Dumb CD Changer Question - prewired 6/94 525iT, Alpine 3

[Rob Edwards]

My turn for the CD changer saga. I bought a CDX-M90 from a guy on the board here, without thinking for a second that hey, maybe it won't fit in the compartment in the back of my Touring. Well, it's too big. Duh! So, on to changer #2, a CDX-FM35 which is the right size, but has no cartridge. There's a cartridge in the M90, though, so I power it up, and the mechanism jumps to life -you can see the little white disc tray at each position move laterally, as if it were checking for a disc, then the whole thing moves to the next tray, then stops with the cartridge in position 6. The eject doesn't seem to work. Is there any way short of a reciprocating saw to manually eject a cartridge?
Also, when I plug the CDX-FM35 (which came with a BMWPIO-M) into the prewired 14 pin DIN cable and apply power to the changer, nothing happens on the head unit. Is there some magic combo of buttons on the head unit (It's an Alpine 3 based on the Prog/down button check) that gets one to 'CD' mode, or is it possible that the 'prewired' data cable not connected to the head unit? Does the head unit only recognize that there's a CD changer when there's actually a disc in a cartridge being played?

Why can't German engineering apply to auto sound as well?

There, that's my limit for dumb questions. Any/all replies/suggestions appreciated!

[Dan in NZ]

You select the cd changer using the band button, then the head unit should show the disc/track that's playing.