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

Rather then drop the change and lose my Mac Pro for a week, I found a work around to installing Snow Leopard. I imagine there are a few of you in the same boat as me, just want SL installed, can download everything else you need? Simply use an external hard drive, get a buddy to create a dmb of the SL disk, partition an external drive as GUID so it is bootable, restore the image to the drive using disk utils, option boot from the disk, and, well the install worked as normal for me. Now I can just wait for the next rev of the Mac Book Pro, as planned.

Too right... Or its equivalent in local currency... Shame on them...

My problem is a little different: my drive reads dvd's but will not mount a blank dvd! When I tried to burn a dvd from iDVD, I got a message stating that my superdrive was not supported (whatever that means) - so while I could work in iDVD, I would not be able to burn a dvd! Which is the whole point of working in iDVD.

I don't understand how Apple can rhapsodize about the fun of making movies and then make a superdrive that will not burn them!

So the service center guys say the drive is beyond repair & i need to get a replacement. Which is going to cost me(no apple care & out of warranty). They are offering me an exchange price of INR12,300(roughly 250US$). Guess i'll manage with SL DVD's for some time till i can save up to change the drive.

Just curious, anybody tried physically opening the drive?

Add another MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857 on a MacBook Pro 15" running 10.5.6 to the list, to which we hope Apple will respond. When purchased, it not only wouldn't load basic Mac disks, it gave great difficulty ejecting them. As this was in the first year of the model's appearance, I was able to get the optical scanner replaced under warranty, with only loss of time.

Alas, the new scanner also proved touchy. It whirred & rejected Leopard disks after three tries, so I got them installed at a luckily nearby Apple store (London). Now, further from such a store, I try to install Snow Leopard with identical result. (Trying it on other disks to hand, it sometimes work on disks I've loaded before, mostly not.)

Im seriously switching ... Thats enough.
If the computer dos't work then it should at least look ugly as well ...

I'm adding a "me too" because I think it is important Apple realizes the scope of this problem. MacBook Pro 15"2.16 GHz MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857. Will not recognize Snow Leopord or Leopard disks. Reads CD's, mp3s, Filemaker Pro Install disks, etc.

Something is definitely wrong with these drives. I tried the firmware fix, et al and nothing works.

What "Firmware Fix" did you try? I've been trying to revert to the original Firmware(AP09 in my case) but not able to.

In despite to you guys, I have an iMac 7.1, but the same Problem as you. My optical Drive crashed during installing SnowLeopard (original Disc), to the accompaniment of unpleasant scratchy noises. After this any Disc will just stuck and ejects only after over 30 times trying. Judged by the noises the Snow-Leopard Disc behaves differently in comparison to other discs like Leopard 10.5. I have an "Pioneer DVD-RV DVR-K06A".

Adding another to the list, though it seems this drive isn't really listed as one of the problematic ones, anyone who can help, please do, much appreciated !!

MATSHITA CD-RW CW-8221:

Firmware Revision: GA0K
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

One more DVD drive fault situation. MBP 4.1, just 2 days out of warranty! )))
But, thanks to my technical interests, i know what's wrong and how to fix it. The main trouble with all DVD drives is because of dirt and smoke. I've succesfully repaired many "dead" DVD drives just by opening it and gently cleaning the lens with optics cleaning liquid (photography specific "Eclipse").

So, anyhow, Apple should aware its users about such things — it is not good to smoke near your mac, as not good to work in dusty areas/inserding dirty discs.

Message was edited by: zvukofor

Update :

Ok, just for the heck of experimentation, I tried flashing different firmwares to the drive. Patched all the firmware files I have with MCSE to Autoreset. And then one by one tested each of them out. All firmwares were flashed in Windows 7RC running via Bootcamp, and tested in both Windows & OS X environment. Posting the results.

Firmware Rev: BP10 (Auto-reset Patched)
Doesn't read any kind of media. Keeps spitting it out.

Firmware Rev: A103 (Auto-reset Patched)
Doesn't read/write Dual Layer DVD's. Reading/Writing CD's & SL DVD's no problems.

Firmware Rev: AP12 (Auto-reset Patched)
Reads all media as blank.

Firmware Rev: A101 (Auto-reset Patched)
Doesn't write Dual Layer DVD's. Reading Dual Layer DVD's no problem. Reading/Writing CD's & SL DVD's no problems.

So I'm sticking with Firmware A101.

Also checked DVD Info in Windows & according to that the drive doesn't support Read/Write on DVD+/-R DL RW. Will try to check with DVD+/-R DL & post further results.

Also planning to cross flash with GSA-T10N RPC1 Firmware. But so far haven't found anyone who's tried it earlier successfully.

Similar experiences when installing SnowLeopard and just posting to add to the statistics;
SL proved too much of a challenge for the Superdrive and crashed midway during installation.

Not sure what the model was because it is now replaced by Apple Care program.
The first try in this repair also gave a problematic Superdrive, the 2nd drive passed all tests and stayed in. This illustrates that the refurbished drives that are used for replacement are really not a good strategy. This hardware is too sensitive to be replaced with a refurbished part.

I have had the exact same issue with a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D on my MBP (purchased around December 2007). My burner was working perfectly before in leopard, then once upgraded to Snow Leopard this would not recognise any blank media inserted into the drive (it would how ever read all disks that have media already on them). There is a link on page two of this thread that links to a program called simpleFlash that re-flashes the drive (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1163304&tstart=0). I downloaded, then ran this and rebooted. My MBP again recognises and writes data to a blank disc. I have tried different brands, and viewed disks that have already had data written to them with no issues. Below is what i get when a disk is inserted now in system profiler;

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D
Firmware Revision: KCVB
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:
Type: DVD+R
ID: RITEK R03
Blank: Yes
Erasable: No
Overwritable: Yes
Appendable: Yes
Write Speeds: 2.4x, 4x

I suggest to give it a try to see if it solves your issues too.