How do you open a Mac G4 CD tray?

My son was recently given an old G4 PowerMac. I'm not sure what any of the specs are, so hope they aren't important. The previous owner was a businessman who never used the machine himself. So, when we turn the machine on, the only screen we can get to asks for passwords - three accounts are shown. We don't have passwords for any of them. Nothing else shows on the screen: no dock, no icons, nothing.

I've found info on how to reset the administrator password with an OS disk, but can't even open the CD tray. There's no button. We don't have a manual to check, so if there's an obvious answer to this or a trick of some sort, I can't find it.

Help us, please. I'm feeling dumb as a rock at the moment.

reboot holding down the left mouse button. Keep it down till the tray opens.

Start holding it down when you hear the chime at startup.

dtravis7 said:

reboot holding down the left mouse button. Keep it down till the tray opens.

Start holding it down when you hear the chime at startup.

Click to expand...

Worked like a charm. Thanks a lot.

Now, hopefully, I can reset the password.

/runs off to give it a shot

Great. Glad it worked for you. If you can't reset the password come back and let us know.

Thanks, dtravis. I can't reset the password.

Not sure, but think part of the problem is that my OSX disk is on dvd (didn't realize that until I tried to reset the password). There is a cover over what I'd guess is a slot for a dvd tray, but I can't tell if it's just a cover or there's really a dvd under it. Is there another trick for opening a dvd player? If not, what should I do next?

Thanks again.

What does the Mac look like? Tower? The iMac g4 with the flat screen? What color is it? Trying to see what Mac you have.

Hope this is big enough for you to see what you need:

That's as close as I could find to my son's machine. There are covers, though, over the spaces for two trays, though I still don't know if there's a dvd in the rig.

I own that basic machine. Some have DVD drives and some do not. There is a button on the front of the door right in the middle above the ZIp drive. That should open it. If you want to look under the Gray cover and see if it says DVD, if you have fingernails, try to hook the top edge of the door and pull it down. They you can see if the drive says DVD on the door or front which most DVD drives do.

Hope that is what you were after.

Just saw your edit, the lower cover is where a ZIP drive would go if the system came with one. The upper cover should have that button. You should be able to angle it down so you can see the face of the drive.

I hope your sons machine is not the PCI model but one of the AGP Graphics or Digital Audio G4. You can tell by the audio jacks on the back. The PCI Graphics G4 had the jacks side by side toward the bottom of the back panel while the better G4's with AGP graphics had them one on top of the other.

Thanks a lot for staying with me on this, dtravis. I appreciate your efforts.

I'm going to take one last look and try your fingernail suggestion. If the machine has a dvd player, guess I'll post again tomorrow and ask how to open it. I'm whipped; was ready for bed at least two hours ago! Goodnight.

Like I said, if it like the machine in your picture, there should be a button which should open the drive. I thought my holding the mouse button suggestion worked. It should.

Night.

dtravis7 said:

Like I said, if it like the machine in your picture, there should be a button which should open the drive. I thought my holding the mouse button suggestion worked. It should.

Night.

Click to expand...

dtravis, in case you should see this . . . I forgot that I never actually responded to your last post, so:

I couldn't make anything work, so finally gave up and took my boy and his machine to the local Apple store. The Genius at the bar reinstalled OSX for us and then wouldn't allow us to pay for anything - wouldn't even accept a Starbucks which, fortunately, was only about 100 yards from the store. Great service.