Q: El Capitan killed DVD drive

rkaufmann87Oct 6, 2015 12:52 PM Re: El Capitan killed DVD drive
Re: El Capitan killed DVD drivein response to Lee Dunkelberg

Lee please quit the ranting, El Capitan did not do anything to your SuperDrive nor is the issue widespread,  . . . Until then please a SMC and PRAM reset, you may need to do these 2-3 times. Instructions are in iMac SMC and PRAM reset

rkaufmann87 I don't think you know what you're talking about. There are hundreds of complaints about El Capi and DVD drives & the fact that you haven't heard about them is more a sign of your lack of information than of Lee's ranting. SMC and PRAM reset don't help. Many have suggested PRAM to no effect. Hopefully Apple will give us a patch soon enough, or someone tell me how to go back to Yosemite.

I'm gonna go with "What is not a coincidence?" Alex, for $200.... Too many others reporting the same issue, at least 4 on this thread alone. However, thanks for the suggestion but it did not correct the problem.

Just to be clear, it worked perfectly prior to the install of El Capitan this morning. How new is your system? Perhaps it's just an issue with older systems? I certainly have no issue replacing it if it has failed and it I won't rule that out, but it does seem to coincidental considering how many here have reported the problem.

Thanks.

Before you conclude that El Capitan killed your DVD drive, try each of the following options - and report here with your results, good or bad. At least future users will know where to look - or not to look. These suggestions are progressive, so you should try each of them serially.

1. Reboot your system. (Probably won't work, but it's worth a try.)

2. SMC and PRAM reset - at least three times each. (It can take a few times for the procedure to work.)

3. Get updates for your burning software. (Some burning software was disabled after the recent Apple security update.)

4. Wait for a patch from Apple. (Apple will come up with an update, hopefully soon.)

5. Put a card into the Superdrive slot. (http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/11/use-this-clever-way-to-clean-a-macs-superdriv e/)

Here is an interesting update. I spoke with Apple Care and they of course had no idea there was any problem, but the nice girl suggested I reinstall El Capitan just in case there was some corrupt part of the install. So, i downloaded a fresh version and reinstalled to find out there was not a single change to my issue. The scheduled call back from Apple Care with another guy, also had him baffled. I told him the Snow Leopard disc worked fine when I was reinstalling the OS after the hard drive replacement. The two different discs, actually, 3 discs I tried were all Microsoft related, Office for Mac 2011 and Windows 7 for installing on VMWare. Well, I decide to jam the Snow Leopard disc in for grins and shazam, it works! Then I grab a dvd movie, Catch Me if you Can and it works too! It turns out that El Capitan is apparently allergic to my Microsoft discs... go figure. So, now I am downloading versions that I need to install off of a USB flash drive...

So, it is apparently related to the El Capitan update, but seems only affected, at least in my case by MS software.

Good detective work. Maybe other users with MS software might have a similar issue. This suggests that a patch/update might be the best solution....

Mid 2010 13'' Macbook Pro (MacbookPro 7,1)

Same issue.

I installed El Capitan and immediately noticed the DVD drive was unusable.
I attempted to fix by resetting PRAM and SMC as per an online tut to no avail.
I attempted to fix by clean installing El Capitan, where the original install was performed over top of Yosemite. The drive is still currently unusable.

Second time an Apple software update has had a negative effect on the hardware (first time iPhone 4S iOS 7 bluetooth/wifi issue).

If I can get the drive working when my replacement Snow Leopard disc arrives tomorrow I'll stay with Snow Leo, the software this computer was built for.
Upgrading just isn't worth the risk anymore, IMO.

For what it's worth, my system is running well with El Capitan for the moment. After downloading MS Office for Mac 2011 and reinstalling with that version, no issues there. I spent a good bit of time on the phone with VMWare (outstanding support by the way) and was able to download and install a fresh version of Win 7 and then the nice lady helped me upgrade to Win 10 even though MS said my system wasn't compatible. It works perfectly at this point. I will know more as I continue to install some Win only programs I use for controlling my telescope and taking pictures.

Don't give up... persevere...

Similar issue here.

Took my mother-in-laws brand new MacBook Pro.  I upgraded it to El Capitan.  With the external SuperDrive, I inserted data DVD I burned on my own MBP (on Yosemite).  It wasn't showing up.  I decided to open Disk Utility to see if anything was being seen.  It was!  But for some reason, it didn't mount the disk.  I selected the partition with the data on it.  I clicked "Mount", and it was fine.  But I had to do that manually.  I tried again, and again needed to be manually mounted.

I've just recently upgraded my personal laptop, so I'll have to try this again on my system.  Although, I'll have to look for a DVD I burned when it was on Yosemite.

OK, you're not going to like this. I borrowed an original Apple external DVD drive from a friend and tried it. It works flawlessly, which leads me to think that Apple intentionally locked out 3rd party DVD drives while making sure it's own work with El Capitan. Sorry guys - go out and buy an Apple DVD drive! After all, this is about marketing.

I have been able to install Microsoft Office 2011 from the DVD both on clean install of El Capitan as well as from an Upgrade of Yosemite to El Capitan.  This works fine both with my external superdrive, the internal superdrive (MacBook Pro mid 2010) - and a 3rd party LG Slim drive.  No DVD drive issues at all.  None of the DVD drives appear in finder until a disk is inserted and is actually mounted.  I tested this on my Late 2012 27" iMac, Late 2012 Mac Mini Server, Mid 2010 15" MacBook Pro, neighbor's Early 2013 13" MacBook Pro Retina.

~Scott

I get a quarterly CD with my company for home based training. I just tried it with the new version of OS X, my new hard drive, etc. It works fine and appears as normal in Finder. No real issues at the moment. Now, I haven't tried the MS dvd again...

OS X El Capitan 10.11, MacBook Pro 15 Late 2011

I inserted a DVD+RW that had two files on it. It came up in Finder. I erased the DVD and from that point

forward, I can not get to the DVD. Tried a new DVD, same thing. Disk Utility sees it but no operations allowed on it.

DVD can be read on a Window's system.

So sad Apple.

not having any issue with my 2010 MacPro or 2009 MacbookPro and either DVD burner. Works in all formats it supports and not had any incidents in with either.

Are you running some 3rd party tool, AV, Cleaning or otherwsie questionable software?

I'm having the same issue on my mid 2009 24" iMac with built-in SuperDrive.  System profiler says I have no burning enabled drive on the computer and shows no DVD drive at all.  If I open DVD player it sometimes errors out and says the system doesn't have a drive, or if it does open it doesn't recognize any disk I put in.  When I slide a dvd into the slot it accepts it, try's to spin it a few times and just spits it out.

DVD is fine.  Does not need service worked minutes before I upgraded to El Capitan.

I've done the cleaning and reset over and over and nothing.

DIsk utility also also doesn't see the drive.

I Went to the terminal and repaired permissions.

Nothing  worked.  No joy.

Help.

DMGK wrote:

 

...which leads me to think that Apple intentionally locked out 3rd party DVD drives while making sure it's own work with El Capitan. Sorry guys - go out and buy an Apple DVD drive! ...

Are you reading the same thread I am?  None of the posters with the problem have said they have installed 3rd party internal optical drives.