Hey, It is not MY fault...

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

It's not MY fault that you were silly enough to stick a mini disc inside your MacBook's optical drive. It is also not my fault that Apple failed to allow for a proper ejection system for this type of disc for their slot loading optical drive, so now the disc is stuck in the machine. It is also not my fault that due to the way Apple designed the machine, the machine has to be taken apart, THEN the optical drive has to be taken out, and IT must be taken apart in order to extract said mini disc.

So no, we cannot fix this while you wait. We have machines that have been here longer than yours that will have to be serviced first.  So yes, you will have to leave your Precious with us if you want to get it fixed. Sorry.

Comments

[adamjaskie.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, while I can certainly imagine people would be stupid enough to do this, I haven't actually heard of it happening all that often.

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Its one of the many reasons I loathe slot loading optical drives on computers. Because NOBODY makes one with a manual ejection system that works worth a damn. So whenever a disc gets stuck inside for whatever reason (be it full size or half or whatever), taking the drive out and taking the drive apart to get the disc out becomes the only option. Which is why I consider the lack of a removable drive in the Apples an unforgivable sin.

[japester.livejournal.com]

the Apple slot loaders /sometimes/ and I really do only mean sometimes, can be successfully ejected with the 'hold mouse button down while rebooting' option.

but that, of course, does not work when the drive is physically locked up.

[aegion.livejournal.com]

Yes and I would like to add..while your Precious is with us we will snoop through it's files. So if you've got any weird porn on there we will find it and then you'll be ashamed. lol!

[ptomblin-lj.livejournal.com]

I removed a full size CD that didn't want to eject by slipping a pair of tweezers in and grabbing the disc, then hitting the eject button. You might want to try that with the mini disc. There is a good chance the disc will be toast afterwards, but at least you don't have to take the laptop apart.

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that does work some of the time. Taking the thing apart is the way we're "supposed" to do it according to the service documentation, tho.

[wxgeek.livejournal.com]

I'd be really kind of annoyed if I took my Macbook to a shop and some arsehole stuck tweezers into it. :(

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Which is why we normally dont do it that way. =)

[wxgeek.livejournal.com]

thank god. I'd be more than thrilled to disassemble the drive. aieeeee sharp metal objects blindly thrust into an optical drive with media still in it. NOTHING COULD GO WRONG!

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, I've seen people use their slot loading optical drives for weird things. Once I found 50 cents in one (owner swore she had no idea how it got in there..) and several times I've seen them come in with more than one disc in the drive. How they managed to force more than one in there I have no idea.

Hence my views on slot loading drives in ANY computers being an automatic Epic Fail.

[wxgeek.livejournal.com]

I don't see a problem with them. The problem with slot-loading drives is the same problem as almost everything ever: Stupid users.

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Well, here is how I look at it (if you care, if not then disregard):

Having to remove lots of insanely easy to strip #0 Phillips screws to take off the entire palmrest assembly in order to get the drive out is flat out silly.

Lets take a current production (17 inch Early 2008) MacBook Pro for an example. To get to the drive you have to take of the entire palmrest assembly, removing a total of 22 #0 phillips and T6 torx screws. There are 3 more screws holding the drive itself in, and then 4 screws holding top of the drive on. All of these have to come out to get to the interior of the drive to remove the disc. Total time: Around 20 minutes, if you're reasonably fast.

Now the same procedure on a current production Thinkpad T61: Put a straightened paperclip in the access port on the front bezel of the drive, and the tray comes out. Total time: less than one minute.

I hate machines that seem to be designed with malicious forethought to make them deliberately difficult to service. =)

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

So, nearly every car made since 1995-ish? =)

Anyway, I'm with you, slot-loading drive == fail. WAY too easy for shit to get wedged up in some way, even WITHOUT adding "stupid user" into the mix.

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

The disassembly reviews I've read of the Macbook Air indicate there is at least 30 screws just to remove the keyboard. What is Jorb's fascination with screws?

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

And the Air uses #00 and #000 phillips screws too. Such a fascination with screws is not healthy.

[argonel.livejournal.com]

It is only becasue they could figure out a reasonable way to rivet or weld the case shut.

[cs-neo.livejournal.com]

OCD compulsion with making sure things don't fall apart easily?

Or just a not-so-subtle way of trying to get amateur "computer techs" to give up and take it in for service?

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

My personal theory is that they just flat out don't give a damn about serviceability. Their design teams are all about looks, and everything else is secondary to that concern.

[jecook]

+523276458372653972543476523454635924398e10000

I had to replace the hard drive on a 12" iBook a while ago. Somewhere along the way, I got the connector for the power light connected backwards, and now the damn thing only lights up when it goes into sleep mode. I'd fix it, except I don't want to spend 20 minutes taking the bloody thing apart to that level again just to fix a fricken light.

Fortunately, it uses a tray load optical drive with a manual eject latch.

[japester.livejournal.com]

Try removing the LCD off any aluminium powerbook. You have to disassemble 90% of the laptop to get to the two screws that are *visible* on the lower front of the screen, but totally inaccessible until the screen hinges are removed from the chassis.

::sigh::
Had to do that to replace the inverter board on one some years ago.

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Been there, done that, got the tshirt.

[japester.livejournal.com]

that's why we use pliers. *grin*

pliers with no ridges on them, so they don't scratch the CD. Done it before, will do it again. But only ever on my own CDs, never a customer's.

[wxgeek.livejournal.com]

AIEEEEEEEE

[mashiroikaze.livejournal.com]

Not to put a damper on your justifiable frustration, but thought this might help. I've found that periodically when people stick mini CD's into their MacBook/MacBook Pro/PowerBook, you can force an eject by gently pushing a regular CD into the slot until the small CD is pushed to the back side of the drive. This will trip the auto-eject for some god-unknown reason, which can eject the small disk JUST enough to pull it out.

The key is to be gentle and good on your timing. If you do it delicately enough, you can pop the disk and you won't waste 4-8+ hours of your time.