As the Apple Turns

I have a blank DVD stuck in my iMac. It tries to eject, and I hear the beginning stages of it trying to eject, but it just can't do it.

This is a 24 inch iMac in the white iPod style.

Any ideas?

You have tried the restart and hold the mouse button trick I hope.

Can you see the DVD in the slot? On that model (I have a 17" of the same, even if it's retired now) the DVD can become misaligned from the slot in the case, which causes something similar. Fix is simply to realign the DVD inside the case, which may be easier said than done.

All good suggestions.

I can't see the DVD. I hear it try and eject to the point where I would normally see it eject. It does this 3 or 4 times then it remounts the DVD. In this case it's blank so it asks me what do I wantbto do with it.

Any other ideas?

If none of the above is working, you can bring it into an Apple Store. (A bit drastic, but hey, slot-loading drives suck.)

I'm considering opening it up to either disable the drive or remove the disc. And while it's open replace the hard drive with a much bigger one.

Anyone have the take apart guide?

Depends on the specific iMac. The very first G5s were easy-open and came with instructions. Later ones hide the screws and are a royal pain to get into.

This one is the hard one. It's the intel iMac, white, 24" screen, 2.33ghz processor.

I found one take apart guide, but it doesn't seem very complete... I would love the Apple version.

It's quite clear what your problem is, I think: The slotloading drive is misaligned with the case. To fix, disassemble or break out the circular saw and open up the slot a bit... I'd recommend disassembly.

iFixithas good repair guides, but not for all models. You can probably figure it out using a similar model, if you need. There are also some here, but the Apple original manuals are gone.

I'd recommend you to install not one but two HDs - one in place of the optical (which I think is plain old UATA) - and use an external optical instead.

Been there with the 20" model.

this may need two people.
hold machine sideways or at least tilt it sideways so that the corner under the DVD drive and the stand are touching the desk.

Then hit eject again.

The dvd drive in that model don't work well with disks that are thinner than spec.

Update: It's still stuck.

I am finally ready to tackle this. I am going to replace the existing hard drive and maybe even pull the DVD drive out, to replace with another HD (per P's suggestion).

Does anyone have a decent take-apart guide for this? I can send the serial number if that helps nail down the model.

I think that this is the the guide you need. Note: it's 12 pages long. The entire disassembly guide of the new 27" iMac, which certainly isn't easy to get in to, is 3 pages. This looks hairy.

That seems very close to the one I found, too.

Wish me luck, I am going to try this tonight.

Wow, that didn't go well at all. I only got to step 3, which was to unlatch the bezel. I couldn't make it budge.

Off the Apple Store to get an estimate!