How do i reset the Optical Drive BIOS ?

[tea biscuit]

Hi, I'm looking for help with resetting my Optical Drive BIOS. My mac mini won't let a new disc be inserted into the optical drive. It's like the sensor or feed motors aren't working. We know there is no disc in there. Someone said i could try resetting the BIOS for the optical drive - but i don't know how to do that. I've tried rebooting (which we think used to help but doesn't now) and cleaning out dust with a vacuum.. Any help would be much appreciated

 

[California]

Hi, I'm looking for help with resetting my Optical Drive BIOS. My mac mini won't let a new disc be inserted into the optical drive. It's like the sensor or feed motors aren't working. We know there is no disc in there. Someone said i could try resetting the BIOS for the optical drive - but i don't know how to do that. I've tried rebooting (which we think used to help but doesn't now) and cleaning out dust with a vacuum.. Any help would be much appreciated

It sounds like it's broken.

Also, the last Mac Mini that had a built in optical drive was the 2010 Mac Mini model, the all aluminum unibody. Previous to that were the aluminum and white body type that ran all the way up through the beginning of the line I believe in 2004.

Which model do you have? The reason I ask is if you have a 2010 or 2009 white mini, there is a chance you still might have Applecare and Apple would fix it for you.

If not, there were various types of optical drives on the minis. IDE fat drives, IDE slim drives then SATA drives; they are not terribly expensive and you could put a new one in yourself. Also if you have a newer mini, the Apple external superdrive will work with it. (Not sure if the apple drive will work with really old Mini's though)

 

[Dan in VA]

I have a 2010 Mac Mini that was allowing a disc to be inserted, but it would promptly kick it back out. I took it in to Apple and it's waiting for me to pickup. Gotta love AppleCare. I've never lost money on it.

I had a 2006-8 Mac Mini that had a bad DVD drive out of warranty a few years ago. I ordered the part and swapped it out myself. Pretty easy.