Superdrive only reads CD, ejects DVD

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Superdrive only reads CD, ejects DVD

Hi,

I have a white Macbook, which is acting really strange. It came with a Matshita superdrive, which only reads CDs, and ejects out all the DVD's.

It used to work fine like 4/5 months back, but now whenever I put in DVD, it spins it for few seconds, stops, again spins and finally decides to eject them out.

Any reasons for this? And how to solve this issue?

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 25, 2009 4:25 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 25, 2009 4:32 PM in response to asingal3

Try setting System Preferences +CDs & DVDs+ pane, +When you insert a video DVD+, to Ignore. Then insert the DVD. If it is now ignored (does not spit out), it is working. Try setting it back to the way it was before.

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Answer 2

asingal3 Author

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Mar 25, 2009 5:14 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

I tried it, still ejects the DVD. I have tried different DvD's: blank DVD, movie DVD, written DVD with just files and folders .. but it ejects everything.

Any other solutions?

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Answer 3

Mar 25, 2009 5:45 PM in response to asingal3

Does it eject the Mac OS X installation disc too?

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Answer 4

asingal3 Author

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Mar 25, 2009 6:16 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

I can give it a try when I reach home. I don't know as of now.

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Answer 5

asingal3 Author

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Mar 26, 2009 10:08 AM in response to asingal3

No, it is not reading the Apple Installation DVD's, my macbook spitted them too. Any other ideas?

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Answer 6

Mar 26, 2009 11:37 AM in response to asingal3

Try an SMC reset (basically a complete power off)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411

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Answer 7

asingal3 Author

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Mar 26, 2009 4:09 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Tried resetting, still ejecting the DVDs. One thing to note: Now it took like 2-3 minutes before ejecting, earlier it used to eject in like 20 secs. For once, I thought it will read the DVD, but it didn't.

Still reading CDs fine.

😟

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Answer 8

Mar 26, 2009 4:37 PM in response to asingal3

At least there is a change... 🙂

Since it is holding the disc in there longer, can you restart, immediately insert the Mac OS X installation disc, and hold down the C key to try and start from it?

Also, here are two general trouble-shooting steps that I normally perform, in case you have not done them yet. Probably not related to the optical drive, but it would not hurt to do them.

Reset PRAM

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1242

Run Disk Utility and use the +Repair Disk Permissions+ routine.

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Answer 9

asingal3 Author

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Mar 26, 2009 10:06 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Sorry to tell you that nothing worked. Disk utility, verify and repair permissions shows some ACL errors and some more errors, which I checked on the Apple forums, and they are some normal warning messages.

What more can I do, apart from putting this superdrive in Museum of Mac wonders 🙂

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Answer 10

Mar 26, 2009 10:18 PM in response to asingal3

So I guess you were not able to get it to boot from the optical drive, by quickly inserting the Mac OS X installation disc after a restart (or start from OFF) and holding down the C key...?

It may be hardware, but I was hoping you could boot the Mac from another system (such as the one on the Mac OS X installation disc), to rule out a problem with your current system installation. You don't happen to have an external USB drive with a Mac OS X installation on it, do you? You could back up your personal data (or clone the entire hard drive volume) to an external drive, do an +Erase and Install+ option reinstallation of Mac OS X, and test the optical drive.

Before you resort to something that drastic, try on more thing... Create a new admin user account in System Preferences Accounts pane.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8235.html

Log out and log in to the new account (don't use Fast Users Switching). Test the optical drive from the new account. It's possible the problem is some corrupted preference file in your normal user account. If so, the drive may work in the new account.

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Answer 11

Mar 26, 2009 10:25 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Actually, one more thing... What happens if you start up with the Option key held down. That should give you +Startup Manager+, where you can select the startup volume to use. Insert the Mac OS X installation disc. If there is a button on the screen to refresh the choices, press it. If the disc appears, select it and continue the startup sequence.

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Answer 12

Muzzled

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Mar 29, 2009 1:52 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Hi everyone.
I have this exact same problem, absolutely 100% the same.
i have tried all of the steps you outlined, none of them worked 😟

also, i used target disc mode to re-install leopard, so it has a brand new clean install and i still have the problem.

this leads me to believe it is a hardware issue, which really *****.

any idea how much it would cost to get apple to replace the optical drive?

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Answer 13

asingal3 Author

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Mar 31, 2009 12:18 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Tried all, nothing helps. 😟

I haven't tried the fresh install of leopard though, and I am wondering if that would help, since we have one more user with same problem, who has tried re-installing leopard.

I am beginning to think that Apple should replace this superdrive, but I am not in the Apple care plan and it has been more than a year since I bought this white macbook.

It s**ks. Any other advice guys?

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Answer 14

Mar 31, 2009 12:36 PM in response to asingal3

It sounds like it is bad. It looks like your only option is to replace. OWC sells a faster one here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/superdrive/MacBook_13

Glor

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