# My Mac Is Whack

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mac-is-whack/289699>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 12, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mac-is-whack/289699 "2005-02-12T03:14:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mac-is-whack/289699/1 "2005-02-12T03:14:25Z")

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Specifically, it refuses to read any CD I put in it. I’m talking CDs with pictures and documents here as well as music CDs. Basically, it just keeps spitting them out. This is a new behavior, although, admittedly, I haven’t tried to feed it a CD in months.

My Mac is:

- a G4
- Runs 9.2 OS
- Very snarky
- Recognizes that the drive is in fact there, but oddly assigns it a SCSI ID of 0, as it does the hard drive.
- All the necessary extensions are on

Why is my Mac being mean? How do I woo it back so it loves me again? I tried Mac help, I tried Mr. Google. Now I try Doper power.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mac-is-whack/289699/2 "2005-02-12T03:55:06Z")

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Have you used a CD lens cleaning disk yet? The optics get dusty over time, and will eventually stop recognizing disks. Whether the drive chucks a disk back out, or eats it and possibly hangs seems to depend on exactly which model of Mac you have.  
Some of those older Macs ran two SCSI buses; thus two drives with the same ID don’t necessarily imply a conflict.

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**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mac-is-whack/289699/3 "2005-02-12T04:00:44Z")

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> [@Squink](#):
>
> Have you used a CD lens cleaning disk yet? The optics get dusty over time, and will eventually stop recognizing disks. .

Oooh. Good idea. Tomorrow I will get one. A regular one like they sell at Radio Shack should suffice, yes? I don’t need some special computer one I assume? I mean, a CD lens is a CD lens…

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mac-is-whack/289699/4 "2005-02-12T04:21:59Z")

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Parts is parts.  
If the lens is _really_ dirty, it may take several cleaning cycles to get the drive back up.

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**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mac-is-whack/289699/5 "2005-02-12T04:51:04Z")

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Unless your G4 came equipped with a SCSI card and hard drive, none of your drives should be showing up as SCSI devices. Have they always registered as SCSI devices?