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

DVD lens cleaner worked for me. The drive is Matshita UJ-857. It was ejecting most of discs and some were read as blank even though they were not. It did however read retail DVD movies.

I tried the ole' clean it, dust it out routine -- got nothing.

Cleaner does not work for me -- neither does an SMC.

Another victim here. I just upgraded my OS from 10.4 to 10.5 and then to 10.6 in one session. Everything went well until I tried to use the CD drive, at which point the drive begin ejecting every disc put into it. After reading this discussion I made my pilgrimage to the Genius Bar where after running the diagnostics it was decided that it was a hardware problem and that I would need a new drive installed for $225 (a reduced price, I was told).

When I mentioned this discussion and the large number of internal drive problems being reported the Genius made a dismissive comment (dressed up in nice Customer Relations language) to the effect that people who complained in the Discussions were a bunch of whiners that fed off each other and that of course there was no systemic problem.

I declined the over-priced internal drive replacement and opted to buy an external USB drive for $60 instead.

In order for that "Genius" to make such commentary, that "Genius" must be on this discussion board too. Hmmm.

Good to know that I'm not the only one. Shocking to know that there's so many of us. I was going to purchase an Apple care plan today but after seeing this thread and the lack of response that is just not going to happen now.

This is appalling there should be a call-back free replacement program. Same issue. Accepts CDs but not DVDs.

Hi there. I also have had trouble with my hard drive, I have an old macbook pro that i love. but that hardrive sends me around the twist. It reads Cds but is picky with self made DVDs. I have the drive model Matshita DVD-R-UJ-857D.

I like a lot of had the problem the DVD would spin up a few times then nothing and then spit out the DVD. I tried all sorts of things. In the end I just use my imac and do a file transfer via the migration utility. Then i thought lets try a lens cleaning disk.

Well it did load and it did clean the laser and now it takes my home DVDs. I live in the UK. So i purchased a DVD from Maplins.it is a own brand version and it worked.

Well at least it is ok for now. Try this disk if you live in England. it might just save some of your hair,

Steve

Rebuilding permissions didn't work.
Changing DVD+R to DVD-R didn't work.
Resetting SMC didn't work.

BANGING THE TOP OF THE DISK DRIVE REPEATEDLY DID!
(Thanks to those who suggested this)

Caveman tech support. If in doubt - whack it hard!

I've been following this topic for over a year now and finally gained resolution after getting a replacement from my local Genius Bar last week. However, their replacement is also a model some people here are having issues with. Here is the history...

The SuperDrive in my 2008 MBP (MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-875; Firmware Revision: DA09) started experiencing flaky issues about a year ago. DVD media (-R, +R, and master disks from Apple and movie studios) took about 4-5 tries before they would mount. CD-ROM media ejected immediately.

I took it to my local Apple Store Genius Bar and they performed some tests. Using my recordable media, it behaved as described. Using some from the Genius Bar, it appeared to work as designed. The Genius rebooted to an OS from an external firewire drive and everything worked fine (both their media and mine). Their solution: "Seems to be a software issue. Try reinstalling the OS or use different media." (For the record, I use Verbatim DVD+R media given its good reputation for quality. These same disks work great on my 2006 iMac and 2009 Mac Mini and did work great on my MBP until it went mental.)

Came home, reinstalled 10.5 (once the OS DVD decided to mount) as a clean install (no upgrade or archiving). Same issue from a fresh install: mounts after 4-5 attempts.

Resorted to voodoo: repaired permissions, blew compressed air, and finally reset PRAM. Only after the PRAM reset did the drive start to behave somewhat normal. CD-ROMs would still eject immediately but DVD media only took 1-3 insertions before mounting.

Fast forward a year: the drive severely degraded to the point where DVD media required 10-20 insertions before mounting. Attempted waving the rubber chicken at my MBP (i.e., disk permissions, air, PRAM) and even reset the SMC for good measure. No amount of voodoo worked. Even attempting a clean install of 10.6 was infuriating as it took forever to mount while under 10.5, then ejected when the system tried to mount the disk while using it as the Startup Disk for the install.

Once installed, I ejected and attempted to install Aperture 3.0 and burn some files to CD-ROM and DVD+R media. No change: 10-20 insertions before mounting. "@#$%&!"

Went back to the Genius Bar where they were unable to get the drive to behave differently. After the Genius was unable to insert and mount their Apple Diagnostic DVD, they took the machine in for service.

Now I have a new drive in my system and it is working great... for the moment. Thanks to AppleCare, this repair was covered under the extended service plan.

Hope this helps.

Hardware details below...

WAS:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-875:

Firmware Revision: DA09
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, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

*_IS NOW_*:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-867:

Firmware Revision: HA13
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 0 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

*_SYSTEM INFO_*:
Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.27f2
Serial Number (system): <REDACTED>
Hardware UUID: <REDACTED>
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

I've been having this problem for awhile and nothing has worked. I tried the disk repair, canned air, nothing. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I can't believe so many people have had the same problem.

I don't know if I added myself in that topic, but I got the same bug, since a software update combo to go to 10.4.11
Nothing have work to repair it, even dissassemble the superdrive and manually cleaning the lense, as I did with dozen of others cd/dvd drive and successfully.
I'm sure it's a firmware/software problem.
I'm still in 10.4.11. the drive is MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857

And yet another Mac user with the same problem.

I have a fairly ancient MacBook, purchased in July 2006. The optical drive worked well for nearly two years then suddenly stopped reading DVDs. I would get a lot of video interference on screen, then the DVD would eject. After a month or so of trying all the fixes on the forums, it stopped even trying to read them and would eject every DVD after 15 seconds or so of loud whirring noises. CDs were still OK, so I struggled on for another two years because, like many people here, I paid a lot of money to Apple and I couldn't bring myself to cough up another £200 to Steve Jobs for something which shouldn't have broken so quickly.

Now I've discovered that my MacBook has stopped reading CDs as well. Is Apple reluctant to fix the optical drive because it pushes people like me to buy off iTunes out of sheer frustration, instead of sourcing legitimate cheaper copies or just downloading things I already own?

Anyway, to add to the roll call of ****** off Mac owners:

MATSHITA CD-RW CW-8221:

Firmware Revision: GA0H
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw
Media: No

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB11.0061.B03
SMC Version: 1.4f12
Serial Number: 4H62483GU9B
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Okay, what do you make of this?

On my Santa Rosa MacBook, which I got in late December '07, the Superdrive suddenly refuses to burn data CDs and data DVDs, even after cleanings and following the various other pieces of advice posted in this thread. I get every error message under the sun regardless of the media I use.

And here's the kicker: it only refuses to burn DATA CDs/DVDs....I can burn MUSIC CDs and VIDEO DVDs with zero problems.

If I need to burn data, I use the DVD burner I popped out of my PC and burn via one of those IDE-to-USB cables.

Thoughts???

Thank you for all the suggestions on this drive and it has helped me - mine would read cd's fine but with any DVD I would insert, it would seat, read for a second or 2 and then it would eject. I tried the permissions repair but that didn't work, I decided to forgo the PRAM reset till last option prior to new drive and was not about to can air it and push the dirt around and maybe completely lose use of the drive, I did find the Wendys straw suggestion a hoot.

I ended up using 2 different cleaning CD's first one I inserted ejected shortly after so I figured it needed more, the second one stayed in and I ran it for about 5 mins., it has three different tracks to listen from, I then inserted my Snow Leopard DVD and it spun up and mounted it - very welcome sight/sound, I inserted a r/w dvd it mounted and asked me what I wanted to do, I think I am cured.

I am wondering how many drives are being scrapped for just the need of a "good" cleaning, granted not all are just dirty optical lens tho. I haven't had the MacBook Pro apart but something in it's design is letting dirt/dust in there - maybe it's the location of the drive in front, I have had a MacBook and iBooks and not this problem?

FootNote: I used to have to do this now and then on older Windows PC's so did not think of this at first. The cleaning CD I used is very old, I think I got it in 98, it is a Kensinton CD Drive Cleaner with voice instructions which loads in iTunes fine but iTunes wouldn't stop using it so I had to force quit to eject.

In the mean time I had bought a Mad Dog external drive off eBay but am only out $30 for that and did use it to load Snow on with out any problems and I can resell it now.

Drive details:
Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N
Revision: AP09
Serial Number: K0077R40928
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes
Power Off: Yes