I have an unusual eject problem with my 2008 Intel iMac. I am running up-to-date Lion. I have also checked to see if this iMac needed a firmware update. iMacs made before mine and after mine have a firmware update available, but there is not one for my particular model.
My estimation is that this problem started two or three months ago, and I cannot associate it with any changes I have made. There have been no software or OS upgrades other than the regular updates that come through.
So, here's the problem.
I had a 60 GB iPod classic that was starting to get full. A couple of months or so ago, when I would click on 'eject' in iTunes, iTunes would indicate that the iPod ejected, but I would still have a grayed out icon for the iPod on my desktop, and I would not get the normal indication on my iPod that it was okay to disconnect. I was also unable to drag the icon to trash. Nothing I do gets rid of the icon, and nothing will cause the 'Do not Disconnect' warning on the iPod display to change to 'OK to Disconnect."
When this happens, I can still use most functions on my computer, but I cannot perform a graceful shutdown, and I cannot open the 'About This Mac' window. I can click on the Apple and then click on 'About This Mac,' but nothing happens. Applications and other functions seem to work just fine. If I try to shut down, I get a blank screen like it normally does before powering off, but then it just hangs there.
My only option is to perform a hard boot. This also gets rid of the grayed-out iPod icon from my desktop. If I power up and use the computer normally without attaching the iPod, I can perform a graceful shutdown without any issue.
I can insert and eject CDs without any problem, but once I attach an iPod and try to eject a CD, the actual disk will eject okay, and iTunes gives me an indication that the CD is ejected, but the CD icon remains on my desktop like the iPod icon, and I can't get rid of it without a hard reboot.
I just assumed that it was my old iPod classic that was causing the problems, since it was starting to get close to its capacity, but I went ahead and tried the manual reset of the iPod and I tried a 'restore' using iTunes. Those actions completed just fine, and I never received any indication of a problem with the iPod. It continued to work fine, but finally, I thought, what-the-****--I was close to capacity, so I might as well buy a new 160 GB iPod classic, and that will surely fix the issue. Well, I got the new iPod a few days ago, and I'm having the same issue with it, so it seems like it has to be the iMac.
One other issue I noticed today is, that if I attach the iPod, let it sync, then insert a CD, let iTunes read it, and then eject the CD, ejecting the CD also has the effect of ejecting the iPod from iTunes. But again, I don't receive the 'OK to Disconnect' indication on the iPod, and the icons for both the iPod and the CD remain on the desktop.
I called Apple Support. I was ready to pay the $50 single-instance charge, but I got the sense that they don't want to take that fee unless it is a truly difficult problem--which I think this is, AND they believe they can fix it--which, after I explained to the nice person what was happening, I think she thought it was probably just an old glitchy computer that she wouldn't be able to do anything for. So she tried a couple of things with me -- the first was to reset the PRAM and NVRAM, which didn't help. And then she had me go to preferences in Finder and uncheck 'CDs, DVDs, and iPods' from being displayed. When we tried this, I ejected the CD, and then I ejected the iPod, and that one time, I did receive the 'OK to Disconnect' indication on the iPod. I thought we had at least found sort of a work-around, because I didn't care whether I saw an icon on the desktop or not. I just didn't want to disconnect the iPod unless I could see the 'OK to Disconnect.' So I figured she had saved me $50, and I closed out my session with her! Well it only worked that one time. The next time I tried, I ejected, but didn't get the 'OK to Disconnect' on the iPod. I went back to preferences in Finder and checked 'CDs, DVDs, and iPods' and sure enough, the iPod icon was still there, grayed-out. So I don't know why it worked that single time.
Before I call Apple again and probably spend the $50, does anyone here have any ideas or suggestions for me?
Do you think that if I continue to disconnect the iPod from the computer without seeing the 'OK to Disconnect' it will harm the iPod? I know the hard boots of the iMac can't be good for it.
Do you think a reinstallation of OSX would do anything to help?
Thanks so much.
My estimation is that this problem started two or three months ago, and I cannot associate it with any changes I have made. There have been no software or OS upgrades other than the regular updates that come through.
So, here's the problem.
I had a 60 GB iPod classic that was starting to get full. A couple of months or so ago, when I would click on 'eject' in iTunes, iTunes would indicate that the iPod ejected, but I would still have a grayed out icon for the iPod on my desktop, and I would not get the normal indication on my iPod that it was okay to disconnect. I was also unable to drag the icon to trash. Nothing I do gets rid of the icon, and nothing will cause the 'Do not Disconnect' warning on the iPod display to change to 'OK to Disconnect."
When this happens, I can still use most functions on my computer, but I cannot perform a graceful shutdown, and I cannot open the 'About This Mac' window. I can click on the Apple and then click on 'About This Mac,' but nothing happens. Applications and other functions seem to work just fine. If I try to shut down, I get a blank screen like it normally does before powering off, but then it just hangs there.
My only option is to perform a hard boot. This also gets rid of the grayed-out iPod icon from my desktop. If I power up and use the computer normally without attaching the iPod, I can perform a graceful shutdown without any issue.
I can insert and eject CDs without any problem, but once I attach an iPod and try to eject a CD, the actual disk will eject okay, and iTunes gives me an indication that the CD is ejected, but the CD icon remains on my desktop like the iPod icon, and I can't get rid of it without a hard reboot.
I just assumed that it was my old iPod classic that was causing the problems, since it was starting to get close to its capacity, but I went ahead and tried the manual reset of the iPod and I tried a 'restore' using iTunes. Those actions completed just fine, and I never received any indication of a problem with the iPod. It continued to work fine, but finally, I thought, what-the-****--I was close to capacity, so I might as well buy a new 160 GB iPod classic, and that will surely fix the issue. Well, I got the new iPod a few days ago, and I'm having the same issue with it, so it seems like it has to be the iMac.
One other issue I noticed today is, that if I attach the iPod, let it sync, then insert a CD, let iTunes read it, and then eject the CD, ejecting the CD also has the effect of ejecting the iPod from iTunes. But again, I don't receive the 'OK to Disconnect' indication on the iPod, and the icons for both the iPod and the CD remain on the desktop.
I called Apple Support. I was ready to pay the $50 single-instance charge, but I got the sense that they don't want to take that fee unless it is a truly difficult problem--which I think this is, AND they believe they can fix it--which, after I explained to the nice person what was happening, I think she thought it was probably just an old glitchy computer that she wouldn't be able to do anything for. So she tried a couple of things with me -- the first was to reset the PRAM and NVRAM, which didn't help. And then she had me go to preferences in Finder and uncheck 'CDs, DVDs, and iPods' from being displayed. When we tried this, I ejected the CD, and then I ejected the iPod, and that one time, I did receive the 'OK to Disconnect' indication on the iPod. I thought we had at least found sort of a work-around, because I didn't care whether I saw an icon on the desktop or not. I just didn't want to disconnect the iPod unless I could see the 'OK to Disconnect.' So I figured she had saved me $50, and I closed out my session with her! Well it only worked that one time. The next time I tried, I ejected, but didn't get the 'OK to Disconnect' on the iPod. I went back to preferences in Finder and checked 'CDs, DVDs, and iPods' and sure enough, the iPod icon was still there, grayed-out. So I don't know why it worked that single time.
Before I call Apple again and probably spend the $50, does anyone here have any ideas or suggestions for me?
Do you think that if I continue to disconnect the iPod from the computer without seeing the 'OK to Disconnect' it will harm the iPod? I know the hard boots of the iMac can't be good for it.
Do you think a reinstallation of OSX would do anything to help?
Thanks so much.