Imac g5 20'' flat optical drive's hanging up

anybody yet figure out the reason why the opticals are hanging up? i pulled the one on my girlfriends and it appears after the last disc was ejected the mechanisms re-activated as if a disk was still in the drive making it impossible to insert another, anybody relate?

If the computer is still under warranty and/or your girlfriend has AppleCare, I suggest that you contact Apple and or take the computer to your local AASP.

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IMac G5 education without optical drive, what can I do?

I've just bought on ebay an iMac G5 1,6 Ghz (without isight) with the motherboard dead. It is very easy to open.
What was my surprise to see that there was no optical drive...In fact, it could receive one : the slot is there, the IDE cable too, the sloat-loading hole too, but...it is impossible to introduce any CD or DVD because there is a plastic and metallic band all around that makes it impossible....
As I didn't understand, I made a research on the web anf found out the answer....Incerdible! I didn't know that Apple had made an iMac G5 model for education, without optical drive : from outside, impossible to distinguish it, but when you try to introduce a CD or DVD in the slot, you can't!
So the only solution is to buy an external firewire drive?
I tried to see if it was possible to put out the metallic band to free the access for one CD, but it seems impossible! The metallic piece is riveted, or something like that....
Does anyone has tried something?
Thanks, I apologize if my english is not very good

I've just bought on ebay an iMac G5 1,6 Ghz (without isight) with the motherboard dead.
I assume you managed to fix that "motherboard dead" problem, since there would be no point in installing an optical drive in a Mac that does not work.
If you can't get the slot open because it is intentionally closed, maybe you can get an external optical drive and stick something else into that internal space. For example, will it fit a 2.5-inch (laptop size) IDE hard drive for additional internal storage? Or you can get an IDE-to-compact-flash adapter card and give your iMac a solid state flash drive (like MacBook Air); CF cards are getting pretty cheap, even at the 16GB size, and you can get even larger ones for a higher price. Maybe you can even boot from it.
Just some ideas...

IMac does not recognize optical drive

I have an iMac that I purchased. I thought that the optical drive was bad, so I replaced it. But the new drive is having the same problems as the old. It will open when you press the eject button on the keyboard, so it is obviously communicating with the computer. But it will not mount the disk. I am trying to reinstall OS X, and when I try to boot from a CD or hold down option and try to select a startup drive, the optical drive does not read the disk. It just spits the disk out and starts up like normal. Any ideas of what I can do to fix this? Thanks!

I have this same problem when I start k3b.
I have installed cdrdao, cdrtools and dvd+rw-tools as dependencies for k3b, I have created burning group and set that settings on k3b "modify permissions", but something is not working as it's supposed, because any device is found:
ll /dev | grep sr0
or
ll /dev | grep cdrom
and no results, so my assumption its that some daemon that should be listening for changes on devices is not working... I assume that could be something with HAL daemon ( that I already have tried and no success) or other...
Screenshots:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/141 … dialog.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/141 … ttings.png
I have read that the problem could be related to KDE (that's my desktop environment) - https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/24643
PS: my optical DVD drive is external
EDIT: I saw that this post is one year old, I'm trying to delete this post, but I can't!
Last edited by poliveira (2014-01-19 20:13:04)

Install windows on iMac Late 2009 without Optical drive

Hi, i have an iMac 27 i5 11.1 where i want to install windows 7 (or 8). I already did it 2 years ago without problems, but in the mean time i formatted the drive and my optical drive stopped working so i replaced it with an ssd.
I'm trying to install windows but i don't know how without a superdrive. I tried with an external usb dvd drive and it didn't work (you can't install windows from a non apple dvd drive, it is a known problem) but it don't work, so i tried to create an usb installation key of windows with microsoft official tool and also with boot camp tool, both doesn't work (when i select them on the boot i get an apple alternated with a prohibition mark and a folder with a question mark, exactly as with the dvd drive). So i thought that maybe if i can install windows on an external drive and boot it from there i will be able to launch the install directly from windows skipping the problem, but you can't install windows on an external drive..
I'm running out of ideas, someone can help me installing windows on my imac? thanks in advance

emanuelefromrescaldina wrote:
Csound1 wrote:
You can't install Windows on your machine as it stands.
There is your answer, now stop stressing and move on without it.
Sure, good answers.
Apple doesn't want to = You can't
Apple doesn't let you = You shouldn't
Too bad i made it. So it is possible, even if you and apple said it's not.
I installed virtualbox, created a virtual machine with the full disk access, started installing windows, when the copy of the files ended and the vm was rebooting i simply closed it and rebooted my imac and finished the installation directly on the imac, everything went well...
Luckily i didn't take apple's word as a written law and i use my own brain..
If you had posted in a Virtual Machine forum, or asked if you could install Windows using other than Bootcamp Assistant then someone would have advised you to use a Virtual Machine like Parallels, Fusion, or VirtualBox. But you posted in the Bootcamp forum so we assumed you wanted to create and use a Bootcamp partition.
So the answers provided you, based on your questions in this Bootcamp forum were spot on and appropriate.

Does Old imac support External optical drive

APple says that my imac mid2010 21.5" doesnt support external superdrive
but my iMac's built in optical drive has failed so can other external optical drives function on my mac beacuse there seems to be no way of using a disc in a mac whose internal drive has failed!. . . .

It doesn’t support Apple’s one but does support third-party SuperDrives.
(124155)

Sharing optical drive?

The cd drive in my Macbook pro (2007 model) is nonfunctional. I am trying to connect via wireless internet to my new imac to share its optical drive. I selected "share dvd/cd" on the imac but it does not appear in the devices sidebar of my macbook pro. Anyone know why? I would like to upgrade from Mac OS X 10.5.8 to snow leopard. The cd works fine in the imac, but again, the macbook pro does not find the imac or "remote disc" in the finder window. Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Just go out and buy a external DVD drive that connects to the computer by USB. It does not have to be made by Apple.
This one works very well on all my computers, Mac, PC, Notebooks or desktops.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135256&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-A pprovel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-
And only $29.

Replacing the Optical Drive on my iMac G4

Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in the topic below. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information below at your own discretion.
Some of the earliest DVD burners went in to the +iMac (Flat Panel)+ model Macs and many users are now reporting problems with their original drives.
Your initial fault finding should include:
Using a drive cleaning disc to ensure there isn't dust build up on the lens.
Try functionality in another OS X user account.
Ensure that the media you are using is suitable. For example, the maximum write speed for the original drives is 4x DVD-R and these drive cannot burn DVD+R or DVD+RW media.
Revert to a recent, known good, clone of your system (i.e. from a previous software state).
<hr width="200">
If it becomes apparent that a replacement is required outside warranty there are two broad options:
Internal.
Most replacement optical drive models should work under Tiger/Leopard fine. Patchburn will enable operation in Panther/Jaguar.
The DVR-115 (20x DVD±RW DL for $35) has been proved good by several users and is great value.
It's fiddly to work inside an iMac G4 so you must be very cautious, especially around the video cable. Always take anti-static precautions. Here are two options for guiding you through the procedure:
MacWorld
xlr8yourmac
There are also some additional photos which you can find here.
Its worth reading the reports on the xlr8yourmac drive database to get other people's experiences before you commence.
You must replace the Thermal Paste when you close the iMac up or it will overheat.
It's probably worth replacing the PRAM Battery whilst you're in there as these have a finite life (once they fail to re-charge you may start to run into problems - it's only a $5 part).
External.
Certainly a whole lot less effort to install. Should you upgrade to an Intel iMac / Mac Mini / MacBook / MacBook Pro / MacBook Air in the future you'll have access to this faster desktop-spec tray loading drive rather than the slower laptop-spec slot drive installed in these current Macs. This means you'll get 20x burning versus 8x and be able to use small-size and mis-shapen discs.
Here's one example - 20x DVD±RW DL burner again:
OWC - External Optical Drive
Links provided are examples and not specific recommendations of a particular product or retailer.
mrtotes
Do you want to provide feedback on this User Contributed Tip or contribute your own? If you have achieved Level 2 status, visit the User Tips Library Contributions forum for more information.

You can probably just tape it down with package sealing tape. I would just re-use the old stuff. On my recent upgrade, my tape just barely had enough sticky left.
Edit:
Here is a source I found:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,pickups/Supplies:_Shielding/Conductive_CopperTape.html
Pretty cheap, too.
Message was edited by: Keith Barkley

Help please. Can't boot my iMac from the optical drive.

17" flat panel, 1GHz iMac, running OS 10.2.8.
I've been trying to do some disk maintenance and would like to be able to repair my boot disk. I've tried to boot from the optical drive, using Norton SystemWorks CD-ROM and also my iMac software install and repair DVD, holding down the C key while attempting to boot. After trying for a few seconds, a gray veil drops down and a text box telling me that I have to shut down by holding the power key for many seconds shows up. (Is this a Kernel panic?)
I've also run Repair Permissions. That program seems to stall right at the end, as the status bar is 99% full, and never completes its run.
Any suggestions?

Hi MacGeezer,
DO NOT USE NORTON SYSTEMWORKS
Norton Utilities and Disk Doctor were discontinued almost 2 years ago (for some very good reasons!). It caused much more trouble than it solved.
Here are the articles:
Symantec discontinues Mac Norton Utilities, SystemWorks
Norton Utilities, SystemWorks development halted
TMO Scoop - Symantec Confirms Norton Utilities & SystemWorks' Demise [Updated]
Tech Tool Pro and DiskWarrior are presently the most reliable utilities. For more information on regular housekeeping read this: MacOS X 10.3/10.4: System maintenance

New iMac ~ optical drive really heats dvd media - normal?

Brand new iMac and DVDs come out of the drive very hot. Is this "normal" for an iMac? If this is normal, as in not indicating a potential hardware issue, then wouldn't this kind of heat at minimum degrade my media, if not immediately, then over time?
I am not finding many complaints about this via Google, so am wondering whether it is specific to my machine as opposed to the model itself. I am very concerned as years ago I bought an iMac which got downright smokey. Fortunately, Apple Store let me switch it out to another model as I had owned it less than two months. I thought Apple had resolved internal heat issues in the iMac. Don't want to go to a "too-hot" internal temp issue again; can't count on being saved by a machine switch later. If heating of dvd media is not known to be problematic of current Intel iMacs, am thinking I should try to get an exchange before short return period expires.
If this isn't correct forum for my question, please let me know and I'll repost. Thanks.

FWIW, to close out my query, the question has not been explicitly answered, but close enough. I returned the iMac to local Apple Store, well within the 14-day return period. I didn't want an exchange; I wanted a flat return and refund. After taking the iMac off to check for problems on the optical drive (which would determine whether I would have to pay the 10% open-box fee), the salesclerk soon returned to say I would not have to pay the fee. They also refunded the cost of the add-on ram I had them install at purchase (which he noted they don't usually do). A good-will gesture, I suppose. Works for me! Relieved to be getting a full refund, I didn't ask what they did or did not find wrong. While I haven't had success with either of my iMac buys, I can say the local Apple Store always does right by me.

IMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) - CPU and Optical drive fans rev up to 4000 rpm

Hello,
I just want to share my experience with my rather new Imac
I bought this Imac last April and I had the fans roaring after 2 weeks of light usage. I followed instructions like resetting the SMC, unplugging the imac and restarted.
However, I started installing other software like Paragon NTFS, VLC, Firefox and also Istat nano. This happened on a more regular basis and istat nano was showing up fairly normal temperatures - an average of 50° C and I had the CPU fan at 3800 and the Optical drive fan at 4200 rpms. According to apple support, at this temperature fans should be running at factory level or a bit more. Even when I stop all activity, the fans keep up and does not stop even after a couple of hours of inactivity on the imac. Apple support recommended that I reinstall macos on a new partition and run tests and during the tests, the only software I installed was istat nano and still got the fans going with the same result - required a shutdown to bring fans at normal levels and yet average temperatures were around 50 - 55 °C.
Eventually got apple to replace heat sensors - this did not help - still got the same unwanted result, fans reving up to 4000 rpm and not stopping and all that without going above 60°C. I was at the stage to demand a complete replacement but decided to give it another couple of weeks testing.
Last test, a complete reinstall of the OS and this time, without any other software apart from standard software delivered with the mac. Ran a few things like importing over 10,000 pictures with iphoto and some other stuff to increase activity - overall CPU usage was at 5% idle for a good few hours and could not reproduce the problem (istat nano was not installed, so I could not monitor temperature). I started installing Paragon NTFS for mac and ran the same scenarios and still no fans going crazy - putting my hands over the top of the imac, can feel a slight breeze...).
Installed other software such as VLC and Firefox 5.0 but still no istat nano and same high activity, import high volumes in iphoto and also did an empty secure thrash to increase load. CPU usage was to 95 again and still fans are behaving properly.
One thing that comes to my mind with istat nano is that, when the fans get going, the ambient value change to -140 - I do not want to rush into any conclusion but is it possible that there is some interference between istat nano and those new sensors that have come in with Imac mid 2010 (from reading mac forums, Apple has added a new ambient sensor..). Because all the time I have been reinstalling the OS, I have always installed istat nano to monitor temperature and fan speed and I always got this issue. But since yesterday, I have installed clean OS, tested, added some 3rd party software but still no istat nano and I canot reproduce the issue. I have been using the same scenario during all this testing - very high import with iphoto, viewing a film, empty secure thrash, enough to use up to 95% CPU.
Has anyone experienced this? I hope this is the cause of my problem because this mac is making my life easier at home compared to previous PC and also, I want to know that my hardware is not at fault...
I will keep you posted if I get the issue again - could be tempted to install istat nano and run the tests to see if the fans will rev up after this but not sure I want to go through another 4 days of just doing this...
regards
Philip

Hey nycbigapple2,
I'd run through the recommended troubleshooting steps for when your iMac runs slowly here:
OS X Mavericks: If your Mac runs slowly
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13895
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
Take care,
Delgadoh

How can I install winxp to bootcamp on imac with bad optical drive?

I have a mid-2007 20" aluminum Intel-based iMac and I'm having trouble getting a clean install of MacOS10.5.8 and Win XP (through Bootcamp) on a new drive.
The problem stems from the fact that I have no internal optical drive. My Superdrive began acting up a while ago (couldn't recognize, read from, or write to DVD). I replaced the drive, but the problem persisted. Calling Apple Support, they determined (guessed?) the problem was the logic board, and, as the machine is out of warranty, isn't worth replacing. No big deal - I've been using an external USB optical drive when needed.
However, my hard drive is beginning to experience issues (SMART Failure), and I want to reinstall everything MacOS, Bootcamp/Win XP on a clean new drive. The problem is that I cant resinstall Win XP to Bootcamp without an internal drive (which seems unlikely to ever work). I've tried creating a bootable USB key with the XP installation files going through the Bootcamp installation process using the WintoFlash/rEFIt method, but to no avail (won't recognize boot from USB).
Is it possible to remove the internal hard drive, boot from MacOS (10.5.8) on an external drive, and connect the optical drive to the sATA port where the internal drive was? Or is there a second sATA port on these logic boards? Or can I somehow connect the USB optical drive in a way that the iMAC thinks it's internal? I'm not afraid of digging into the iMAC (changed HDD and Superdrive already).
Is there anyway to test the pATA connection on my logic board to find out if it's really the problem? If it's not, maybe I can install WinXP on a second Windows formated drive, to take the space of the internal Superdrive.
There must be some good ideas out there somewhere. Barring that, my only other option is to use Parallels and take the performance hit that comes with running a virtual machine. UGH!

Actually, when I followed that link, one of the related links in More Like This was a real find! An actual download of Aperture, albeit a trial, but that would have solved my problem too. I tested it and although it's embeded in a support article, the link to the trial version of Aperture still works.
Thanks! Great info here if you can find it.

Can I ask for a replace meant of iMac since yjere is a failure of one part every month. Last month lcd replied now optical drive.

Can I ask for a replace meant of iMac since yjere is a failure of one part every month. Last month lcd replied now optical drive.
Imac 27".
i do not like the idea of repairing every month.
Feel the imacs supplied to India are sub standard ones

Folks have reported that the Apple policy is three major component failures and the Mac is replaced. For the first two the Mac is repaired. Apple would not risk alienating its customers from one of the most populated nations in the world, so its time to stop the "discriminating against the poor Indians and selling us sub-standard Macs" routine. Occasionally the universe aligns just right for there to be a Mac lemon. Folks in every country have experienced lemons. It is the hazard of manufacturing millions of Macs with even more millions of parts, all produced by different parts suppliers. And it is why the manufacturer's warranty exists.
Speak to the vender about a replacement. If necessary call Apple Care and request that your warranty service call be escalated to Customer Relations. Politely, but firmly, explain the situation and stand your ground that the solution to make you a happy customer is to have the Mac replaced. Don't make threats, mention lawyers or claim that Apple discriminates against Indians. If you do, you will have lost your case and Apple will then work with you from a distance and follow it policies and procedures to the letter, regardless of whether it makes you happy.

Burn in itunes using external optical drive imac 2009

My Matsushita optical drive (2009 iMac) no longer works. Is there an external optical drive that I can purchase for burning music CD's?. I already have Maverick, but I believe the operating system is not the problem. The external optical drive has to be compatible with hardware that already has an internal (non-functioning) drive.

I have a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-XD09.
It's worked on systems with or without optical drives for me since 2009.
It was $69 at Bestbuy.
It has a USB/Power combo cable that uses TWO USB ports, but I got a 5v AC adapter for $4.99 and now it only needs one USB port to function. I've burned with it under 10.8.4, 10.8.5 and 10.9.0.
They've upgraded it since I got mine (Link here) so it can burn Blu-Ray now

How do i install windows 8 on my 2012 imac that doesn't have an optical drive?

i know i could just buy an external optical drive, but i don't really want to at this point. if i have to i will.
i read that i can use another computer that does have an optical drive and move the windows 8 information to a thumbdrive, then use the thumbdrive to install the OS to my imac. i couldn't find any decient tutorials to do this, so i decided to give this a shot. any help would be greatly apprechiated!
P.S. does windows 8 even run well on a mac? i just want to play FEZ lol
again, thanks a lot,
-darren

Boot Camp allows you to install Windows on the hard drive of a Mac. It's more difficult and you must be very careful with the Windows installation. If you do something wrong, you may lose Mac OS X.
Some Macs support Windows 8 > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5634?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US If your computer is supported, you can install Windows 8.
You can install Windows 8 from a DVD or a USB drive. If you want to install Windows 8 from a USB drive, you have to buy Windows 8 in the Microsoft Store, which will allow you to download Windows 8 in a ISO file, that you will be able to burn to a USB drive using Boot Camp Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities).
Apple has got official steps to install Windows on your iMac > http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.8.pdf

IMac internal optical drive reads and plays cd's but DVD's spin for a few moments then eject. Then any drive utility access results in the spinning wheel of doom. Then the optical drive doesn't show up anywhere until a restart. OSX 10.6.8 - Intel Core 2

iMac internal drive locks up after trying to play a DVD. CD's work properly. All preference settings are correct. I have tried several different DVD's that work in other drives. Drive is : HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA11N. After spinning wheel of doom goes away, so does the optical drive in Disk Utility and System Profiler and no disks work because the drive isn't there until a restsrt. Any ideas? Thanks.

The battery alone is a $5 to $15 part. Hard drives vary in cost, and depending on the iMac, they may or may not be able to install a third party hard drive, or one resold through Apple. The resold through Apple drives tend to cost more. This article discusses the varying successes of third party drives on iMacs:
http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-upgrade-options-on-new-im acs
The labor costs depend on the store as well as the time to get the parts in stock. Call around.

Imac g5 20'' flat optical drive's hanging up

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