Mac Pro optical drive won't open - it could be virtualbox!

I use Virtualbox to check websites in IE and other windows browsers.
To get the optical drive to work in windows, I had to allow VB to "take over" the optical drive when VB was running.
So when my optical drive would not open this morning, and just before panic set in, I remembered that I had left VB running an hour ago, and was probably not letting me open my optical drive from Mac OS.
As soon as I shut down VB, I had full control of my optical drive again.

I'm having exactly the same trouble with my Pioneer BDR-208D (SATA). I have swapped bays and swapped drives with the earlier BDR-207D, but the same symptoms occur with both, so I do not believe it's a problem with the drive itself. It is as if power stops to the optical drive buses.
My machine is a mid-2010 model Mac Pro 2 x 2.4 Ghz quad core running OSX 10.7.5.
Any luck with the energy saver solution? I'm going to give that a try right now.
-- Bill

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Optical drive won't open

How can I manually open the optical drive on my Mac Pro? There is no paperclip hole that I can see. Thanks in advance.
(I searched for this and found nothing. It's hard to believe it hasn't been asked.)

Hmm, that's interesting. I'll have to try the "...eject" next time I have a burn session freeze on me. (You know, where it's supposed to be burning a DVD, but the burning application sits there and churns with the beach ball, but it's not really doing anything, and it never comes out of it.) Had to resort to rebooting in the past. Happens a few times per year, which isn't much considering how many I burn, but it's annoying when it happens.
I was searching for this stuff because I used to use option-F12 (Logitech keyboard) to open the second drive, but it stopped working, possibly because of the latest Logitech software update I installed. I have the previous Logitech update if I need to revert, but the new version has some other nice features, so this workaround isn't bad. I always (literally, always) have a terminal window open anyway, so I just did a few quick aliases for my drive open/close/eject functions. I'd still rather have a quick single key-combo, but this isn't bad.
It's tempting to write a little script-application that would figure out if it was open or closed and then do the opposite, but looks like the only drutil bit that might tell me that information is the "poll" option, and that keeps polling, so it doesn't self-terminate, so things get messy from a coding standpoint. It's probably not worth that much work to me.
Thanks for the tip!

Mac Pro optical drive problems

I have a 2009 Mac Pro and have been having problems with optical drives I've installed in the lower bay. I initially installed a Toshiba drive that had Lightscribe technology, as I needed this for my wife's business and my Lacie external Lightscribe drive finally died. This drive worked great except for a loud "click, click" noise that it made every few minutes when not in use. I had originally attributed this noise to a hard drive starting or stopping but after repeated attempts to isolate the drive were unsuccessful, I resorted to using my old mechanic's stethescope and the noise seemed to be coming from the lower optical drive. I confirmed this by opening its tray and leaving it open which got rid of the noise. It was a very annoying noise, easily heard in my bedroom across the hall when the machine was asleep (and I wasn't). I decided to change it out for a Blu-Ray drive as the prices had come down out of the stratosphere. I bought a Pioneer drive from OWC and after having it disappear and reapper on me, behavior verified as a problem by checking these boards, I exchanged it for an LG unit. This one works fine and seems to stay recognized by the Apps that use it but a "click" is back. This occurs with about the same frequency as the Toshiba but is a single click and is much quieter. There is no periodic noise from the factory Superdrive. Someone suggested somewhere that this could be caused by Spotlight trying to access the drive. This doesn't seem logical as the noise only happens when there is no disk mounted. Would there be any software that would periodically "ping" the optical drive, even when the system was asleep? I can live with the noise from this one but am still curious if others have had this problem, and may have come up with a solution. Thanks, Ted
The drive installed now is an LG model number: WH12LS39KMP, the previous noisy drive was a Toshiba SH-S223

Repeated starting and stopping hard drives is not a good idea, and should be limited to laptops running on battery power. With most, the heads rub on the discs while starting or stopping. Drives specs usually allow only 25,000 to 50,000 starts. Temperature changes between running and sleeping puts stress on electronics, and can cause earlier failures. Also the starting current stresses the motur circuitry.
Apple optical drives have special firmware. If you look in the "ATA" section of "System Profiler" (Utilities folder) you should see that the Apple supplied drive supports "Low Power Polling". This may be why Apple optical drives don't have problems with drive sleep mode.

Mac Pro DVD drive won't load some software discs

I just bought two sets of Photoshop Elements, and my 2007 Mac Pro failed to recognize all six DVDs. I'm realizing I've had this problem with a few software discs in recent years, including some Final Cut Studio install discs. CDs and regular DVDs work fine - just some software DVDs are eventually ejected by the computer without showing up on the desktop. I have tried cleaning the drive with a disc cleaner.
My way around it has been to put these discs in my PC, make a copy, and then these copies load fine in my Mac. But it's a nuisance, and my PC won't be around forever.
Can anyone suggest what the problem might be? Or a decent external drive (Blu-ray?) that I might want to replace it with?
Thanks.

I'll try that tomorrow. Thinking it could also be:
1) The PRAMM battery. found info on that they can wear out close to 5 years. This MAC PRO is close to that now. And I use a lot of power on it.
2) MAC PRO is plugged into a SURGE PROTECTOR, instead of right into the wall outlet.
3) Been doing a lot of FORCE QUITS and HARD BOOT -- unplugging it directly when it wouldn't shut down soon enough -- lately this past year.
I just assumed that this MAC PRO with the XEON QUAD CORE etc., was a heavy duty enough NLE,
that i wouldn't have these problems. It's not fully loaded with all the chips it can carry...and I don't have near enough external terabyte hard drives for storing video and audio files to edit. I've been storing wayyy too much
on the internal hard dives and just have to stop that.
I noticed these past few days that much of the LETTERING for hard drive icons and folders' titles
were starting to look in OVERLAPPING of the lettering. That was my first hint that something was up.

MAC PRO HARD DRIVE won't boot

HARD DRIVE won't boot past APPLE ICON, grey spinning wheel on grey screen. Tried using install discs, no go past the icon.
Replace small battery inside? replace chips? Logic board replace as last resort. Can't take it away from work at this point to an apple tech.
Had just installed updates to snow leopard and was successful...but went to restart it...and this crap happened.
Thanks for any help.
MT1111
< Edited by Host >

I'll try that tomorrow. Thinking it could also be:
1) The PRAMM battery. found info on that they can wear out close to 5 years. This MAC PRO is close to that now. And I use a lot of power on it.
2) MAC PRO is plugged into a SURGE PROTECTOR, instead of right into the wall outlet.
3) Been doing a lot of FORCE QUITS and HARD BOOT -- unplugging it directly when it wouldn't shut down soon enough -- lately this past year.
I just assumed that this MAC PRO with the XEON QUAD CORE etc., was a heavy duty enough NLE,
that i wouldn't have these problems. It's not fully loaded with all the chips it can carry...and I don't have near enough external terabyte hard drives for storing video and audio files to edit. I've been storing wayyy too much
on the internal hard dives and just have to stop that.
I noticed these past few days that much of the LETTERING for hard drive icons and folders' titles
were starting to look in OVERLAPPING of the lettering. That was my first hint that something was up.

Mac Pro optical drive hardware is causing Leopard to hang on startup

I had installed Leopard on a new internal drive with a clean install. However, everytime I tried to boot, it hanged on the blue screen or took me to the Leopard desktop where it froze.
I called Apple and through the process of elimination they asked to to disconnect my two optical drives...the first is a Sony NEC Optiarc DVD RS AD-7170A that came with the computer. The second is a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-112. After separating the ribbon cable that connects both drives, I was able to successfully boot into Leopard with no problems. That said, Apple regarded my issue as now a hardware issue rather than a software issue...and said I should take the Mac Pro into the local store for repair.
I've tested each of the optical drives individually to see if by hooking them up one by one to see if one will allow the system to boot. But neither one allows me to boot into Leopard successfully. Apple also says that the ribbon cable could also be a possible reason as well.
Before I make the trek to the store, does anyone out there have any similar stories to share with their Mac Pro? I have NOT updated to the latest firmware for the Mac Pro which is EFI 1.2 and I may try that as a last resort. Also, I tried to find any Superdrive firmware updates for the Mac Pro's Sony Optiarc drive on Apple's website, but could not locate any.
Let me know if anyone out there has some info to share on this.
Thanks,
John

Thanks for the reply, but I took it to the apple store today and they ran a full diagnostic test on it. It turns out it really wasn't the optical drive. There was a bad sensor on the logic board causing the power supply fan to run at full blast. Looks like im gonna have to wait even longer to be able to enjoy my mac pro:(

Mac Pro optical drive is really loud.....

I just got may mac pro today and when i turned it on I noticed that the optical drive sounded as if it was running on full throttle at all times. It is in a well ventilated area, I reset the pram, and still no luck! I also did a hardware test and it detected an error 4SNS/1/40000000:Vp0C. Just before it detected the error the optical drive became quiet for a few seconds and then went right back to being loud....Any ideas????

Thanks for the reply, but I took it to the apple store today and they ran a full diagnostic test on it. It turns out it really wasn't the optical drive. There was a bad sensor on the logic board causing the power supply fan to run at full blast. Looks like im gonna have to wait even longer to be able to enjoy my mac pro:(

Upgrade to mac pro now FCP won't open files

Howdy, i have upgraded from a 20" imac to an 8 core mac pro with 10 gigs ram-1.82 Terra HD and now I can't open the files I was working on with the imac. I can launch FCP but once I try to open a file it crashes the program.
All software is up to date (OSX 10.5.2, FCP 6.0.3).
thanks, Gary

I have also called tech support and they suggested I reinstall the entire FCS1 & 2 software so I did. Everything seems to be running properly now.
I've learned that using migration assistant isn't such a good idea for FCS but it did save me a lot of time on my other programs so it was helpful.
I appreciate everyone's help and wanted to post what I've learned in case somebody else has had this problem.
thank you, Gary

My dvd drive won't open so I can insert a disc. It has opened in the past by pushing the button on my mac

I can't insert any dvd's because my dvd drive won't open when I push the open key. It has always worked in the past. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

It's possible there is a CD/DVD in the drive that's stuck. Open Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities. Do you see a CD/DVD in the drive? Try ejecting using unmount.
If that fails, restart and hold down the mouse button whe restarting.
Other links:
Kappy's Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4795807
Ds store's suggestion: Reboot the computer holding the option key down, wait for the boot drive options to appear, then press the eject key on the keyboard. When it's out, then select your boot drive and click the arrow key to boot up.
http://guides.macrumors.com/Force_Eject_a_Stuck_CD_or_DVD
Hope this helps!

Macbook Pro optical drive stopped working after upgrading from Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to OS X Mavericks.

My Macbook Pro optical drive stopped working after upgrading from Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to OS X Mavericks.. I wonder what's the work around or troubleshooting to fix this. Thanks!

try and Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)

Disk Drive won't open: Root Cause

I've seen several posts here and elsewhere on why the DVD/CD drive won't open/eject on the Mac Pro or Macbook. Pressing the keyboard button doesn't eject it, and neither do any terminal commands. After banging my head against a wall I found the cause: VMWare Fusion had "mounted" the DVD-drive so the Mac thought the drive was terminally "busy". If you have Parallels, the same may be happening to you as well.
P.S. I suspect a similar thing may be happening with my external hard drive, which I have set up as my Time Machine drive. I periodically get a message that Time Machine encountered an error but no details. The drive may be hijacked by VMWare when Time Machine tries to access it...

VMware can grab USB devices too. It's a good idea to make sure your VM's aren't set to attach the cd/dvd drive automatically when they start.

Premiere Pro 4 File Won't Open

Hi all
I have an adobe premiere pro file that won't open. When I double click on it, the load project bar gets to about four fiths of the way, then it just stops. The last time I saved the file, I saved it to my computer, then I saved it to a portable hard drive to back it up (around four minutes later). Both versions of the file won't open. The previous file will open, but I have done 30 hours more work since then (on the new file). I thought it was enough to be saving every few minutes, saving back ups to a portable hard drive... I also have a raid 1 configuration! I was never expecting this. When I leave the Premiere Pro on the Load Project screen, it stays there for hours.
If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it.
-Linus

Hi John
Thanks for getting back to me. I just looked in autosave. The file that won't open was last saved at 11:02pm on the 16th. There was an autosave project at 10.25pm on the 16th, and that wouldn't open either (it crashes at exactly the same place as the other one). However, there was an autosave file at 6:17pm on the 16th that would open. Curious though, it doesn't seem to have a lot of the changes I thought I had made by this time. It seems to be earlier than this (although perhaps my memory isn't serving me correctly). Should there be more autosaves that this? I had the program open pretty much that whole time, and nothing between 6:17 and 10:25.
Anyway, that's a start! Something must have happened between 6.17pm and 10.25pm that'd made the file go kaput. I would love to know what, so I can avoid this happening again. First things first though, it'd be fantastic to get the file that isn't opening working.
Thanks for your swift response too, Jim. I opened PP and tried to open the file from the interface. The load project bar stopped at the same place. I can open other projects fine. As to your last suggestion, I created a new project, and went to File/Import then clicked on the file in question. It started importing, then the progress bar froze at exactly the same place. I'm not sure if I did this correctly. Is there another way to import a PP file into an existing PP?
Thanks again for your time. It's just nice to speak to someone about this because I really freaked out when it happened.
-Linus

Optical drive will not open disc

Optical drive will not open CD or DVD since upgrading to Lion.

My Macbook Pro has just developed the exact same problem within the last month. Mine has been working fine since upgrading to Lion (upgraded when it was launched), but it has suddenly stopped playing any DVDs or CDs.
Does anyone have any suggestions before I book a genius bar appointment?

Macbook pro optical drive stopped working after installation of mavericks

macbook pro optical drive stopped working, just spins and won't eject, ever since I upgraded to Mavericks, thoughts?

I have the same problem and was advised by someone to reset System Management Controller (SMC). I haven't tried it yet though. I wish it could fix it. Let's give it a shot!

Just uploaded apps from iPhone to Mac Pro but i can't open apps on mac pro?

Just uploaded apps from iphone to Mac pro but i can't open the apps - Why?

Hi richard915,
Welcome to the Support Communities!
Do you mean that you transferred your purchases from the iPhone to your Mac pro? You can also set your Mac's iTunes preferences to automatically download purchases made to it. You'd have to check the specifics for the app that you are having an issue with, but some apps that are designed for the iPhone won't work on your Mac. Developers usually create two versions of their software.
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1848
iTunes 11 for Mac: Automatically download new iTunes Store purchases to multiple computers and devices
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12282
I hope this information helps ....
- Judy

Mac Pro optical drive won't open - it could be virtualbox!

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