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

reviewnaut wrote:

And hey, regarding the open slot to the drive - dirt catching on the edges. I have also considered that to be a design flaw from the start. What SHOULD be incorporated in to the design, is a rubber cover similar to those found on devices like cordless phones (where you pull back the rubber cap to expose a headset jack). THAT would make a good seal for the drive, and greatly reduce dust from entering the drive bay.

Yes. Just what I'd been thinking of myself, reviewnaut! I reckon that some entrepreneurial sort of person could probably make a few bucks by developing something like that for all of the slot load laptops out there from various manufacturers these days!

Cheers

Rod

Gradually "fading" HL-DT-ST DVDRW GWA4080MA drive here. None of its services available since this morning.
2007 MBP 15' on Tiger.

Count me in. After installing Snow Leopard, my Superdrive (HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N) stopped recognizing DVD:s - they just get ejected after a few secs of spinng. After reading this thread, I tried with a regular music cd, and it worked fine (that should exclude the option of hardware failure).

Off course the warranty is just due. Though I will call Apple and let them hear about this tomorrow.

Info:
MacBook Pro
MacBookPro3,1
Intel Core 2 Duo
2,2 GHz
Superdrive (HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N).

I'm sad to tell you that my Matshita DVD-R UJ-875 has died today, after a short period of agony...

No cd or dvd of any kind accepted anymore.

Out of warranty since 3 months.

Disgusted. I switched to apple because i trusted them for the quality of the components.

BTW, Any advice for a compatible (in size) drive that would replace the matsuhita / panasonic one ?

Thanks

I have two iMacs, one 20" (white), and one 24" (white) ... both of them with the Matshita DVD-R, and both of them not working. SO ANNOYING!!!!!!

20" iMac:
Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J
Revision: FCQ5

24" iMac:
Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J
Revision: FCQA

I just spent two hours fully dismantling my lovely iMac... I wanted to clean the cd lens directly, something that proved to be useful with audio readers in the good old time.

Absolutely no result. My conclusion is that Panasonic is manufacturing superdrives with poorly selected components. This is nothing new these days, but Apple buy them, which is probably worst.

I did at last test, after having completly dismantled my iMac and the writer itself in order to clean the lens (without result at first) : I tried to reset the PRAM.

That did the trick !

From the Apple support page :

Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

Adding my macbook pro 15" (non-unibody) to the list of having the same symptoms.

DVD-R blank is recognized and burned without error, however drive does not manage to mount the burned DVD-R, works perfect on a newer unibody macbook.

Tried resetting PRAM, but still not working. It just tries reading it for a couple of seconds 10-20 before spitting it back out.

Original DVD movie plays fine, just an issue with DVD-R's for me it seems.

I am incredibly surprised about Apples stance on this one, this is clearly a hardware/software defect that should be handled.

Guys & gals,

I don't know if you already tried this; but for me the solution was as simple as unexpected. I bought a regular cleaning dvd for like 5 bucks, and let it go nuts for a couple of times. After that my Superdrive suddenly sprang to life. DVD:s and CD:s are working fine now.

For me the problem started after installing Snow Leopard. Directly after. I got the tip from another forum and first ejected it as bollocks. Although when Apple recommended me to leave my mbp for service I decided to give it a try. And it worked!

Give it a try.

I just did....on a MBP and an iMac24 - ran the lens cleaner four times in a row, no improvement whatsoever on both machines. The MBP writes and reads everything but fails to write CD-RWs. The iMac does not write anything, only CD-RWs. Of course they complement each other in their deficiencies, but that is little solace.......I will now try and reset the PRAM - if that also does not do the trick, I will buy an external optical drive - I do not feel at all like paying through the nose for two more of these low quality internal Superdrives.

Ok, I am a complete novice here with my new MBP and this may not work again, but I thought I would share.

I opened settings, CD & DVD preferences. Made sure that the first two insert blank cd and dvd was set to open the disk utility.

Then I inserted my DVD. And it opened up. It could just be a fluke but

before this I was having the same spin and eject symptoms everyone here is having. I don't think this is a permanent fix, but I did manage to load the DVD.
good luck and lets hope a real fix comes soon.

What brand of CD-RWs are you using in the MBP, Gijs and how often have they previously been used? If it is reading and writing DVD's , et al, without difficulty then your problem is probably simply a particular brand of media or old CD-RW disks.

There are a couple of other possibilities, but the above are the most likely explanations.

Cheers

Rod

I reported having this problem earlier in the thread. I bought a 5 euro DVD cleaner disc. Now I just succeeded burning a single layer DVD. The super drive also reads DL DVD etc. The cleaner seems to – at least for now – fixed the problem on my MBP.

DVD drive lens cleaner solved my problem. >< I can know write CDs/DVDs again.