How to activate the CD Drive in an iMac slotload

[ApsleyGuy]

hello
Just recently purchased an iMac slot Load from o yard sale
for some reason it seems that this unit must have been in an office where user's were not allowed to access the Cd Drive to play with at work, everytime you insert any brand or make or media type of Cd into the drive it will spit it back out, I'm sure that somewhere within the operating system someone has changed a setting to stop use of the drive
need to know how to turn it back on

Norm with no CD Drive use

 

[aquajet]

There's no setting within Mac OS that allows for this behavior that I'm aware of. Perhaps there's a third party utility. Or maybe the drive is bad.

Which version of Mac OS is it running?

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

Try inserting a Mac OS X or 9 disk into the machine and see if it will load up on it - by inserting the disk upon very startup (when you hear the chime) and hold C.

If not, well, something wrong with the drive.

 

[ApsleyGuy]

Thats for your insight

Heres a good question
When l'm on a PC (sorry) l can click on my computer l can see all drives including the cd or dvd drive
where do l click on a Mac to see if the system can see a Cd or DVd Drive


Norm
note this is a computer that looks as though it was used in an enviroment that will not allow you to use this drive
system installed is OS 10.4 is there a way to wipe out the drive and start fresh

 

[puckhead193]

it will appear on the desktop under the macintosh HD icon.
or you can view in the finder

 

[jocool5]

Well the system profiler may be the only way to see if the drive is seen by the computer. You might beable to restart the computer and hold down option, then stick the OS cd/dvd in the drive. You should be at a menu that will then have the internal hard drive, and the cd if readable as icons. If you see the install cd try to reinstall if not... well hopefully you(or a realy nice friend) have another mac you can set the Imac into target disk mode, format the drive via disk utilities, and install the os if needed with target disk mode from the other mac(the mac that is not seeing cd/dvd's will be in target disk mode, the other mac will have to be started up with the install cd/dvd in its drive, then when you select a target the firewire hardrive that shows up). It can be done, I was able to pull it off with an Imac and an emac.

 

[funkychunkz]

It sounds like you are using a managed account, meaning your access rights are limited to some extent. Is there is another account on your machine (administrator credentials are needed at some point, so I hope you have access to an admin account) log on to it. If you do not have one, than you cannot create one, and you will need to re-install.

If you can get into one, open up the system preferences application (located in HDD/Applications) and then click the accounts icon. From the sidebar list select your usually account, limitations, and click 'no limits'.

 

[jocool5]

It sounds like you are using a managed account, meaning your access rights are limited to some extent. Is there is another account on your machine (administrator credentials are needed at some point, so I hope you have access to an admin account) log on to it. If you do not have one, than you cannot create one, and you will need to re-install.

Re instalation is probably the best option but there might be a way to get into the root account, but you have to be able to boot from cd then there is a change password option, it will modify the root account password on the computer. Even then you will need a way to enter the account name(root) and password(wich you will create).

Good luck

 

[funkychunkz]

Re instalation is probably the best option but there might be a way to get into the root account, but you have to be able to boot from cd then there is a change password option, it will modify the root account password on the computer. Even then you will need a way to enter the account name(root) and password(wich you will create).

Good luck

That password change utility can only change passwords of pre-existing accounts, ie, unless the root account has been enabled through unix, or netinfo (I can't see why it would be) , it will not show up as an option to password change. Netinfo requires an admin password (which presumably the OP wouldn't have) and using 'sudo passwd root' requires the present user to be in the sudoers file (nominally a system administrator). Instead of using the password change utility (which could be used to gain access to a pre-existing administrator account that you don't know the password for) you could boot up into single user mode and (correct me if I'm wrong, unix lords) type 'passwd' and then type a password for root.

This may seem a bit complicated/frustrating, but basically this is what your options are:

A) Your disk drive is broken:
1)You get a new one;
2)You get it fixed/replaced (apple)

B) It works but you do not have access to it.
1) You reinstall from a DVD/CDs or target disk (if you do not have the original disks, still lawful because you once had a copy installed)

2)You have another account on the machine, and it is an administrator account
I) You know the password, and change your account to standard, or simply use the admin account
II) You do not, and change it by booting from the install disc

 

[Sutekidane]

That's what they do when they're broken.