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One solution to jammed discs in laptop Macs
Authored by: JosephDaniel on Sep 05, '12 01:14:55AM

First, I would like to express my surprise that Apple hasn’t devoted more attention to this as a known problem which is pervasive with the G4 Powerbook. Second, I would like to express my sympathy for all those who have gone to great lengths to solve this problem doing things like resetting their PRAM and even replacing their internal CD/DVD drive only to see the problem recur.

From my analysis, it appears the CD eject problem with the Powerbook is entirely mechanical in nature. When the CD is inserted, one thing that happens to secure the disk is a metal tab circles around the front and holds the disk securely in place. You don’t see this because it happens behind the felt-like dust shield. Outside that shield the CD slot housing is formed by molded plastic and the top lip of that shield is rather thin. Although I’m sure the designers believed that this plastic lip would remain true and straight, this is not always the case. Whatever the cause, this lip can become gradually warped and bow downward to constrict the opening of the CD slot. But the real problem with ejection is that the moving part which is the metal retention tab mentioned earlier fails to get out of the way and release the disk, so the disk never even gets the chance to bump into the lip and be retracted back. But the warped lip may be connected to this problem, by producing a constriction pressure on the front of the mechanism that is enough to stop the retention tab from doing its job.

The solution I discovered is that whereas the upper lips has warped downward, it is malleable with tensile memory and can also be warped back upward. A good way to do this is to use pieces from a super cheap carpentry item called a “shim” at the point where this gradually wedged piece of wood or plastic is 1/8” thick. That is the correct slot opening. Cut three pieces of shim at the 1/8” point and leave them gently wedged in the slot at three points for a while. In as little as 15 minutes the slot will retain a wider opening, and if left in overnight it will retain its shape longer. With the slot opening “healed” I have found the disk will eject, revealing that the problem may not be so much with the drive as with what the warped lip does to the drive.



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