I've been following the thread on the Apple Support Discussions board for a long time, as I also had my drive fail on my MBP. The overall consensus seems to be that it's either 1) dirty lenses after extended periods of no use (for some, using compressed air works, for others, it does not), 2) hardware failure that plagues these drives after a year, or 3) a firmware update the makes the drives less forgiving on read/write errors causing the discs to be ejected. The solution to my problem was to take mine in under AppleCare. They replaced the drive, which might have been overkill if they could have just sprayed the lens with compressed air, but it might just be standard protocol.
You mean a particular brand of optical media? If so, what brand works? I believe I've tried Sony & Memorex without success but if it's just the brand of media that is the problem, I wouldn't mind trying a different type versus a $300 repair.
I have settled on Verbatim brand disks (both DVD-R and their CDR) for the most reliable in my experience. Using other brands, most of which were usually OK, I would occasionally get 'sense failure' or verify failures, sometimes more often than occasional . These failures happened on several iMacs (pre Intel), but have not happened with Verbatim branded disks. So that is the brand I buy.
I know some people like Taiyo Yuden, but they are rather more expensive and only available online (at least compared to my local store offerings).
(I have no affiliation with these or any brand or vendor).
Re. why these optical drive problems happen at all with the Apple machines, at first I thought it was related to them cramming ever skinnier drives into the ever thinner cases - causing reliability problems (heat, dust, tinier parts). (I know that when I eject a disk, whether after read or writing, it is usually very hot.) This might still be an element, but could not be the only one if the same kind of failures happen on the Mac Pro towers which, I think, use full height drives.
My MacBook Pro's MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E has been useless for almost a year. Can't read CDs, can't read DVDs, can't burn anything. Had to buy a crappy external drive that makes more noise than my vacuum and shakes my desk like a washer-dryer. So upsetting. I could use my Apple Care but can't send my Mac away for more than a day...
Just curious- you bought Apple Care for what reason then ?
I had the same issue with my refurbished 15" MBP 5,1 out of the box. The drive would make the initializing noise at boot, except alot more than normal. After some troubleshooting, I simply opened Disk Utility and after a few seconds of that familiar initialization sound, my drive has worked fine.
Do you really mean that you just open Disk Utility and do nothing else?
Just verify the drive mechanism shows up in the left column, and then close it after... what, a minute or so?
(I am not disputing, just trying for clarity, so I will know what to do if this issue happens to me...)
I wonder if Disk Utility has some kind of device 'reset' process in its code that clears something in the optical drive/parameter area/driver/whatever...
Would be nice if this turns out to work for folks.
Numerous? A handful? How many are we talking about here?
How many? It ain't numerous - it's seems to be hundreds if you follow ALL the related threads in Apple Support Discussions. It's only become numerous because of recent postings by those trying to install SL.
And I don't think it's a software/firmware update or lack of use/dirty lense issue. My first SD crapped out within a couple months of the April 08 purchase of my MBP. It was replaced under warranty and several months later - now out of warranty - the second drive crapped out. All it does is spin up and eject - everything!
Both the original and the replacement are the Mathshida drive. And I use mine every day - or I used to. In the desktop publishing world I used a wide variety of CDs and DVDs both professional and those burned by individuals.
I've also tried every proposed solution - compressed air, a cleaning disk, tapping on the top of the drive and on and on - all to no avail. Seems the only real solution is to buy an external.
For my money it's long past time for Apple to address this issue!
The superdrive on my 2.4GHz Macbook Pro has gotten progressively worse the past year. First, it didn't like certain brands of DVD-RW, then DVD-R. So I've not been able to burn DVDs for a while. But reading has been OK. Snow Leopard was the first DVD that wouldn't mount. Now the drive won't even play commercial DVDs anymore. CDs seem to work fine though. The drive is a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J. I'm going to the Apple store on Saturday as my trackpad stopped working last week as well.
You mean a particular brand of optical media? If so, what brand works? I believe I've tried Sony & Memorex without success but if it's just the brand of media that is the problem, I wouldn't mind trying a different type versus a $300 repair.
Yep. It was Sony and Memorex that I was having issues with as well. I found that Verbatim and the Office Depot brands worked alright. When CompUSA was still around, those worked pretty well too.
You mean a particular brand of optical media? If so, what brand works? I believe I've tried Sony & Memorex without success but if it's just the brand of media that is the problem, I wouldn't mind trying a different type versus a $300 repair.
Yep. It was Sony and Memorex that I was having issues with as well. I found that Verbatim and the Office Depot brands worked alright. When CompUSA was still around, those worked pretty well too.
I also got a Matsushita on my MacBook, not sure what's on the G4 need to check, and if it is of any consolation is good to know that Matsushita is in the red, or that what I inferred from the numbers.
Numerous? A handful? How many are we talking about here?
Oh probably none at all really. Ignore all articles that ever dare to suggest there is ever even the slightest problem with Apple products. Each and every one ever made has been perfect. Any suggestions that Apple would ever release a product with generic defects due to inadequate thorough testing is a scandalous lie perpetrated by a whole host of jealous PC users and rival manufacturers.
The way some of these baseless rumours are worded, you would think that Apple were in the business of making huge profits by making defect riddled products from substandard components sold at a premium. I mean, how ludicrous a suggestion is that!
Keep the faith brother, these evil servants of Satan can not turn our eyes from the true and righteous path that is the way of the Apple.
Just wondering, but since a lot of us seem to being having the same trouble with these drives, and the fact that it's probably the crap hardware itself causing the problems, does anybody know of a good alternative/replacement drive that would fit MBP? If Apple is just going to keep installing the same crappy drive over and over, I'd prefer to buy a better drive and swap it out myself if at all possible.
I recently had some trouble getting a DVD to burn in my SuperDrive even at 1x - I ran a lens cleaner for 30 seconds and was able to burn a DVD at 8x and a CD at max possible.
Also was having trouble with my son's DVD player - kept cleaning the discs - finally tried cleaning the lens and the problem is gone.
Both cases kind of surprised me - I did not think the lens could get that dirty or that a bit of dust or whatever would not have that big an impact.
I also got a Matsushita on my MacBook, not sure what's on the G4 need to check, and if it is of any consolation is good to know that Matsushita is in the red, or that what I inferred from the numbers.
I didn't realize that they changed the name of the business. Panasonic used to be just one of the brands they sold products under, now they renamed the company after its most recognizable brand.
Optical drives is just one part of their business, they make and have made a wide variety of good quality products.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lilgto64
I recently had some trouble getting a DVD to burn in my SuperDrive even at 1x - I ran a lens cleaner for 30 seconds and was able to burn a DVD at 8x and a CD at max possible.
Also was having trouble with my son's DVD player - kept cleaning the discs - finally tried cleaning the lens and the problem is gone.
Both cases kind of surprised me - I did not think the lens could get that dirty or that a bit of dust or whatever would not have that big an impact.
I'd say it's worth trying, so long as it's a last resort before returning it. For one, the brushes hitting the lenses might damage the lens mechanism, and if there is any residue on those brushes, you could be smearing something onto the lens. In short, don't use it if the drive is working fine, it can cause more problems than it prevents.
I have/had a Macbook Pro 15" (which was stolen some weeks ago) and a Macbook Pro 17". The 15"s drive didn't work at all, the 17"s can still read CDs and DVD but not write them. I guess it will completely fail soon.
I seriously wonder if Snow Leopard wasn't rushed out to market. Under Leopard my optical drive worked perfectly. After installing Snow Leopard, it is not even recognized. I had originally vowed to wait until many issues were resolved before installing Snow Leopard but instead I rushed ahead against my better judgment and have had many compatibility application issues. After searching the forums, many have been resolved but this issue with my drive is not something I want to wait around for.
Thankfully, I saved a clone of Leopard and will return to it today. There are also Canon printer issues, in particular, the Canon ip2600 on a home network.
It's time to go back to Leopard at least for a few more months.
For a long time I thought it was just my dvd drive until I did a google search, Funny that Apple hasn't said a thing about this. Mine has needed to be replaced for months but I haven't found the right time to be without it for several days. Now I'm stuck as I can't upgrade to "Snow Leopard"..
Yup. Exactly the case with my Santa Rosa MBP. Barely been used and won't read DVD's at all... spits them back out without even an error message. Mounts CD's just fine. I used an external DVD drive to install 10.6 and thought that maybe it was just a driver issue and that a new OS would resolve the problem. WRONG.
We need to keep up the pressure on Apple on this one; if these drives are defective, then Apple should be replacing them free, even for units that are out of their warranty period.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
Reports of dead SuperDrives on Apple's Macs have been cropping up; and once again, third-party iPod cases show camera holes, like they have numerous times in recent months.
Complaints of SuperDrive failures grow
A developer Friday told AppleInsider the drive on his Mac mini was only used a handful of times before the attempted install of Snow Leopard. After he inserted the installation disc for Mac OS X 10.6, the drive would not mount any other optical discs. Now, he said, the drive will not read or write any CD or DVD.
"Unfortunately, I have not been able to get Apple?s cooperation on resolving this," the developer said. "For now, I am advising all my Mac clients not to upgrade and I am not guaranteeing that any solution I build will run on Snow Leopard."
He also cited a colleague who had a similar problem on a two-year-old MacBook Pro. After the user attempted to install Snow Leopard, an error code was displayed. The drive would read CDs, but stopped mounting DVDs. When Apple replaced the SuperDrive in the MacBook Pro, the problem was not resolved.
However, the problem seems to go well beyond Snow Leopard. While a handful of users attempting to install the operating system have posted in recent days on the Apple Support discussion boards, user reports of failing Mac SuperDrives go back months, well before last week's release of Snow Leopard.
Numerous users have claimed problems with the drive models "MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E" and "HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N," though other models appear to be affected as well. Given numerous claims that the drives were rarely used, it's possible that the SuperDrives had problems all along, but were not accessed often enough for the issue to surface.
The developer said he spoke with AppleCare support, and was told that when a drive ejects more than one disc without playing it, the hardware is replaced, as there are no tools for troubleshooting software errors with optical drives.
"Of course, if replacing the hardware doesn't solve the problem (as appears to be the issue for some people who have tried) they're going to have to come up with a better strategy," he said.
13" MacBook unibody, straight out of the box would read CD's, DVD's fine but nothing with dual layers. It was replaced under warranty but what happened to the idea of quality control?
Comments
I've got 12 Intel Macs in my house
Can I come over?
...
You mean a particular brand of optical media? If so, what brand works? I believe I've tried Sony & Memorex without success but if it's just the brand of media that is the problem, I wouldn't mind trying a different type versus a $300 repair.
I have settled on Verbatim brand disks (both DVD-R and their CDR) for the most reliable in my experience. Using other brands, most of which were usually OK, I would occasionally get 'sense failure' or verify failures, sometimes more often than occasional
I know some people like Taiyo Yuden, but they are rather more expensive and only available online (at least compared to my local store offerings).
(I have no affiliation with these or any brand or vendor).
Re. why these optical drive problems happen at all with the Apple machines, at first I thought it was related to them cramming ever skinnier drives into the ever thinner cases - causing reliability problems (heat, dust, tinier parts). (I know that when I eject a disk, whether after read or writing, it is usually very hot.) This might still be an element, but could not be the only one if the same kind of failures happen on the Mac Pro towers which, I think, use full height drives.
It is a sad and troubling situation.
My MacBook Pro's MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E has been useless for almost a year. Can't read CDs, can't read DVDs, can't burn anything. Had to buy a crappy external drive that makes more noise than my vacuum and shakes my desk like a washer-dryer. So upsetting. I could use my Apple Care but can't send my Mac away for more than a day...
Just curious- you bought Apple Care for what reason then ?
I had the same issue with my refurbished 15" MBP 5,1 out of the box. The drive would make the initializing noise at boot, except alot more than normal. After some troubleshooting, I simply opened Disk Utility and after a few seconds of that familiar initialization sound, my drive has worked fine.
Do you really mean that you just open Disk Utility and do nothing else?
Just verify the drive mechanism shows up in the left column, and then close it after... what, a minute or so?
(I am not disputing, just trying for clarity, so I will know what to do if this issue happens to me...)
I wonder if Disk Utility has some kind of device 'reset' process in its code that clears something in the optical drive/parameter area/driver/whatever...
Would be nice if this turns out to work for folks.
Numerous? A handful? How many are we talking about here?
How many? It ain't numerous - it's seems to be hundreds if you follow ALL the related threads in Apple Support Discussions. It's only become numerous because of recent postings by those trying to install SL.
And I don't think it's a software/firmware update or lack of use/dirty lense issue. My first SD crapped out within a couple months of the April 08 purchase of my MBP. It was replaced under warranty and several months later - now out of warranty - the second drive crapped out. All it does is spin up and eject - everything!
Both the original and the replacement are the Mathshida drive. And I use mine every day - or I used to. In the desktop publishing world I used a wide variety of CDs and DVDs both professional and those burned by individuals.
I've also tried every proposed solution - compressed air, a cleaning disk, tapping on the top of the drive and on and on - all to no avail. Seems the only real solution is to buy an external.
For my money it's long past time for Apple to address this issue!
You mean a particular brand of optical media? If so, what brand works? I believe I've tried Sony & Memorex without success but if it's just the brand of media that is the problem, I wouldn't mind trying a different type versus a $300 repair.
Yep. It was Sony and Memorex that I was having issues with as well. I found that Verbatim and the Office Depot brands worked alright. When CompUSA was still around, those worked pretty well too.
You mean a particular brand of optical media? If so, what brand works? I believe I've tried Sony & Memorex without success but if it's just the brand of media that is the problem, I wouldn't mind trying a different type versus a $300 repair.
Yep. It was Sony and Memorex that I was having issues with as well. I found that Verbatim and the Office Depot brands worked alright. When CompUSA was still around, those worked pretty well too.
BTW, Matsushita is now called Panasonic Corporation.
I also got a Matsushita on my MacBook, not sure what's on the G4 need to check, and if it is of any consolation is good to know that Matsushita is in the red, or that what I inferred from the numbers.
Numerous? A handful? How many are we talking about here?
Oh probably none at all really. Ignore all articles that ever dare to suggest there is ever even the slightest problem with Apple products. Each and every one ever made has been perfect. Any suggestions that Apple would ever release a product with generic defects due to inadequate thorough testing is a scandalous lie perpetrated by a whole host of jealous PC users and rival manufacturers.
The way some of these baseless rumours are worded, you would think that Apple were in the business of making huge profits by making defect riddled products from substandard components sold at a premium. I mean, how ludicrous a suggestion is that!
Keep the faith brother, these evil servants of Satan can not turn our eyes from the true and righteous path that is the way of the Apple.
Also was having trouble with my son's DVD player - kept cleaning the discs - finally tried cleaning the lens and the problem is gone.
Both cases kind of surprised me - I did not think the lens could get that dirty or that a bit of dust or whatever would not have that big an impact.
If it is only a problem with Matsushita as it seems from the posts here maybe Apple shouldn't use their drives anymore!
BTW, Matsushita is now called Panasonic Corporation.
I also got a Matsushita on my MacBook, not sure what's on the G4 need to check, and if it is of any consolation is good to know that Matsushita is in the red, or that what I inferred from the numbers.
I didn't realize that they changed the name of the business. Panasonic used to be just one of the brands they sold products under, now they renamed the company after its most recognizable brand.
Optical drives is just one part of their business, they make and have made a wide variety of good quality products.
I recently had some trouble getting a DVD to burn in my SuperDrive even at 1x - I ran a lens cleaner for 30 seconds and was able to burn a DVD at 8x and a CD at max possible.
Also was having trouble with my son's DVD player - kept cleaning the discs - finally tried cleaning the lens and the problem is gone.
Both cases kind of surprised me - I did not think the lens could get that dirty or that a bit of dust or whatever would not have that big an impact.
I'd say it's worth trying, so long as it's a last resort before returning it. For one, the brushes hitting the lenses might damage the lens mechanism, and if there is any residue on those brushes, you could be smearing something onto the lens. In short, don't use it if the drive is working fine, it can cause more problems than it prevents.
It's a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J
Version
Thankfully, I saved a clone of Leopard and will return to it today. There are also Canon printer issues, in particular, the Canon ip2600 on a home network.
It's time to go back to Leopard at least for a few more months.
We need to keep up the pressure on Apple on this one; if these drives are defective, then Apple should be replacing them free, even for units that are out of their warranty period.
Reports of dead SuperDrives on Apple's Macs have been cropping up; and once again, third-party iPod cases show camera holes, like they have numerous times in recent months.
Complaints of SuperDrive failures grow
A developer Friday told AppleInsider the drive on his Mac mini was only used a handful of times before the attempted install of Snow Leopard. After he inserted the installation disc for Mac OS X 10.6, the drive would not mount any other optical discs. Now, he said, the drive will not read or write any CD or DVD.
"Unfortunately, I have not been able to get Apple?s cooperation on resolving this," the developer said. "For now, I am advising all my Mac clients not to upgrade and I am not guaranteeing that any solution I build will run on Snow Leopard."
He also cited a colleague who had a similar problem on a two-year-old MacBook Pro. After the user attempted to install Snow Leopard, an error code was displayed. The drive would read CDs, but stopped mounting DVDs. When Apple replaced the SuperDrive in the MacBook Pro, the problem was not resolved.
However, the problem seems to go well beyond Snow Leopard. While a handful of users attempting to install the operating system have posted in recent days on the Apple Support discussion boards, user reports of failing Mac SuperDrives go back months, well before last week's release of Snow Leopard.
Numerous users have claimed problems with the drive models "MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E" and "HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N," though other models appear to be affected as well. Given numerous claims that the drives were rarely used, it's possible that the SuperDrives had problems all along, but were not accessed often enough for the issue to surface.
The developer said he spoke with AppleCare support, and was told that when a drive ejects more than one disc without playing it, the hardware is replaced, as there are no tools for troubleshooting software errors with optical drives.
"Of course, if replacing the hardware doesn't solve the problem (as appears to be the issue for some people who have tried) they're going to have to come up with a better strategy," he said.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]