Sony DRX-840U

Question

Level 1

8 points

Sony DRX-840U

I just purchased a Sony DRX-840U DVD/CD Rewritable Drive. The box says it is Mac compatible but my iMac with 10.4.11 does not recognize it. Nothing, zip, no reaction when I plug it in. I plugged it into the computer (not a hub) and the USB port I am using works fine and supports an external hard drive. I planned to switch between my PC and the iMac and the drive works fine on the PC.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jun 8, 2008 1:09 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,483 points

Jun 8, 2008 1:31 PM in response to leats1

What does System Profiler say?

What does Disk Utility say?

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

411,265 points

Jun 8, 2008 1:37 PM in response to leats1

when I plug it in

Nothing usually happens with an external disc drive until you actually insert some kind of media such as a CD.

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Answer 3

leats1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 8, 2008 2:08 PM in response to Limnos

Thanks. I have been trained by PC to see the device pop up on the screen and in Explorer when it is attached. When the drive did not appear in Finder I thought I had a problem. As soon as I put a disc in, Finder saw it. Were it that all problems were solved so easily...

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Answer 4

leats1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2008 6:04 AM in response to Limnos

Oops. Unfortunately, problems come in bunches. I used the Sony drive and Toast on my iMac to create a DVD DL data disc of photos, but the Super Drive on my iMac won't recognize the disc. It spins the disc for about 30 seconds, then spits it out. I have tried the "Mac and PC" setting as well as the UDF setting without success. The only way I can read the disc is using the Sony external drive. I have DL discs that I burned on a PC that my Super Drive can read, so I am at a loss to explain this.

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Answer 5

Limnos

Level 10

411,265 points

Jun 9, 2008 6:21 AM in response to leats1

What model iMac do you have? What I'm getting at is, how old? It could be the drive is going since they like to do that after about 4 years of use, and/or it could be having problems with DL. The more high-tech. the media you create the fussier old drives can be about reading them.

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Answer 6

leats1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2008 6:35 AM in response to Limnos

It's a three year old model. As I said, I am able to read DLs I created on another drive (HP/Samsung). The only difference is that the DLs it can read are Memorex and the ones I just created on the Sony are Verbatim. Can't see that that would be the cause.

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Answer 7

Limnos

Level 10

411,265 points

Jun 9, 2008 7:29 AM in response to leats1

The more complex the media the more you are pushing the abilities of optical drives. Older ones can be temperamental just the way you are observing. 3 years is not ancient but this is really sounding like a case of temperamental drive. They may see certain brands and not others, burned on certain machines and not others. You can try changing brands, and also try changing burn speeds to a lower speed. You can also try a laser cleaning disc though I have not found mine to be terribly effective when I had this problem and ended up putting in a new drive for $30.

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