CDs and DVDs ejected at random

Hi there,

My iMac sometimes spits out blank CDs and always spits out firmware DVDs. I just tested a movie DVD and it played it. I was told to just get a new optical drive.

I noticed today that when I click on my hard drive there is a category on the right called "Places". It includes things like "Desktop" and "Documents" but it had two items that weren't really what I would call "Places". One was an item called "Picture 1" which I located and trashed, the other was a folder called "Untitled DVD". There is disk icon beside it and the same icon on the folder. All searches fail to locate it and when I try to drag it to the trash it returns.

My hunch is that it is responsible for my iMac spitting out random DVDs and CDs.

Any ideas?

I don't think that folder has anything to do with the problem, but to get rid of it, hold down your command key and drag it to the desktop and drop it. It should go poof and disappear.

Thanks for that. It went poof like you said but like you said also the problem is still there. I can watch a DVD but blank CDs get ejected no matter what brand. Some music CDs get ejected and some don't.

Buy a can of compressed air and blow a few short blasts into your disk drive. That may clear up some of the dust accumulation in it and perhaps it'll work better. Other than that, there's not much you can do except replace the drive.

It sounds like the DVD reader (which is not the same laser as reads CDs and homeburns) is working and the other one isn't. Try chscag's suggestion first, but yeah I think an external USB or FW optical drive is in your near future.