My CD/DVD burner drive won’t let me insert a disk. I think it thinks there’s a disk already in there but there isn’t. Is there a way to get it “unlocked?”
So, is this a “slot-loading” or do you put the disc in a tray that pops out?
Reminds me of the time at Kinko’s when the older lady put the CD into the 5 1/4″ floppy disc drive. A Windows computer, natch, and I wish I had a picture of the look on my face. I seem to recall that those damn PCs were bolted down. I giggled a lot.
Either way, try opening iTunes and pushing the eject button at bottom right. If that doesn’t work, follow these instructions:
From macosxhints.com: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031210193237190)
I had a CD get stuck in my slot-loading superdrive Aluminum Powerbook, running 10.3. The CD became unresponsive and not recognized by my computer at all! Here is the fix:
Hold Control-Command-Option-Eject Button; this will shut down your computer. Turn the power on with the power button and hold Command-Option-O-F — this will boot you into open firmware. Now type
eject cd and hit the Return key and wait until the CD pops out. Type
mac-boot
and you are ready to rock!
[robg adds:
As mentioned elsewhere on the site, you can also try holding the mouse button down during boot to force the system to eject any inserted CDs.]
jjmarcus tech solutions 
I can get the cd to pop part of the way out using the open firmware instructions but it is stuck – any ideas?
Depends if you’ve got a tray-loading or a slot-loading drive. If slot-, I would be afraid of breaking it, and would take it into the Apple Store or another authorized place. If tray-loading, those are easily replaced; I might suggest gently yanking on it until the tray came all the way out.