Home Forums Hardware Mac Desktops & Notebooks eMac finds CDs and DVDs indigestible

Having just managed to circumvent password protected firmware on an eMac (a long story played out and resolved via the late MacFixIt immediately before its demise) I find that, although all my start-up keys are now enabled, the drive still spits out all CDs and DVDs without mounting them.

I've run TechTool Pro v 5.0.4 (Build 4200M) and it reports no errors, nor does fsck -fy, nor applejack.

I can't run Apple's Hardware Test because it spits out any and all discs!

So, how can I check what is wrong with the drive and/or am I overlooking something stupid?



I'm running OSX.4.11 Build 8S165 with the following Profile ...

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: eMac
Machine Model: PowerMac4,4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 700 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.4.9f1

TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R1202:

Firmware Revision: 1A34
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw
Media: No


Thanks in advance.

Any of these tips targeting the iMac help?

Hi iBozz
If you haven't tried a lens cleaning disc that would be the first step, I doubt that will do any good though. From the age of your eMac I would bet that the drive has failed. OWC has internal replacements that they say are user replaceable. If you are not comfortable with that then one of OWC's External Drives may be the way to go.

Oh I see you are in the UK. You will most likely want to buy local. OWC will at least give you an idea of what is available.

you can replace the built in optical drive, it take a standard desktop 5.25" drive. Or cheaper may be to just get a lacie external firewire drive.