IMac will not take Tiger or Leopard Install discs

Question

I have a 17'' iMac with 2GHz Intel Core 2Duo Processor running on 10.4.11 Tiger. I have tried installing 10.5 Leopard onto the mac but it won't accept the disc. It spins for 30 seconds or so then spits it out. I was initially trying to upgrade because I lost the Bluetooth App from the computer (it can't be found in finder and does nothing when clicked on from top right of screen. I can send to the computer but not from it). When the Leopard disc didn't work, I tried putting in the Tiger 10.4.7 discs I received with the computer.. The mac won't even accept that disc, it spins for about 30 seconds then spits it out.
The computer is accepting and reading CD's and DVD movies (legit ones, haven't tried with any copies) but won't take the Mac discs.
Is there anything I can do to make the computer accept the Leopard disc so I can update it? Or is there something I can download to get my bluetooth App back?
Help would be much appreciated, I'm useless with computers.

Answer 1

If cleaning the optical drive as suggested by use of a retail clean disc
that would try and clean the lens of the laser used to read/write to the
media the drive can normally access, and it does not help, you may
have to take the computer in to a shop and have someone test and
check the computer's optical drive.
An upgrade to a newer OS X system will not fix an issue in the hardware
nor would it necessarily fix some other issue in the software in the Mac.
But when a computer has a problem in one OS X system, it is better to
see about fixing the issue in that OS X version since an upgrade is not
intended to repair some miscellaneous problem which may have been
caused by user error, some other defect (perhaps hardware) or a disk
corruption that could happen if a user overloads the computer's hard disk
drive (stored files you save to the computer) since that can affect the
whole operating system of the computer, if the internal hard disk drive is
overfull of saved content.
So, there could be more going on that just the first symptom(s) you note.
And when things start acting up, the computer does create log files and
keeps some error messages and crash files, among others, of minor to
major issues along with routine files of the normal actions of the System.
Someone experienced in how that works, and how to read the Console
utility's logs, could read through them for some clues about that matter.
An upgrade to 10.5 over the ailing 10.4 system in your computer is not
recommended at this time; because by itself, the problem may persist.
The actual upgrade at some other time, may be best performed with the
idea of making a clean fresh install from scratch with no parts of Tiger
10.4.11 in the hard drive at all. But the best paths available are open to
a knowledgeable user who knows more about the easy ways to do this.
A tech may be able to figure out what is going on, but most repair shops
won't be liable for any content on the hard disk drive; and some cures to
a larger problem may include a reinstall of the existing system, so your
old files would appear in the hard disk drive inside a "previous" system file.
Anyway, here is an Apple Support document with an outline of the path for:
• Troubleshooting Mac OS X installation from CD or DVD:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2956
Although you may not need to reinstall 10.4 (via archive & install, then update)
to fix the issue you mention; and an upgrade to 10.5 may only add several
layers of additional difficulty, if it works, before you can use Leopard 10.5.
Leopard would need to be updated to 10.5.8 (combo) and security updates;
among others, before you could start using it. A problem in all that, may be
the computer's hard disk drive may be too full to do all of these things; so it
would be wise to see about getting the optical drive to work then try to create
an off-computer archive of your own files. This would be better done to an
external hard disk drive capable of supporting a complete copy/clone of the
entire computer's hard drive contents; a bootable backup.
The use of a "clone utility" would facilitate making such a bootable backup.
A free-running app to do this, by the name Carbon Copy Cloner, is downloadable.
The previously mentioned utility of interest to get bits of the OS X installer to work
for you, short of having to re-install the whole OS X, would be the one by the name
Pacifist, by Charlesoft; it will run as a demo freely and completely to do the task of
extracting the correct (choosen) file from the Installer Disc and putting only the few
chosen files into the computer, in the right place; and that could fix some problems.
The Mac OS X invites user interest in maintenance and most aspects of it
are superior to other systems by decades of intended creative design. So,
if you find time to become technically interested in the upkeep of your Mac
these forums and the main Apple Support pages (searchable database) are
good places to start.
However things work out...
Good luck & happy computing!