MacBook Pro CD burning trouble....
My computer is a MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz (Santa Rosa) with 2GB RAM, OS X Leopard (10.5.6).
SuperDrive is a Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) UJ-857E, firmware ZA0E.
Disc burning software: iTunes version 8.1.1, SimplyBurns version 393, OS X Disk Utility
CD-R media primarily used for burning are Sony-branded discs actually made in Japan by Taiyo Yuden. The same problems have occurred with Maxell CD-R media made in Taiwan by Ritek.
Estimated total usage of the drive, both reading and writing combined, is just shy of 150 hours.
The problem I am having is that my SuperDrive will not allow me to burn CDs with any of the mentioned disc writing utilities at any speed other than 8x. According to the burning log, it will mention the requested speed (4x, 16x, etc.) but always say the actual speed is 8x.
Furthermore, when burning an audio CD, the resulting audio CD from the MacBook Pro will have problems playing in a couple of CD players, particularly anywhere midway between the middle of the CD and at the end, with the playback problem increasing in severity as the disc plays.
The symptoms have ranged from a persistent static noise and occasional skipping on a Sony CDP-X229ES CD player, Sony DVP-S7700 DVD/CD player, an automotive CD player in a 2006 Honda Civic, and an automotive CD player in a 2005 Honda Accord LX all the way to a "crash" of an automotive CD player in a 2005 GMC Envoy SLE (to get the CD player to function, the fuse for the CD/Radio headunit in the GMC has to be pulled and placed back in to reset the headunit to restore CD player function).
The curious thing is that if I burn an audio CD using the exact same discs at the exact same 8x speed on my Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows XP with a Sony Optiarc DRU-190A DVD-CD multi-drive and Nero Burning ROM, the resulting audio CDs are 100% reliable and play perfectly on every single CD player I use, including the mentioned players having problems with discs burned on my MacBook Pro. In addition, the Sony burner in my Windows PC will burn at any available speed I tell it to instead of burning at a speed I did not specify.
As it stands, I cannot rely on the SuperDrive in my MacBook Pro to correctly burn master audio CDs for recording projects. Because of this problem, I am forced to take finished audio files made on my MacBook Pro, copy them to a USB drive, then burn a master audio CD on my Windows PC.
This is very inconvenient and a waste of time to have to resort to that.
Although cleaning the drive may be suggested, I must note that the drive does seem to burn DVDs fairly reliably and my SuperDrive's ability to read every DVD and CD without error is not affected.
I am baffled as to what is going on and disappointed that my Mac is not performing basic CD burning nearly as well and allowing as much user control over the operation as my Windows PC.
SuperDrive is a Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) UJ-857E, firmware ZA0E.
Disc burning software: iTunes version 8.1.1, SimplyBurns version 393, OS X Disk Utility
CD-R media primarily used for burning are Sony-branded discs actually made in Japan by Taiyo Yuden. The same problems have occurred with Maxell CD-R media made in Taiwan by Ritek.
Estimated total usage of the drive, both reading and writing combined, is just shy of 150 hours.
The problem I am having is that my SuperDrive will not allow me to burn CDs with any of the mentioned disc writing utilities at any speed other than 8x. According to the burning log, it will mention the requested speed (4x, 16x, etc.) but always say the actual speed is 8x.
Furthermore, when burning an audio CD, the resulting audio CD from the MacBook Pro will have problems playing in a couple of CD players, particularly anywhere midway between the middle of the CD and at the end, with the playback problem increasing in severity as the disc plays.
The symptoms have ranged from a persistent static noise and occasional skipping on a Sony CDP-X229ES CD player, Sony DVP-S7700 DVD/CD player, an automotive CD player in a 2006 Honda Civic, and an automotive CD player in a 2005 Honda Accord LX all the way to a "crash" of an automotive CD player in a 2005 GMC Envoy SLE (to get the CD player to function, the fuse for the CD/Radio headunit in the GMC has to be pulled and placed back in to reset the headunit to restore CD player function).
The curious thing is that if I burn an audio CD using the exact same discs at the exact same 8x speed on my Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows XP with a Sony Optiarc DRU-190A DVD-CD multi-drive and Nero Burning ROM, the resulting audio CDs are 100% reliable and play perfectly on every single CD player I use, including the mentioned players having problems with discs burned on my MacBook Pro. In addition, the Sony burner in my Windows PC will burn at any available speed I tell it to instead of burning at a speed I did not specify.
As it stands, I cannot rely on the SuperDrive in my MacBook Pro to correctly burn master audio CDs for recording projects. Because of this problem, I am forced to take finished audio files made on my MacBook Pro, copy them to a USB drive, then burn a master audio CD on my Windows PC.
This is very inconvenient and a waste of time to have to resort to that.
Although cleaning the drive may be suggested, I must note that the drive does seem to burn DVDs fairly reliably and my SuperDrive's ability to read every DVD and CD without error is not affected.
I am baffled as to what is going on and disappointed that my Mac is not performing basic CD burning nearly as well and allowing as much user control over the operation as my Windows PC.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)