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chasg · Mar 6, 2001, 07:57 AM

Hi All,

Just got a call from a dealer friend of mine. It seems that a customer has put one of those tiny CDs into a TiBook, and now they can't get it out (I don't know if the TiBook has been purchased, or if the customer just put the CD into an unpurchased machine).

As the only person my friend knows who has actually cracked a TiBook (changed HDs in my boss's machine), he's asked me for help.

Ok, I can open one of these things (and yes, I even got it closed again, but what a huuuuuge pain! A real step backward from Pismo), but if I do open this one, will I be able to access this tiny CD? I seem to remember the DVD drive being relatively skeletal, but I didn't look closely at whether or not it was open enough to actually allow access to any media that might be inserted (and therefore be able to be manually pushed out)

Can anyone give me guidance? (and yes, it'll be easiest to send it to Apple, but that poses some real problems, not least of which is the customer will hate my friend for depriving him of his new TiBook, even though it is totally the customer's fault)

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Chas

ddiokno · Mar 6, 2001, 08:02 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by chasg:
Hi All,

Just got a call from a dealer friend of mine. It seems that a customer has put one of those tiny CDs into a TiBook, and now they can't get it out (I don't know if the TiBook has been purchased, or if the customer just put the CD into an unpurchased machine).

As the only person my friend knows who has actually cracked a TiBook (changed HDs in my boss's machine), he's asked me for help.

Ok, I can open one of these things (and yes, I even got it closed again, but what a huuuuuge pain! A real step backward from Pismo), but if I do open this one, will I be able to access this tiny CD? I seem to remember the DVD drive being relatively skeletal, but I didn't look closely at whether or not it was open enough to actually allow access to any media that might be inserted (and therefore be able to be manually pushed out)

Can anyone give me guidance? (and yes, it'll be easiest to send it to Apple, but that poses some real problems, not least of which is the customer will hate my friend for depriving him of his new TiBook, even though it is totally the customer's fault)

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Chas[/QUOTE
Try taking a playing card or something with that thickness and sliding it into the drive. then hit the eject button. That should help guide the disc out. This happened at work at that was how we got it out. (you should be able to hear the disc spinning against the card)...
hope this helps, best of luck,
dave

Dan Szwarc · Mar 6, 2001, 08:16 AM

I remember reading somewhere that the slot loading drives are not compatible with the 8cm and business card CDs. The loader just isn't designed for them. Use full size CDs and DVDs only.

Bad customer, Bad!

Toinou · Mar 6, 2001, 09:52 AM

8 cm CD's worked fine in Slot Loading iMac though....
I'm convinced it will work in Ti PB (but I won't try on mine !)

Toinou

tullamore · Mar 6, 2001, 11:55 AM

I read an article I think from Mac World and the small cds DO work in the Ti Book if you insert them in the center of the drive. The article also said that if you get one stuck you can take off the bottom of the case and push the cd out from there.

BlaKaT · Mar 6, 2001, 12:30 PM

Tech note 58641 explains the types of disks that will work in which machines, however, if it's stuck I think the previous way to get them out was to remove the drive and shake the CD out, not somthing i'd be liking to be doing.
http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n58641

chasg · Mar 6, 2001, 12:42 PM

Update!

Ok, I went down to the dealer's and brought my tools (taking one of these apart is less intimidating the second time :-)

When the bottom is off, you _can_ see into the DVD drive, and yep, there was this 3.5" CD sitting there, off to the side. It wasn't on the spndle, and it wasn't even near the big roller that I assume sucks them in and spits them out.

A pencil with an eraser on the end was too thick to get through the gaps around the DVD mechanism/struts, so I wrapped a rubber band around the tip of one of my precision screwdrivers and kinda squinched the CD towards the slot (that roller is tight, had to get a second screwdriver involved to manage to push it all the way out).

Success! CD is out, drive still works, and my dealer friend looks like a Mac deity! (and I got 8 free 12x CDRs and a 16x CDR/RW firewire burner at cost out of it, not bad considering I was going to do the job for free :-)

And that CD? There, silkscreened RIGHT ON IT was a warning (and a diagram!) _not_not_not_ to use it in slot-loading CD mechanisms. That customer was lucky he wasn't there for me to try to shove his nose in the slot-loading DVD drive <heh>

Thanks again for the advice guys! (I didn't get to read any before I headed over to get this CD out. Be that as it may, I appreciate the advice)

Cheers!

Chas

fobside · Mar 6, 2001, 12:45 PM

score! nice work. so anyone else wanna trying sticking these small discs in just to see if theyll work in the Ti?

------------------
I used to use a PC.

Mar 6, 2001, 01:11 PM

Originally posted by chasg:
Hi All,

Just got a call from a dealer friend of mine. It seems that a customer has put one of those tiny CDs into a TiBook, and now they can't get it out (I don't know if the TiBook has been purchased, or if the customer just put the CD into an unpurchased machine).

The store policy should be "You stuck it, you bought it!" Only a total imbecile would try putting any nonstandard CD in a slot-loading drive, especially when it says clearly on the CD to never put it in a slot. That includes not only the business cards and 80mm miniCDs, but any of the shaped CDs.

2far · Mar 7, 2001, 08:39 AM

One question remains unclear, tho: according to http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n58641 you *can* use the 77 mm "Mini" CD in any of the slot loading drives (TiBook is also listed specifically).

Now wasn't that CD a round 77 mm standard Mini CD, or are we to take that TIL entry with a grain of salt?

chasg · Mar 7, 2001, 09:31 AM

2far,

it was a standard "mini-CD" (would've fit perfectly into the smaller depression in a tray-loading CD drive).

When I looked at the CD while it was still in the TiBook's drive, I could see that the CD was to the far left, so the hole in the CD was nowhere near the spindle of the drive. As for some mechanism to take a small CD and centre it in the drive, I didn't look carefully, but I didn't notice anything like that (it'd have to be some sort of set of arms or something)

So, the only way I can think of for a slot-loading CD drive to use a smaller than normal CD is to ensure that the CD was loaded in the exact centre of the slot. No way _I'm_ going to try that with my TiBook (when it comes: 500Mhz, extra 512Mb RAM, airport and going to swap in a 30Gb drive! Gonna be great :-)

Hmm, even if you do managed to load the small CD in the middle of the slot, how is the CD going to stop right over the spindle? Didn't see any mechanism for ensuring that either (again, didn't look carefully). Perhaps the spindle just pushes up, and when it encounters the hole in a CD to move in to, it does (sounds vaguely sexual <heh> ). Only way I can see it working.

Chas

zorg128 · Mar 7, 2001, 09:48 AM

Check out here and search for "pokemon:"

This Pokemon can kill your iMac or your TiBook!

[This message has been edited by zorg128 (edited 03-07-2001).]

tooki · Mar 7, 2001, 04:55 PM

Several companies make 8->12cm CD adapter rings. Audio catalogs often carry them. They were originally designed for early CD players, whose trays only had the indent for 12cm discs. I don't see why those adapters shouldn't work well in a slot-loading drive.

tooki