02-16-2008, 02:19 PM

Hi all,

Only had a Mac Mini for little over a month and it has hardly had much use, mainly iTunes playing streaming media and Front Row.

What has happened is I loaded up and logged in and inserted a film DVD disc intending to watch it in DVD Player.

The disc spun up but didn't appear in OS X. I cannot eject the disc. When I go to the Eject icon on the menu bar it says "no drives" and I have tried using the terminal command drutil tray eject and nothing has happened.

I have restarted a few times and shut down and started up a few times and no change - the disc in there not being seen.

I have hardly used the disc drive but it seemed a little odd since day one when I had similar problems with a audio CD. I solved that with a restart after which it saw it and all was good.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I find it annoying that whilst overall the machine is so good, this slim DVD drive comes across as being rather unreliable. Perhaps it is faulty, the disc is not in terrible shape and is certainly to a readable standard.

I opened DVD player with the disc in, not being seen and got an error -

"A valid DVD drive cannot be found - [-70012]"

02-16-2008, 02:24 PM

Reboot and hold down the LEFT mouse button right at the startup sound and keep it down. The DVD should eject.

02-16-2008, 02:36 PM

Thanks for the reply.

I have tried this (more than once to be sure) and it doesn't work.

When I looked for solutions on Google earlier it mentioned that method would only work with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse set.

Unfortunately in this case I am using a USB mouse.

02-16-2008, 02:39 PM

Where ever you found that on google, they are wrong. It works with a USB Mouse. In fact they are backwards.

If it does not work there has to be an issue with the Optical drive. I would have Apple look at it since it's so new.

02-16-2008, 02:47 PM

Ah right, thanks for the correction.

I will try in vain a few more times and see if it changes its mind. It still spins up so the drive doesn't seem to be totally dead.

I bought the machine from the Apple Store, so I expect getting it fixed will be a bit of a pain.

I understand that there are Apple authorised stores which can carry out repairs? If this is the case [and they do repairs under warranty] I might try tracking one down to save having to send it back.

02-16-2008, 03:09 PM

I managed to get it to work!

I unplugged the machine and gave it a little shake, plugged it back in and the disc is now visible to the OS.

Obviously this is hardly ideal, is this basically a fault which I should pursue?

I feel a bit uneasy about putting any more decent discs in it!

09-05-2009, 01:52 PM

Scary. This is EXACTLY to a tee the problem I was having only my mac is 1.5yrs old and I've had intermittent problems like this with the dvd drive but never this stuck(and I've also rarely used it). Your solution of unplugging and giving a shake is the only thing that actually worked. Unbelievable. I would have your machine looked at now while you are still under warranty as I am now SOL. I still can't believe that this "highly technical and delicate" solution is the only thing that would work. I love my mac but this dvd drive sucks.

04-20-2010, 07:11 AM

What a relief to see this thread! I have exactly the same problem and found the exact same solution. Lift it up at the back left corner and drop it about half an inch.

The worst part of the Mac Mini is the DVD drive. It's never worked properly.

Even when I get the DVD eventually to eject, it seems to affect normal start-up because for a while after each episode of DVD hassles the computer won't boot. It gets part way and stops. Sometimes it stops at the white screen, sometimes it stops at the blue screen. I keep on unplugging and restarting until it works. It doesn't just appear to stop while it does something in the background. I've left it undisturbed for over half an hour on the white or blue screen and it's still stuck when I get back.

I've spoken twice to Apple about this but they don't appear to recognise the fault. Strange given that it is exactly what other people report.

05-01-2010, 09:50 PM

Amazing. It worked for me too. Had a Pearl Jam DVD inside. It's bothering

12-27-2010, 01:44 PM

Just adding confirmation to the "shake your mini" solution. I have had mine for just over three years, however I rarely use the CD/DVD Rom. Was frustrated when I could not get it to work/be recognized by the O/S and found this forum. The "shake your mac mini" solution worked for me as well.

12-27-2010, 03:14 PM

Ahh the joy of the laptop/notebook superdrive. They sure have a huge failure rate.

03-26-2011, 06:36 PM

Giving it a shake was the only thing that worked for me too. Amazing!

03-27-2011, 10:17 PM

It's funny how physical abuse to a machine, though stereotypical and overused, is still a viable solution. ><

02-10-2012, 06:17 AM

Yep just worked for me too - drive had vanished with no sign of life - shake , rattle and roll and hey presto all back to normal

02-22-2012, 04:55 PM

A dvd was stuck in the superdrive of my 27" iMac and I tried everything from the rebooting method to terminal commands to sticking a credit card in the drive and shaking the machine was the only thing that worked! It doesn't seem to like DVD's anymore so obviously the drive is failing and I need to take it in but at least I have my disc back now! Thanks guys.