[Bunty]

I have had my 17" MacBook Pro for around 5 months. Yesterday evening I inserted a DVD to settle down to watch a film but the drive did not make the usual or any of the normal whirring noises: the icon did not appear nor could I eject using the keyboard or DVD player eject button. I have tried starting the computer with the trackpad 'key' depressed, tilting the laptop, keeping the eject button depressed for a while, restarting etc. all to no avail. Is there anything else I can try or do I just need to take my laptop back to the supplier?

[Eug]

Restart with the eject button depressed - keep holding it during the boot process (when the screen is grey). That usually works, assuming the drive isn't broken.

[Bunty]

Thank you Eug. I tried this twice but unfortunately it did not work. Each time I heard the the little 'jiggle' of the CD/DVD drive twice, when normally it is heard only once on start-up, but that was the only difference. My laptop is relatively new, only a few months, so I can take it back to the supplier for repair, if it is likely that the drive is broken as you suggest, although this involves a lot of travelling which I would rather not do if I can avoid. Everything else functions normally. Somebody has suggested I need to 'reset the System Management Controller (SMC)' but when I looked at the problems this could potentially solve on the APple website, problems with the DVD/CD drive did not seem to figure and I am a little apprehensive to carry this out. Any further advice?

[-Q-]

Apple does suggest resetting the SMC for a stuck disc:

Apple Computers: Troubleshooting the slot load optical disc drive

No idea why, but it is an "authorized" suggestion to try.

You could also fire up the Terminal and type:

Code:
drutil tray open
drutil tray eject

If that doesn't work, you may be stuck (no pun intended) visiting a service center.

[ajprice]

Was it an 'Eco Disc' ? These are thinner than a standard disc and they don't like slot load drives.

Try this - Put the Apple notebook upside down and slap it! « QOMPUTE is now on QOMPUTE.NET :-)

[P]

To the right of the disc inject mechanism but still inside the slot, there is an emergency eject button. Using the proverbial straightened paperclip, push that button to force eject the disc. I suspect that there is a hardware fault, but that trick might be worth trying.