I manually ejected a magneto-optical disk from my cube's MO drive. Now I can't insert any more MO media and the manual eject hole switch seems to be stuck in the "eject" position. What's the trick for getting this unstuck?
The OD drive is dead, by the way, so don't get too excited ...
:? If it's in the eject position then a disk should pop in easily.
Are you positive the eject motor has not died?
I just ejected (several times) a disk from it successfully. Now when I try to insert a MO disk, it encounters mechanical resistance and when I try to insert an eject rod into the eject hole, there's nothing to press (i.e. it appears as if it is in depressed position).
Sounds like the carriage is bent out of shape. Part of it was semi-stuck and as the drive was used over and over you bent the carriage. I have seen it happen on a Sony MO drive. One side of the carriage was in the eject position while the other side was still on the loaded position. It took hours to bend back into shape.
You also might of pushed too hard and bent the manual ejection assembly to the point that an eject rod can't contact it.
Pull the drive out, take it apart and I promise you that you will see what I am talking about.
Thank you, will do as you suggest as soon as I get the chance. If this is the problem, how is it repaired / can it be repaired?
I only used the drive about twice myself - I acquired the cube relatively recently.
Could this be the reason why the drive has been acting completely dead? The odc controller and the od drive itself are recognized during boot, but if I insert a disk, it is not seen; and if I try to eject it via software, nothing happens - I get told there is no disk inserted in the drive.
If I fix the ejection problem, is there hope for this drive, or is there another likely problem? I've completely dusted and cleaned the drive, so dust is not the cause of any problems at the moment.
Well one of the symptoms of a damaged carriage can be the media sense switch not being triggered.
You also need to know that NeXT MO drives seem to have a lifespan. Out of all the MO drives made, only a handful still work. I have been trying to find out what really is causing the problem but I can't get hold of the parts. Did the drive ever work? (did you ever mount a disk in it?)
Quote from: "pentium"
Sounds like the carriage is bent out of shape.
...
Pull the drive out, take it apart and I promise you that you will see what I am talking about.
Before you take the drive appart, try this trick: Flip the media over and try inserting in the drive - it will disengage whatever is hanging up the carriage.
BTW, MO media is designed to be double-sided, so you will not harm the drive.
-- josé k.
Thanks for the tips ... I will try them out and let you know how I got on.
And no, the drive never worked for me. I only tried inserting a disk into it about twice after I received the cube from the seller.
One question: has anyone found one version of the OS to be better at readying MO drives than another? As I'm testing my drives, it'd be good to know that I do or do not have to test with all the various OS versions...