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Mac Pro opening DVD tray on boot ???

M

mrcandy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 12, 2007
112
0
Calgary, AB Canada
I have an early 2008 Mac Pro that has been working fine since i got it just over a year ago. Recently the DVD tray has taken to opening any time the machine is booted. The tray is opened whether there is a CD or DVD in the drive or not. This would just be an annoyance, except that I now need to boot from a CD, but cannot because it gets ejected.

When re-starting the machine I get the startup chime, the grey screen, hear the heads on the optical drive moving, then the drive opens and I get the Apple logo followed by a boot from hard drive. Tried holding 'C' key during boot, no difference.

I've tried several different copies of both DVD and CD media with identical results. The media works fine in the browser (in the same optical drive - I only have the one) once the machine has started.

Hardware configuration hasn't changed in months. Latest software updates installed (OS X 10.5.6).

Any one else seeing this, or have any suggestions?
 
Now I realize that you said that nothing has changed in the hardware configuration so it seems to me that your default startup disk has gotten changed to the optical drive somehow (perhaps in the latest update or who knows why).

The easy way to test this hypothesis is to just open your System Preferences, select the "Startup Disk" pane and then click on your hard drive in the list of devices that appears. Click restart and see if the optical drive doesn't just stay closed as it should. If it does stay closed the fix will "stick" through subsequent restarts.

Hope that works- if so it a simple fix which is always the best! Good luck.;)
 
sickmacdoc said:
The easy way to test this hypothesis is to just open your System Preferences, select the "Startup Disk" pane and then click on your hard drive in the list of devices that appears. Click restart and see if the optical drive doesn't just stay closed as it should. If it does stay closed the fix will "stick" through subsequent restarts.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion - I had already checked the startup drive setting and found it set to my normal boot drive. However, I have now also gone through and set it to something else, rebooted, and then back to my normal boot drive, and re-booted again. Still no luck, drive still opens during the boot process.

While at it, I also reset NVRAM - no change.
 
DoFoT9 said:
now this is a very stupid question.... but is the mouse being held down on bootup??
Click to expand...

Not a stupid question at all, and as it turns out - congrats you win the prize!

I have two keyboards, two mice, and a graphics tablet connected - if I disconnect it all and reboot, no more problem. Weird that there was no other side affect to normal system operation.

I'll need to do several more reboots to narrow down specifically which of my input devices is the culprit. I'll report back in a few minutes.

Thanks DoFoT9 :)
 
mrcandy said:
Not a stupid question at all, and as it turns out - congrats you win the prize!

I have two keyboards, two mice, and a graphics tablet connected - if I disconnect it all and reboot, no more problem. Weird that there was no other side affect to normal system operation.

I'll need to do several more reboots to narrow down specifically which of my input devices is the culprit. I'll report back in a few minutes.

Thanks DoFoT9 :)
Click to expand...

oh wow!!!! hahaha thats incredible. first and only time i will guess right in the year, it is a wonderful day :)

that is a LOT of peripherals, why so many?
 
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DoFoT9 said:
oh wow!!!! hahaha thats incredible. first and only time i will guess right in the year, it is a wonderful day :)
Click to expand...

OK, so by process of elimination the culprit is my Wacom tablet. The really strange thing is that with the tablet connected there's NO boot problem IF I have the Wacom mouse and the stylus away from the pad. If either the stylus or the mouse is near enough the pad to be 'connected' (less than 1cm), then I get the boot problem.

I'll fire of an email to Wacom and see if they've heard of this one before.

As a side note, I said my hardware config hadn't changed - which is true, but lately I had taken to 'storing' the Wacom mouse on the tablet which I didn't do previously.

that is a LOT of peripherals, why so many?
Click to expand...

One of the mice is the Wacom mouse that comes with the tablet, the other is my 'normal' mouse a Logitech revolution. One keypad is the wireless keypad that came with the Mac Pro - which I find great, until the batteries die and it quits in the middle of something. I use rechargeables and the battery monitor doesn't seem to work so well with them, by the time I get the low battery warning I only have seconds left. Also, I sometimes miss the numeric keypad. So, I also have the wired full size keyboard from my old Gigabit Mac attached and tucked away, but ready when needed.
 
I was gonna say I have the same issue and discovered it was my Wacom too. weird little glitch but like you said, just scoot the mouse and pen away problem solved!
 
I have the opposite problem. May Mac Pro ( Early 2008 ) optical try won't open. either with eject key or common. or if there was a CD, dragging to trash.
It will open however if I restart and in the few minute after it start up I can eject it normally. so it's not mechanically stuck or anything. It's been like this for a couple years already. Through out all the OS updates the problem still persist. No running 10.10.5
Any wizard out there?
Thanks
 
FWIW - I installed a new Kensington trackball mouse (bluetooth / USB). Bluetooth pairing didn't work so I used the USB dongle plugged into the back of my 2010 Apple keyboard. Both optical drive trays started opening on startup. Couldn't figure it out for the life of me, but then switched the mouses's USB dongle to my USB hub. Drive trays stopped opening! Something about the USB ports on the back of the keyboard (note: keyboard is plugged into USB port on back of 30" cinema display) was sending message to computer at startup that I wanted to insert a disc. Changing the insert point for the USB mouse fixed it. Hope this helps someone else out there!
 
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theoaronson said:
FWIW - I installed a new Kensington trackball mouse (bluetooth / USB). Bluetooth pairing didn't work so I used the USB dongle plugged into the back of my 2010 Apple keyboard. Both optical drive trays started opening on startup. Couldn't figure it out for the life of me, but then switched the mouses's USB dongle to my USB hub. Drive trays stopped opening! Something about the USB ports on the back of the keyboard (note: keyboard is plugged into USB port on back of 30" cinema display) was sending message to computer at startup that I wanted to insert a disc. Changing the insert point for the USB mouse fixed it. Hope this helps someone else out there!
Click to expand...

You may not realize this but your input solved my similar issue. It has something to do with the Kensington trackball dongle. I had it attached to the front usb port of my Mac Pro 2010 (cheese grater) and it just ejects the drive every time when the computer boots up. I moved the usb dongle to a hub and lo and behold, the issue is gone.
 
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