Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Flamemaplestrat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 30, 2011
7
0
My two year old shoved a disc into my mac's SuperDrive and now it will not do anything. In fact, the disc he put in there got stuck. I managed to get it out. I would greatly appreciat anyone's suggestion's. Note, he did this while the computer was off. Thanks.
 
My two year old shoved a disc into my mac's SuperDrive and now it will not do anything. In fact, the disc he put in there got stuck. I managed to get it out. I would greatly appreciat anyone's suggestion's. Note, he did this while the computer was off. Thanks.

Buy him his own Macbook and tell him to stay off your iMac :cool:
 
Reply

Sounds expensive. I was thinking the same thing. I just hope I can use an external DVD/cd drive in it's place if the bill is too steep.
 
It needs a new superdrive. If you are technologically savvy, you can replace it yourself for about $75. If not, Apple will charge you like $300 to do it...
 
on a serious note ... he has probably not broken it and maybe has tripped a sensor.

As Stridemat has pointed out ... get Apple to have a look.

good luck
 
Reply

Yes, this sounds expensive and I am not qualified to tear down my iMac. Can I substitute an external drive? Thanks!
 
Its worth explaining the situation to the Genius you meet at the Apple store. They may fix it for free. Stranger things have happened.
 
Reply

The SuperDrive was working flawlessly until my kid did what he did. So the optical part was working great. Maybe there is a cheaper fix. I hope......
 
Yes, this sounds expensive and I am not qualified to tear down my iMac. Can I substitute an external drive? Thanks!

You can use an external USB CD/DVD drive with no problem (I use them all the time). However, I'm not 100% positive you can boot from them if you have a problem and need to recover the system or upgrade your OS.
 
You can use an external USB CD/DVD drive with no problem (I use them all the time). However, I'm not 100% positive you can boot from them if you have a problem and need to recover the system or upgrade your OS.

Good thought, I've got a USB DVD Drive and I can boot from it on my netbook so I'm pretty certain it'll be fine for the mac, but good point, I didn't think about that.
 
He's likely correct for holding 'C' at start since that is supposed to default to SuperDrive. You might have a better shot holding down the Option key. I'm not sure, however, as Apple doesn't let you hack it to change the Darwin hexadecimal boot code. You have to choose from something that is provided.
 
Good thought, I've got a USB DVD Drive and I can boot from it on my netbook so I'm pretty certain it'll be fine for the mac, but good point, I didn't think about that.

Yeah, I'm 99% sure I booted my MBP from an external DVD Drive during one of my many "Adventures in Violating the Apple Warranty", but I didn't want to tell someone a porky-pie thinking it was the gospel. :) For once in my life, I don't want to be 'that guy'... hahaha /silliness

Mactrillionaire, you sir are correct. It is hold down Option to boot from an external drive.
 
Last edited:
Tell a kid not to touch the stove and he'll still touch it and get burnt. The child will learn from the pain. Morel of the story? Surround your iMac with hotplates :D
 
USB DVD boot works fine

Guaranteed. I do it all the time. I've removed my optical drive so its the only way I can install the OS.
 
Applecare?

if you have applecare I would bring it in and play dumb. They might just replace the superdrive, no questions asked. After all, its a possible scenario where your kid does what your kid did and you have no knowledge of it.

Best of luck!
 
Thanks to everyone that posted a reply! I just caught my little boy trying to stick pokemon cards in the iMac's drive. There may just be playing cards in it. He's a good kid. Just loves to get his little hands on my Mac too much. He likes it. Can't blame him for that. Taking the Mac to the apple store soon. When I get it fixed, I am going put tape over the drive hole.
 
Thanks to everyone that posted a reply! I just caught my little boy trying to stick pokemon cards in the iMac's drive. There may just be playing cards in it. He's a good kid. Just loves to get his little hands on my Mac too much. He likes it. Can't blame him for that. Taking the Mac to the apple store soon. When I get it fixed, I am going put tape over the drive hole.

lol ... he will be writing computer code by the time he is 4 :cool:
 
If there are only pokemon cards in the superdrive... and thats all that is causing the issue... the Genii at the apple store can remove it and test it ... labor is only $39.

worth it, as most of the time, those drives start working again from something like that.
 
Thanks for the info. I have never had to use the apple store to work on my Mac so this info is helpful.
 
The optical drive bay on the iMac has always been problematic. When I bought my 2007 iMac I ripped all my CD's into my iTunes Library. After about the 50th CD, one got stuck in the drive. It was nothing more than constant repetitive wear and tear on the drive motor and also a partial problem with the fact that the drive is slot loaded and not tray loaded. The motor on the drive, that ejects the disc, can also become misaligned for various reasons as well. My point is that Apple has been made aware of some of these problems and often times they will replace drives for no charge, even out of warranty/apple care.

I'm not sure how the Apple store will handle the cards being put into the drive, but like others have said it shouldn't be all that expensive.

Hope everything works out for you. :)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.