About to take a screw driver to it, but before I do, any tips for getting a cd out of a HU that refuses to yield it?

It's an alipne HU, the exact model escapes me, but it;s panel folds down to get to the cd and it tilts. Has a remote, green buttons cluster of 4 buttons on left upper with volume / push and dial button.

Not a great description I know, but it's 40 miles away at the moment.

It would be worth cleaning the contacts between the removable fascia and the unit and also check the condition of the ribbon behind the tilting panel. Failing that a 9" angle grinder should beat it into submission

I know it's absolutely nothing like the OE Symphony HU in my car, but I had a problem where it would play the CD OK, but wouldn't eject it. It would say 'EJECT' but the CD wouldn't come out. Eventually discovered that pressing the eject button while the HU was in radio mode rather than CD mode did the trick.

Bit of a long shot, I know, but might be worth a try before you start taking the thing to bits...?

Try a simple un plug and re plug.

Try a simple un plug and re plug.

Taking out and replacing the appropriate fuse would probably be quicker than whipping the whole beastie out of the dash...

Taking out and replacing the appropriate fuse would probably be quicker than whipping the whole beastie out of the dash...

Depends how quick you can get them out

Depends how quick you can get them out

True. I'm sure your average waif and/or stray could whip out a HU in less than a second.

Not sure if any of them have ever tried actually putting one back in, however!

If the unit is not powering up then it does sound like the ribbon cable thats broken and the only way to retrieve your cd really is to remove the lid and take out the cd mechanism,probably a screw in each corner of the mech and if you dont want to destroy the mech then you can wind the motor cog back with a screwdriver until it ejects the disc but failing that just pull it to bits;)

Might be worth checking to see if there's a manual eject thingy on it. I had a Kenwood that threw a wobly and wanted to keep my CD inside, it had a little pin hole on the front just big enough to poke an unbent paper clip into, pushes the mechanism and ejects the CD.