super weird optical disc problem

[rdsii64]

My 2.8 octo core 2008 mac pro has continued to soldier on with narry a problem until recently. The optical drives in my machine are starting to behave in a wierd way. What happens that when ever the drive is empty, I have to press the eject key multiple times to get the drive to open. Now it gets even weirder. When ever there is a disc in the drive, the button always works first time like it should. At first I thought it was simply a bad drive, but both optical drives do this and they started doing it at the same time. One drive is the stock super drive it shipped with, the second drive is an LG bluray drive.

Other than taking multiple attempts to open an empty drive, both drives function as they should. They read from and write to any compaltible disc.

 

[harryb2448]

First suggestion is try an SMC reset ~ instructions here:-

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) - Apple Support

Second do you make 'stick-on' labels for your DVD's? They can lift and leave gunk on the mechanicism but odd both should do this at the same time.

 

[pm-r]

I had two optical drives in my old G4 Mac MDD PPC (now sitting under my wife's desk unused) that would do the same thing sometimes, and I ended up doing some small mods on the bezel and the buttons with an xacto knife and sandpaper etc.

That helped and worked and then I discovered a software menu for ejecting top or bottom or both drive trays which was much easier.

I can't recall the software name, but as I recall it was builtin to the OS and may have been some sort of applescript.app or something.



Anyway, just a suggestion…

 

[pm-r]

I just found this, but a bit old, but it may help with my using software suggestion above, and if the later OS X software still supports it:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/104673-second-dvd-drive.html

If not, there's probably a small freebie out there somewhere that does.

 

[rdsii64]

I forgot to mention. when I attempt to open an empty drive I can hear the drive try to open. I sounds like something is preventing it from doing so. I don't put paper lables on my discs. I just write on them with a sharpie. Its just weird that both drives started doing it at the same time. I even pulled out the optical drive carrier and set it on top of my my mac(with the cables still connected) and same thing. Both drives still require multiple attempts to open.
When I get home from work today, I will try the SMC reset and report back. In the mean time, if it helps,
I'm running the latest version of Yosemite.