Member Avatar for salinae

My G4 CD drive has suddenly stopped working, with an AirPort CD stuck inside it. I was installing an AirPort Extreme card, and followed the onscreen install commands. When it came to the restart instruction the Mac rebooted but the CD drive was dead, with the disc inside it. The eject button has also stopped working.

Even tho I was nowhere near the CD drive when the box was open, could something have happened? If so, what? I can't believe the drive really is dead, as it worked perfectly well up to the point I came to install the new card, etc.

Any thoughts? Many thanks.

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Quick, practical checklist for a G4 whose optical drive stops responding or refuses to eject. Builds on ’s initial nudge but adds a few less-invasive diagnostics and safe hardware checks so replacement or a service visit can be avoided if possible. Work from software/firmware fixes to manual checks to reduce risk.

Try OS-level and firmware actions first: hold the left mouse button (or trackball) while powering on — many older Macs will force-eject media during boot. Use Finder or Disk Utility to eject; on machines with the command-line utilities try drutil tray eject (or hdiutil detach /Volumes/Name for mounted images). Booting into Safe Mode (hold Shift) can free locked resources. Reset PRAM with Option-Command-P-R at startup if hardware buttons or behaviour seem wrong. Also quit any burning or disk-using apps that might be holding the drive.

If software methods fail, try manual-eject and power-down checks carefully: some slot-load mechanisms have a tiny manual-eject hole or a service-step that uses the tray mechanism — check the specific model guide. Before opening the case, unplug mains and discharge static (touch the chassis, or use an antistatic strap). When powered down, gently reseat data and power leads to the optical drive; on many G4 desktops that is the IDE ribbon and a 4-pin power plug. Inspect for cables or screws obstructing the mechanism. Do not force gears or pull hard on the tray — that can strip the drive’s mechanism.

If the drive spins but discs won’t mount, test with multiple known-good discs and check Disk Utility or system logs for I/O errors (this points to laser/read failure). For future upgrades, use ESD precautions and avoid stressing nearby cables when installing cards. If problems persist after these steps, a drive replacement or professional inspection is the next sensible option.

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Member Avatar for yellow

Have you restarted? Removed the CD from the drive? Blown it (the CD drive) out with compressed air?

Member Avatar for salinae

. . . and after a fair bit of de-dusting (I opened the box), and checking connections, it's all back working just the way it should.

Thanks for your good advice!

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