If any more information is required to help please let me know so I can find it. Also, this is a Mid-2010 White Unibody Macbook.

Hello Michael Dixon2,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
In order to troubleshoot this issue where the optical drive does not accept discs, please follow the steps below.
Doesn't accept discs
Be sure to check your disc to make sure it is flat. You can check this by putting the disc upside-down on a flat surface. If the disc is bowed up on any side or in the center, do not use the disc because it might get stuck in the drive. Do not use discs that have anything attached to them or dangling from them (such as "sweeper" or cleaning discs).
If the drive struggles when you put in a disc or stops part-way, carefully look at the disc for labels that may be interfering. If there aren't any raised labels then try putting the disc in a few more times.
Try another disc to see if the issue is being caused by a specific disc.
Make sure you insert the disc far enough for the drive mechanism to activate. You need to insert discs nearly all the way before the drive will activate and pull them in. If you don't completely insert a disc, the drive will reverse and push the disc back out.
Allow the drive one or two seconds to accept the disc while it is fully inserted.
Reset the System Management Controller (SMC).
If the drive repeatedly does not accept discs, contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or make an appointment with an Apple Retail Store.
Apple Computers: Troubleshooting the slot-loading SuperDrive - Apple Support
Cheers,
Alex H.

MacBook Pro Repeatedly Loads Purple & Teal Stripe, Gray, Light Blue, Bright Blue and Bright Blue Stripe Screens Instead of OS after Optical Drive Replacement by Apple (PICTURES INCLUDED)

17 inch March 26-29 (order date – shipping date) 2011 MacBook Pro, 256GB Solid State Drive, 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, 1 processer, 4 Cores, 256 KB L2 Cache per core, 8 MB L3 Cache, 8 GB Memory (8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB), AMD Radeon HD 6750M Video Card, Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 512 MB total of VRAM. 110 GBs of free/unused disk space remaining.
Full Specs are in subsequent post.
The issues described in the title continue even after I’ve reinstalled the operating system twice (Snow Leopard) and installed Mavericks (which is working fine and even faster). I’ve tried many commands to repair this.
If anyone has experienced any of the symptoms above or below, your advice and response will be much appreciated as well as marked. These are the details:
My Early 2011 MacBook Pro has had the typical blue screens, screen freezes and graphics issues since I bought it about three years ago but nothing like this and NEVER any load issues until about a month ago. That was when my superdrive replacement was put in.
Since then my MacBook Pro will go into hard freezes or kernel panics. Then I’ll have to power it down manually and power it up manually. It’ll then refuse to load the OS until after multiple tries. It started out just 2 or 3, then 4 or 5, then 6-12, then 20. Now it takes over 30 boots to load the OS. These boot issues also occur even if it doesn’t freeze, i.e.: when I shut it down or restart it naturally (via the Apple menu, etc.).
95% of the time it’ll load to a gray screen instead of the OS. 4% of the time it’ll load to a light blue screen. Then there are the others: the first time this happened it loaded to the striped purple and teal screen shown in the picture. This happened the next four times then intermittently for about 5 or so more times.
It also loaded gray flickering screens. Flickering screens also occurred right before it froze and had to be manually powered down and up. Then it began to load regular gray and light blue screens and all flickering screens stopped. And then bright blue screens a couple times intermittently for a few days, sometimes with lines. Sometimes it’ll load to a blank/black screen as well. I’d reset the NVRAM and SMC but it still continued, happening multiple times a day, each time taking more and more hard shut downs and hard power ons to finally load the OS.
Until I installed Mavericks, every time it finally loaded the OS Finder began indexing. After Mavericks this has occurred 95% of the time.
After talking to Apple Support they had me do a NVRAM and SMC reset again over the phone. The MacBook Pro refused to load the entire time we were on the phone. After the call it got worse. It froze over 6 times that day and at worse took over 30 boots to load the OS.
I finally had time to deal with it the next day when it froze again. After over 25 boots it loaded and I put in the Snow Leopard OS dvd and ran Disk Utility. I verified the hard drive and it said it was fine. Repaired the disk anyway and it gave this message at the end:
“Updating boot support partitions for volume required”.
Next I tried to start in safe mode and it just hung up for hours. Then started up in single mode and it loaded the OS. It then loaded normally for three times in a row. I reinstalled Snow Leopard. Everything loaded normally. I waited an hour or so and then I downloaded Mavericks. 5 or so hours later Mavericks was installed. Everything hardware wise was fine for a day and all software issues were easily fixable incompatibilities. My Mac was even faster with Mavericks. However, Photoshop did give a perhaps relevant message:
“Photoshop has encountered a problem with the display driver, and has temporarily disabled GPU enhancements. Check the video card manufacturer’s website for the latest software.
GPU enhancements can be enabled in the Performance panel of Preferences.”
(I have OpenGL enabled in Photoshop and it was already checked when this error occurred).
Two days ago I went to Disk Utility to repair permissions while logged in to a non-admin account. Verified and repaired the disk, then verified permissions. Everything fine. After repairing permissions however, it gave a weird error box:
"Unapproved caller, SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".
The box stayed “stuck” in the Disk Utility window. My MacBook Pro then failed to do anything. I manually powered it down and up. It loaded to a gray screen with the error message box again: "Unapproved caller, SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".
It then refused to load anything else but this message box on a gray screen even after rebooting it multiple times in safe, verbose and single modes and after resetting the NVRAM and SMC. I went online with an iPad and entered in the error and got some advice. I tried to run fsck and erase the /var/folders/ via single user mode but it still loaded to a gray screen with the error message. I just decided to skip to the end and Cmd-R loaded into recovery mode and reinstalled Mavericks again. That worked: the message has not appeared since.
Some people have said this error is related to a hard drive cable failure. I know that this cable was tampered with during the optical drive replacement procedures because I watched them do it.
Everything was fine for a day. Then yesterday my MacBook Pro froze while trying to open a VLC file. It took 12 boots to load the OS. I tried single mode once and verbose mode once. 10 times it loaded to gray screens, even in those mode. A Safe boot lead to a bright blue screen. Finally reset the SMC and it loaded on the 12th time.
Just five hours ago the same thing happened except it took over 30 boots to load the OS. Single, verbose and normal boots, NVRAM and SMC resets lead to gray screens. Safe boots lead to bright blue screens with and without lines (see pictures). Finally loaded on a normal boot.
I know I should have tried safe booting, verbose, single and recovery modes, disk utility, fsck and other command methods earlier this month but in the end, these methods have not solved the problem anymore than resetting the NVRAM or SMC.
There seems to be conclusive evidence that it’s a hardware problem, stemming from last month, the FIRST AND ONLY time my MacBook Pro was opened up. Maybe it’s the hard drive cable, but it could also be the graphics card and/or logic board (something that’s always been defective on this MacBook Pro, in my opinion). Many early 2011 MacBook Pro owners have given evidence to the latter possibility online.
The first time it started it seemed to stem from me using iPhoto and Photoshop a lot. I had both running continuously for about two weeks. This is another reason for suspecting the graphics card/logic board is at fault (in addition to three years of screen/graphics glitches). And since the card is soldered to the board and the board connected to the cable...I also have serious battery draining issues, something else that got bad after the Apple Superdrive repair. And the battery is connected to the board...
Also, since downloading Mavericks, windows from every app get blurry/fuzzy when I scroll or zoom in. I have read that this is happening to a lot of folks though for various reasons.
I guess it could always be the hard drive. I just don’t know. I’m taking it in to Apple, but can't right away because it’s not local. I know they’ll be able to run a test on the hard drive. I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem (especially the purple and teal striped screen) before they start poking around, possibly creating another problem that goes beyond my Apple Care Plan allotment.

SPECS OF MY MACBOOK PRO:
Model Name: March 26-29 2011 MacBook Pro (order date – shipping date)
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,3
Processor Name: Quad-core Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:    2.3 GHz
Number of Processors:    1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB Memory (8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB)
HARD DRIVE: 256GB Solid State Drive
DISPLAY: MBP 17" HR Antiglare WS Display
AMD Radeon HD 6750M:
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M
Type:    GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width:    x8
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x6741
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0170L-573
gMux Version: 1.9.24
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.573
Intel HD Graphics 3000:
Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Type:    GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0126
Revision ID: 0x0009
gMux Version: 1.9.24
Displays
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number:    C01111403GLDGKMAE
Manufacturer: DP
Device Name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:    0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0406
Hardware Revision: 0001
Cell Revision:    1102
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 4583
Fully Charged:    No
Charging: Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 7765
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 276
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA):    -4487
Voltage (mV): 11306
System Power Settings:
AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake on LAN: No
Current Power Source: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
GPUSwitch: 2
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    5
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
GPUSwitch: 2
Reduce Brightness: Yes
Hardware Configuration:
UPS Installed:    No
AC Charger Information:
Connected: Yes
ID:    0x0100
Wattage (W): 85
Revision: 0x0000
Family: 0x0085
Serial Number:    0x007ad8c5
Charging: Yes
Current operating system: 10.9.3 (Mavericks) ; Installed on 6/21/14
Previous operating system: 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard); Installed 4/4/11
        Reinstalled multiple times. Last reinstall: 6/21/14

It looks like my MBP optical drive is dead - arg!

I have a Macbook Pro - circa 2006. This one does not have apple care.
I've got a blank cdr stuck inside it. As near as I can tell the macbook
does not even know it has a cd/dvd drive anymore. The drive is spinning,
but the OS does not see a disk. Nothing in disk utility. Holding down
mouse button or eject key does nothing. Trying drutil seems to do nothing.
Choosing about this mac tells me there no Disc Burning device was found.
Arg.
I don't burn things on this machine often, so it is not critical, but is nice to have. The geniuses I run into seem to know less than the people here. I guess I should give them a try, but I'm already afraid of what they'll estimate for repair.
I'm thinking just buy an external cd/dvd drive/burner would be a good option for this machine. Any specific suggestions? Anything more I should try before I throw money at it?
The other issue is, I hate wasting battery spinning a disk the machine cannot seem to see. Do I have to open the machine up (or pay somebody to do it) to turn
off the defective internal drive?
Is there a reasonably priced internal (or external) drive that would be recognised by the system should I have to reload or update the OS at some point?
Thanks for your help.

It may be something of a long shot, but you might check to see that DVD player is still in your applications folder. Also, you could try verifying both permissions and the disk, and repair if necessary. I don't know if that will help, but it won't hurt anything. It may even be worth trying to reinstall the OS, just in case it has somehow gotten corrupted and is not recognizing the optical drive. It might be worth booting from your install disc and navigate to Disk Utility and see if you can see the optical drive then.
It's also possible that one of the cables to the optical drive has come undone and needs to be reseated.
On the other hand, I have been reading about optical drive problems on this forum for some time, and some people thing the internal optical drive is just not of the best possible quality. So investing in a good external optical drive may not be a bad strategy.
Good luck!

Replaced my iMac optical drive with ssd - now I can't create a bootcamp partition

I have a late 2009 imac 27". Recently my imac hard drive crashed so I used this opportunity to replace the broken hard drive and also replacethe iMac optical drive with a SSD drive. The idea was to use the ssd drive as my bootcamp partition and boost things up. WRONG IDEA!
I wasted already 5 hours trying to get bootcamp to install windows 7 onto the ssd using an external optical drive, a USB drive, an internal partition of my new hard drive. I used rEFIt to try and boot from these fine devices - nothing! Once the OS restarts to install Windows 7 it gets stuck either in blank screen or with a message that it requires a bootable device.
This is one of the most puzzling situation I've seen. Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Amir

This is the same problem people have with their MacBook Pro. Some people have had success using rEFIT, but many didn't. The only solution that I found was just installing my opitcal drive back in and installing windows on what ever hardrive you need. Then taking the optical drive back out. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but once your done you will be relieved.

CD stuck in optical drive

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