IMac won't read the System Install DVD after trying a Software Update (Whic

Last weekend I tried downloading the 10.4.7 update to my iMac. Towards the end of the download the iMac crashed out and said that the Software Update was unsuccessful. As this was the case I tried rerunning the 'Software Update' again but after a few seconds of the application running and the little window being on the screen, it just dropped out and exited. As this was therefore not working I tried to download the Software Update as a Stand Alone application. I found after downloading the file that mounting a disk image on my iMac no longer works. My next step was to try and reinstall OS X from the System Install DVD. I put the DVD in the DVD Drive and found that after it whirred for about 20 seconds, the disk ejected. I thought this was odd so I tried to boot the iMac , holding down the 'C' key once the DVD was in place inside the iMac. The Mac powered up and then the DVD whirred for a while and once again it ejected the DVD. I now have no way of reinstalling OS X..and am at a loss. I called up the supplier of the iMac as I only purchased it in May 2006. They advised me that the warranty only covers Hardware and not Software. They said with a problem like this it could be expensive to try and work out what is causing it as it is sort of an unknown. I would like to know if anyone else has had this problem, is there some way I can see what the iMac is doing when it is trying to read the DVD and the ejects it, and is there some way of 'resetting' the iMac so that it is in the initial state. I know the BIOS on these machines is a 'soft' BIOS so as the supplier said, it is quite possible that the Software Update has corrupted the soft BIOS on the machine. Any ideas?

Yes. It is possible that the DVD could be bad.
It is also possible that your corrupted installation is preventing the DVD from working right.
It would seem strange, except that this happened with another guy as well. But, once we disconnected his internal hard drive with the corrupted OS 10.4.7 install, the machine booted from the DVD and worked properly. We then connected a different hard drive to install to, and it worked fine. Then, we connected the drive as a secondary and formatted it and it resumed working.
But, with an iMac CoreDuo, you cannot open the machine to unplug the drive. So, you'll be a bit stuck if you require the same solution. He had a PowerMac G5.
But, basically, his corrupted OS 10.4.7 installation was preventing booting from a CD, booting into safe mode, booting from an external drive, or any other kind of booting.
So, for him, the only option was disconnecting the internal drive and installing on another one.
I hope this doesn't turn out to be necessary on your system as well. If so, you'll need to take it into the shop for servicing.
The only other option I could think of is to try and boot it into Target Disk mode, and format it's drive with another computer. Perhaps that would work.
Once your internal drive has been cleared (formatted), then it may boot from the DVD again (assuming your problem is the same as the other guys).
You can read about Target Disk Mode here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
You can read about the steps we took to troubleshoot and repair the other guys machine here:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2629919#2629919
Perhaps that will help explain what I described above.
I hope this helps.

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