# Be careful when inserting a CD



## yamato (Feb 11, 2003)

It was a not a pleasant experience. I tried to insert a CD into my CD player (The one that is standard, 1 CD only, w/o navigation). I put it in but it didn't go in. Later I found there was a CD already inside. I thought I could simply eject it. But it couldn't eject anymore. I tried eject, play, eject, play many times and couldn't get the CD out. Eventually "NO DISC" was displayed but the "CD" display was still on. I figured the software must be confused when I tried to insert a CD when there was already a CD in the player.

I don't recall exactly how, but somehow I got the CD out at last. I think what I did was I pressed eject and slightly pushed another CD in. I thought problem was all solved.

But oh man, then I had a problem putting a new CD in! It simply refused to suck in a CD, instead, I heard some gears moving to load air into the CD player. After loading nothing in the CD player, it displayed "DISC ERROR". And refused to load any more CD. Interesting thing was it could also perform eject sometimes, I heard the gear moving. After trying this and that, I performed a similar trick to force a CD in during eject. It didn't work at first, it turned around my CD even only half of it was slided inside (yes i saw the cd rotating with half of it loaded  ). I was fortunate enough I eventually put a CD in. And then the CD player worked just like normal.

I don't think I will be so lucky next time. I learnt a lesson and I will check to make sure there is no CD in the player before inserting one.


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## xspeedy (Apr 10, 2003)

Did you try powering off the head unit, then powering it back on?


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## tommyd (Jul 8, 2003)

I think the biggest mistake i heard in this thread was that you tried to "force" this and "force" that... though it's probably natural for a guy to 'tinker' at mechanical things... it might not be the best course of action unless you actually know what you're doing...

It sounds like you had jammed something in the beginning that came loose later... i had a similar problem with my aftermarket alpine in-dash changer (early models)... i didn't tinker... but the thing had so many moving parts that something was going to give...


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## yamato (Feb 11, 2003)

xspeedy said:


> Did you try powering off the head unit, then powering it back on?


By turning off the head unit, do you mean turning off the cd player? I tried to turn the cd player off and on but didn't solve the problem.


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## yamato (Feb 11, 2003)

tommyd said:


> I think the biggest mistake i heard in this thread was that you tried to "force" this and "force" that... though it's probably natural for a guy to 'tinker' at mechanical things... it might not be the best course of action unless you actually know what you're doing...
> 
> It sounds like you had jammed something in the beginning that came loose later... i had a similar problem with my aftermarket alpine in-dash changer (early models)... i didn't tinker... but the thing had so many moving parts that something was going to give...


no, i didn't force the CD in when i tried to put it in at the beginning. I tried to slide it in just like normal.

After I realized this problem happened, I had to try forcing this and that hoping to get the problem fixed. I agree it is not appropriate but that's the last resort before bringing the car to the dealer.


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## xspeedy (Apr 10, 2003)

yamato said:


> By turning off the head unit, do you mean turning off the cd player? I tried to turn the cd player off and on but didn't solve the problem.


Well, I'm not sure you can really completely turn off just the CD player. It is part of the head. I mean turning off the whole head unit - the radio and the CD...

I don't have a BMW, but in just about any head unit, there is a on/off button that completey turns the whole thing off. This is something that should always be tried, just because sometimes the electronics need to be reset. They can get confused and go into some weird endless cycle. So the power cycle helps to clear it up.


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## yamato (Feb 11, 2003)

xspeedy said:


> I mean turning off the whole head unit - the radio and the CD....


Yes, I did try that. No luck. The next thing I was thinking to try was to disconnect the battery but fortunately the problem was fixed.


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

In my experience it feels like there is a gate when there is already a CD inside. You'd really have to try and jam it in.

My radio had problems inserting/ejecting on its own without any help, and I just had it replaced.


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