Drive won't read any dvd-ejects it automatically after spinning some time

I totally agree: when you pay so much money for a piece of hardware, you are entitled to expect that it work perfectly. I brought my MacBook Pro in for a logic board replacement last summer, and I intend to do it again in the next few weeks to have my crappy SuperDrive changed. I had to buy an external optical drive yesterday (85 euros, about 60 dollars), because said SuperDrive wouldn't deign read and/or burn CDs or DVDs anymore.

My MBP is only two-and-a-half-years old, and I seldom used SuperDrive in the first place. I think Apple has applied so much pressure on its suppliers that they in turn lowered their manufacturing standards to honor their contracts.

The real losers in this just happen to be the end-users. Who could one day very well end using...

Message was edited by: Didier Caizergues, who can't get it right the first time, it seems...

FINALLY FIXED!

Since I can't live w/o my MBP for several days, I tried zappin PRAM, clearing prefs, etc.

Then I thought I'd try creating a NEW login acct and trying it from the new acct...

Fixed 🙂

HTH

I have exactly the same problem - won't read any blank media, just spins and ejects! This again is only a recent thing - was working fine. Help!

There are dozens (heck, hundreds) of posts like yours on this very forum, plus another couple thousand on other websites: the bottom line is, Apple knows there's a problem with SuperDrive, especially the Matshita units, namely it's fragile and easily jammed. The SuperDrive on my MBP used to work just fine. I installed Security Update 2009-001 a few weeks ago, and guess what? It stopped working altogether...

I sent a lengthy letter to Mr Jobs (posted it once on this forum, but the modos decided to delete my topic; what's freedom of speech anyway?), explaining how it was inconceivable for a big and successful company like Apple to ignore its customers' predicament so blatantly.

I'm still waiting for an answer from whoever fills in for Steve these days...

I tried compressed air, a cleaning CD (got ejected right away, this one), creating a new account, repairing permissions, AppleJack, you name it. Nothing's changed, and my SuperDrive is still not eating lunch...

So, I went to the genius bar and explained the problem only to find out that I was correct, the optical drive is failing (or has already failed). I've tried everything on my machine including booting from another drive and it's definitely clear that the drive has failed. I think what upsets me most about this particular issue is the fact that I have only used the drive a few times, I've probably burned a total of 10 discs on it since I've purchased the machine. I typically burn on my external LaCie LightScribe drive and really only use the internal for reading discs.

There are things that Apple should extend the warranty for and I believe this is one of them. Sure, I could pay $310 to have the drive fixed by Apple but why should I have to? Should an optical drive fail after only 1.5 years? The answer is no. I have a 7100, an older XServe, a MDD, three iBooks, a 12" PB G4, and the list goes on, none of which have had their optical drives fail. Then, my favorite comment of all is "well you should have purchased our 3 year AppleCare plan". I tell you what, that's the most annoying thing. So, rather than take responsibility for a problem, they'll shift the blame to the customer for not buying a huge profit maker for the company.

I don't know, I love Apple but I just don't know about the build quality in this particular machine. I've already had my logic board go out twice and the display replaced, and now the optical drive is out too. Warranty or not, problems like these should not occur on a $2500 laptop that's only 1.5 years old!

just thought id post and say im having same issue here, all since that wonderful update...

Same issue here, I have used the drive sparingly only to play dvd's really. I do not think I have ever burned a disk and the "genius" bar want me to fork out for a machine that is 3 months over its one year warranty. I really like my macbook but this is poor.

Yeah, I'm 6 months over my warranty but I'm not even sure when this actually occurred. Since I barely ever use this drive, it may have been bad months ago and I would have never noticed. I don't know, all I'm saying is whether the machine is 1 day or 6 months out of warranty, this type of problem still shouldn't occur. These are top-of-the-line machines and optical drives should last for years, not months.

The thing that is irking about this is that my drive has had issues since the day I bought it. For some inane reason I decided to put up with it instead of immediately exchanging it, I though I could work around it. I know this is a widespread issue, I've met others with the issue and it is not isolated. Basically sometimes I have to try several times to get the drive to acknowledge a disc. I can't move the machine while a disc is playing as it will come loose, in fact one time I though I had a disc fracture in the drive from the cacophony that came from the drive when I moved my MBP. I've found concentric circles on discs that have been inserted in the drive so there are multiple issues with the drive. I couldn't put up with downtime when I finally had enough though so I bought an external firewire drive. I paid far too much for such a shoddy drive, quality control should be better for the price and that is the real issue. You pay $2000 for a laptop, you expect that $2000 is giving you a top of the line computer that will last for years.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version: 1.16f10
Serial Number: W8743 *X91
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N:

Firmware Revision: AP09
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

I totally agree, and I keep a copy of the letter I emailed Steve Jobs on the subject, just in case you guys would like to rejoin.

Same problem here folks, was working fine until the other month and since last week my MBP has not accepted one DVD! Like others I have had to return my laptop once before due to a failing Pro Logic Board and not taking out an Apple Care Plan at the time (being a poor student) this surely shouldn't happen to a machine less than 18 months old!

I really don't know what to do after searching up and down the internet all evening finding out similar problems, seems like Apple are not holding any responsibility at present. This is my first Apple computer and while I love it, this is getting rather very annoying!

I'm starting to have the same problem. Oddly though it's only with Memorex DVD-R discs. Sony ones seem to read fine and burn fine. Is this a problem with the drive itself or is it really that picky? They used to work I believe.

Add my name to the list. M MBP is 26 months old. The original Superdrive failed within a couple months of purchase and was replaced under warranty. Now the replacement has seemingly failed. It won't spin up and load anything. You can hear it trying to spin up, sometimes repeatedly and then the disks would get stuck. Found a post on Mac Fixit that suggested compressed air. Well that helped only to the point that at least now the disks don't get stuck. After a few attempts at loading it just ejects them.

I have to agree with the majority of the others, seems clearly this is a hardware issue that Apple should address. I've been using nothing but Macs since the old 512K Fatmac. I've never had tech problems and so have never bought AppleCare - as i don't most extended warranty programs. However I'm wishing I had this time - hae had the super drive replaced, keyboard replaced (2x!) and my batter is defective. (To Apple's credit they are replacing it even though I'm out of warranty).

I'm in desktop publishing and I burn CDs/DVDs every month. This clearly does not appear to be a random problem. We already pay a premium price for Macs vs Brads X,Y,Z so it wold be nice to see Apple do the right thing, step up and admit there's a problem and fix it!

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1163304&tstart=0

Look for the post by J.Noir. He posts a fix for Matsushita type drives.


Found the above in an earlier post in this thread, went to the link and fund J. Noir's post. It's a fix that you have do using terminal. I downloaded the fix but can't figure out how to run it. If anyone else can, please advise.