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Ok, how the HELL do you eject a cd from a Mac

FWIW I doubt there are more mechanical failures in Mac drives than in PC drives. They're both made by common manufacturers like Sony and Toshiba.
In my experience (thousands of laptops) slot-loading drives are easier to break my misuse, ramming the disc in when there's another already inside, impatiently grabbing it, etc.

Most problems in tray drives seem to stem from one of these:
People putting a disc in without looking, and laying it on top of one already there, which makes it sound like a slippy DJ and not always eject, even with the pin.
People putting a disc in that's unballanced, eg a chip on one edge which makes it sound like a hairdryer and respond really slowly, but otherwise work.
People putting the disc in and not clipping it onto the spindle firmly, which makes it want to fly off either inside or when ejecting (the frisbee of death mentioned earlier)
People yanking the tray out too far, damaging the ribbon connection or loosening the physical socket at the back.

I have also watched plenty of new laptop owners wince at thre grumbling crunching grinding, face-stabbing-horror noises their slot-loading drives make and seen them look unconvinced when I tell them it's normal.

Because on a PC with a standard drive you can eject the cd with a pin, unscrew the drive and swap it out usually in five minutes or less, this makes the Macs that arrive for repair seem a much bigger problem.
 
jimtron said:
I agree that those numbers aren't that helpful because Macs have a much smaller market share. However, it does appear to prove that eject problems (let's call it "E.D." from now on) are not unique to slot-loading Mac owners (why does this sound so dirty all of a sudden?).
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Would that be "ejectile disfunction?"

I still don't buy that slot-loading Macs have more optical disc malfunctions as compared to tray loading PCs. Just because most PCs have mechanical eject buttons doesn't mean that they are less prone to eject or other problems. But if anyone has evidence showing otherwise, please present it.
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I think you could possibly make an argument that "ejectile disfunction" problems are more easily resolved with a drive that has the paper clip hole than one that doesn't
 
Would that be "ejectile disfunction?"
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Exactly.

I think you could possibly make an argument that "ejectile disfunction" problems are more easily resolved with a drive that has the paper clip hole than one that doesn't
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I agree that might be true. But it might not be, and I don't buy the argument that paperclip hole and/or mechanical eject button necessarily means less eject or other problems. I've only seen speculation so far, no evidence.
 
So is there any evidence that PC is better than Mac?.... other than the obvious friendship between Gates and Seinfeld.
 
Who are you to tell a Mac what to do? It will eject the disc when it feels like it.
 
I personally don't think one is any better or worse than the other. When people ask me what kind of computer to buy, I tell them "What do you want to do with it?"

Either one works equally well for downloading porn.
 
Amusingly, I am now in an office at a desk with three PCs and a Mac.
The mac has just gotten a CD stuck in its drive. Its vertical shiny smooth superdrive with no mechanical/emergency eject button.

After half an hour's efforts with plastic shims and cursing, we have a solution:
We turned up the music loud enough to mask the CD drive's constant clicking as it attempts to eject.

Go Mac!
 
moopet said:
Amusingly, I am now in an office at a desk with three PCs and a Mac.
The mac has just gotten a CD stuck in its drive. Its vertical shiny smooth superdrive with no mechanical/emergency eject button.

After half an hour's efforts with plastic shims and cursing, we have a solution:
We turned up the music loud enough to mask the CD drive's constant clicking as it attempts to eject.
Click to expand...

Here are some suggestions:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Force_Eject_a_Stuck_CD_or_DVD

Go Mac!
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Don't discs ever get stuck in non-Mac computers?
 
Of course, if that happened in a PC, you could remove the drive, dissemble it, remove the disk, and then replace the drive for $30.
 
dtugg said:
Of course, if that happened in a PC, you could remove the drive, dissemble it, remove the disk, and then replace the drive for $30.
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Meh. Although I'm sure they exist, I have never yet come across a PC with an optical drive that didn't have the paperclip hole for ejecting stuck discs.
 
moopet said:
You know what? I think somewhere you missed the point. The CD is mechanically stuck in the drive. It doesn't care if you download Norton GetMyFeckingCDOut2009, software solutions are useless.
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Some of those solutions have worked for me in the past, including holding down the mouse button and restarting, and also using the itunes or Toast eject buttons. Just because a disc is "mechanically" stuck in a drive doesn't mean a software solution won't help.

See any of the other posts in this thread for an enlivened discussion of just this topic.
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Yeah, so far it looks like discs get stuck in both Macs and non-Mac PCs, and I haven't yet seen evidence that it's a more common occurrence with Macs. I was responding to a sarcastic comment that seemed to imply that this problem is unique to Macs, which isn't the case.
 
Skeptical Greg said:
It still remains that most PC CD drives have a mechanical eject solution, while MACs don't, short of disassembling the machine.
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1) It's not true that Macs don't have a mechanical eject solution--my Mac Pro has one.
2) iMacs don't have a "mechanical eject solution" afaik. But is there evidence that discs get stuck in iMacs more often than the average non-Mac PC? I still have yet to see evidence that the lack of a paperclip hole or physical button or whatever is a significant problem. I don't know if it is or if it isn't, but the argument I keep hearing is that iMacs don't have a mechanical button, therefore you're screwed if the disc gets stuck. Do mechanical buttons always eject stuck CDs in non-Mac computers? Is it common for discs to remain stuck in iMacs, even after trying the multiple methods for unsticking discs (rebooting with mouse button held down, using the iTunes eject button,etc?

eta: Also, keep in mind that the person that started this thread was new to Macs and was able to eject the disc after rebooting. The disc was not even necessarily stuck.

But I do have (the eject key) on my keyboard as I recently discovered thanks to the collaborations of the fellow posters.
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