Combo drive flaking out

Hi all,
I've had a look at other people's issues with ths Combo drive and haven't seen anything that matches my problem exactly.
If I insert a DVD or CD, the disc mounts properly. I can also play audio CDs through iTunes with some success. However, if I try to rip a CD. The drive spins up, gets towards the end of importing the first track, spins down and that's it - the whole system is locked down whilst it shuffles with the disc in the drive. I have to hard-reset the machine (is there an emergency eject?), then the drive shuffles and squeaks while starting up and ejects the disc.
The same problem affects other operations that require heavy disc spinning like DVD playing and (non-commercial) ripping.
It's been something of a decline rather than a sudden occurence.
Does this behaviour ring any bells?
I've ordered a 10-brush DVD lens cleaner but I'm stumped if that doesn't work.
I tell you - this is typical - my Mac Mini is *one week* out of warranty! Let's hope it's just dirty - it's a year old.
Any advice greatly appreciated!
Mac Mini 1.42 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I would approach applecare or Apple store. You might find out that your machine was registered with apple later. I had a screen problem with a iBook, one week after the warranty has expired. I found out at the Genius Bar that the machine was registered a month later, after I bought the machien. So at the end it was stil under warranty.

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Combo drive spits out media

I recently upgraded to 10.4 and then to 10.4.2 on my 12" pb. obviously, my combo drive was working then. all of a sudden i put cds in to it and it accepts them, keeps them in for a couple of seconds, and then spits them out. it did the same thing with the tiger upgrade dvd. any suggestions? any ideas?
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Combo drive spits out disks! Ptoooey!

I too am having an issue with my drive. No CD or DVD will mount. It does not matter if it is a blank disk, music or data CD. I will put in a disk (many different brands/speeds tested) and the Mac thinks for a few seconds, then just spits it out. I have read through a bunch of the threads here dealing with the same or similar problems. I am starting to think that one of those updates I downloaded from Apple screwed something up. This was not happening before the last updates were released...
I did not see a fix for this in any of the threads.
Hey, Apple! There's obviously a problem with the eMac. How about fixing it?! >:(

I don't have any kids, and I don't stick anything in my superdrive except discs, but I have the exact same problem. Just got an American Gangster DVD from Netflix, and the macbook sounds like it's trying to read it 3 times, then ejects it. This happens with lots of different discs I get. I called Apple support, and they had me press a combination of keys, reboot, etc. That's a lot harder than playing the disc on my girlfriend's Windows laptop, which plays any disc I put into it -- even if it looks like someone placed it on concrete and then danced on top of it. Apple superdrive, you are junk. Why did I pay so much for this thing when a Windows laptop is $600?

IBook G4 1GHz -- combo drive spitting out all CDs/DVDs since 10.4.5

My 12 inch iBook G4 1GHz has been spitting out any CD/DVD inserted (both blank as well as non-blank ones) for the last few hours.
Also, my system crashed at least 4 times today. And when I restart, it starts off with noisy fan sound and just stops without booting.
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Hi Kranthi,
You may want to look at Knowledge Base Document #88275 on Troubleshooting the slot load disc drive (Portables).
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I am helping a friend with an iMac G5. He has the combo drive which is not able to read the dual layer Leopard DVD. I have looked to see if there is a firmware update for the drive however no luck. I am able to put an external usb DVD and it reads the disk however I was not able to boot from the disk using keyboard commands I tried AppleOption+ShiftDelete, C, and also tried Option but no luck.
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Do you happen to have a more recent Mac that can read the Leopard installation DVD?
If so, you may be able to start up your Mac in FireWire Target Disk Mode,
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
and let the iMac G5 use your Mac's optical drive to boot from the Leopard DVD.
Also, it is true that PowerPC Macs can generally only boot from external drives that are FireWire.

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I have 1GHz G4 iMac Dual USB & was wondering if I could replace the Combo Drive with a "Super" Drive.
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Ben,
You can do it, but do you really want to? I think an external is a better option. Having two DVD drives is a huge advantage. It makes copying DVDs a snap.
Here's the link to how to change the drive. It will give you a look at what your in for if you attempt it.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMacg4/imacg4takeapart.html

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hello
this is my first apple mac and i bought a ibook g3 powerbook which is:
700mhz processor 512k level 2
128mb SDRAM + 256mb stick
20GB ultra ATA hard drive
combo drive
400mpbs firewire port
video VGA
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can anyone help or say why it wont load???
i then reinstalled the original 10.1 disks i got with the laptop and i then tried to...
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OR
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hi ronda,
i've 1GB RAM in the mini. but that's not the problem.
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New mac mini won't accept dvd's/cd's in the combo drive

Hello friends:
i have a new mac mini that I bought about 2 months ago (Intel, 2.0 ghz). Everything was working fine until I went to put in a DVD today. The combo drive won't accept a disc. It's not that it won't read the disc, it physically won't suck it into the drive. Instead it just sits there. If I try and push it in, nothing happens... it just bounces back out at me as if pushed by a spring. And, no, there isn't already a disc in the drive.
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Hi jrm27,
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How can I completely wipe the hard drive with out the Mac OS X disc? I don't need any of the info on the computer.

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You can purchase replacement discs from Apple:
Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 or visit online Help for more information.
To contact product and tech support: Apple - Support - Contact Apple Support.
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It's the drive, as well (probably) the processor cooling fan.
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b Just got a brand spankin' new iMac 1.8 17" with Combo drive.
You do mean the Rev B, not the Rev C iSight, correct?
The new iMacs are 1.9 or 2.1 and do not come with a Combodrive, only a Superdrive.
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That's what the tech guy over the phone said to do. Well when I took out my extra ram the problem was solved! I then decided to put the ram back in and test it and it was still solved! So I think unpluging the power and taking the battery out resets something. Try your old stick of ram - it might still work...

Mac Book 1.83ghz w/combo drive-using external Superdrive??

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Because this Mac Book will be sold as the combo drive model, will it have iDVD installed? It seems I remember that iDVD cannot install if there is not an internal dvd burner.
If this is the case, does anyone know how I would install it? I would assume that the iLife discs will come with the purchase.

Thanks Rob,
I know the DVR-110 works, I have it installed on an older G4 that is close to dead (power up issues).
My plan is to pull that DVR-110 out of there, put it in an external enclosure and use as external burner for the Mac Book. I think that'll work now that you've enlightened me on the iLife 06 pre-installed status of the Mac Books. Thanks for that:)
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I've had my powerbook for a few years without any problems other than some slight noise from the secondary fan which I replaced a few weeks ago without any difficulty. The other day I noticed my powerbook froze up on me. I had no choice but to depress the power button to restart it. Force quitting would not work on the open apps or to relaunch the finder. After restarting I had the same problem. This happened twice. I tried resetting the pram and also followed the instructions on this post: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
For most situations, a restart is sufficient. If the computer has stopped responding, try these steps, in order, until the computer responds:
1. Force Quit (Option-Command-Escape)
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Step 2 seemed to do the trick for me but I just tried to insert a blank CD-R into the drive but it ejects itself after a minute. I can hear the drive operating but the CD-R ejects itself. I cannot figure out while this occurs. I tried to insert a CD with data and the drive reads the CD without any problems and does not eject itself. It also does it with a blank DVD-R. What gives???
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If you say that you have a combo drive, then the drive should be ejecting the DVD-R. If it's supposed to burn DVD's then that's definitely a problem. I'm not sure about the CD-R's though. I only think that it is a drive defect and may need replacing. Sorry about that! Good luck!
667Mhz DVI TiBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)  eMac,  MacBook (Black),  PowerBook Titanium 667Mhz DVI

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gim461,
try booting from the 10.6.3 partition, and run Disk Utility. Try verifying the 10.6.8 partition (using the Verify Disk button). Does it come back with a clean bill of health? If not, press the Repair Disk button. When that’s done, reboot into the 10.6.8 partition, but hold down the Shift key to boot into Safe mode. Does it let you boot into the 10.6.8 partition in Safe mode?

Combo drive flaking out

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