Matshita DVD-r UJ-846

Same problem here!!! Two Macs, one an iMac and one a macbook pro laptop just refuse to recognise and spit out most DVDs... Lots of chugging and whirring and really horrible noises!! Then the disk is (most often) ejected! I love working with Apple, but this issue ***** !!!!! Please please solve it!!!! NOW!

Same here, Fails to start Snow leopard upgrade DVD on my Macbook pro with.

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857E:

Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857E
Revision: ZA0E
Serial Number:
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes
Power Off: Yes


Works like a charm on my other Macbook 13" new serie.

I'm replying to this thread since I think I've identified a Apple software problem related to the Matshita MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846 that I have in a MBP 2.16 from the end of 2006.

After upgrading to 10.6 from 10.4 a few weeks ago, I had what I though were intermittent DVD problems. The drive does not see nor eject blank DVDs that I insert, including ones that I burned on 10.4 a few weeks ago. I've managed to boot and install 10.6 on this drive, I've also booted and installed Linux and Windows XP on this drive while it appears to not function under OSX.

I've read the forums and people have suggested explanations including a dirty drive, a broken drive, bad DVDs etc. This is all false in this case. If you are having problems with your DVD drive I suggest you test the situation as I have and perhaps take the issue up with Apple.

Booting from the DVD works. I've now installed both Fedora 11 and Windows XP in a triple boot situation. These other OSs on the same hardware do not have a problem seeing, mounting, burning discs in this drive.

This makes me conclude that something between latest update 10.4 and 10.6.1 has introduced some sort of bug that makes the eject button under OSX as well as reading and mounting discs in this drive no longer function.

Before you run out and pay for a new drive, test and see if you can boot/install win xp and/or linux on your machine!

I'm not sure what now, does anyone have any ideas on how to get Apple to address this issue. I'm sure there are lots of other people who think they have a defective drive.

One give away was that System Profiler shows the drive connected, the OS just does nothing.

I am having exactly the same problem, but I am in Leopard yet, not SnowLeopard...

I'm having the same problem. I've reset PRAM NVRAM, repaired permissions, etc.
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846:
Firmware Revision: FM3J
Reads CD's fine. I can't install Snow Leopard update and it is making me nuts.

C'mon someone has to know something about this.

I cannot burn DVD+R's any more for some reason, since switching to snow leopard.

Firmware Revision: FB2U
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: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

Same model... Same issue?

I'm having this problem also. My 24"iMac is about a year and a half old. It spit's out genuine audio CD's, but if I keep inserting them a few times, it will sometimes read them, but they jump. CDRW's I know are good, won't work at all now. DVD read and write works fine. I've got the latest firmware on my Mac and the drive. I've also tried cleaning it with a DVD cleaner and an air can. This is my first Mac, and I am not at all impressed with the quality of this device. If you Google this drive, it comes up with an astonishing amount of failures. I work on IBM servers for a living, and it's very rare for this sort of thing to happen to an optical drive. I'm going to call Apple about this, but I'm not expecting to get anywhere, as my Mac's out of warranty now. I expect better quality considering the high purchase price compared to an equivalent PC. It'll certainly make me think twice about buying Apple again.

edit: Sorry, mines a Matshita DVD-R UJ -875. Same problem though.

Message was edited by: Wynne G Oldman

Same problem and same drive the Matshita DVD-R UJ-875. I have tried 5 different brands of DVDs they all get spit out. My Macbook accepts them. It has some trouble reading a few DVD movie discs, but I eventually get it to go. CDs seem to have no trouble. Just blank DVDs. I get one success every about 50 discs to stay in and can burn. I have had the problem when running in Leopard, but not so much so, now I have the problem much more profound after updating to Snow Leopard.

I seem to be having the same issue, pop in audio CD and no image appears anywhere. If I reboot the computer with the CD still in the drive (which it has to be because I can't otherwise find a way to eject it) the image shows up, but not the next CD put in. This is a new iMAC 27" Intel Core 2 Duo machine with superdrive: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA11N:
Firmware Revision: KA18
Interconnect: ATAPI

I have discovered a way to mount the CDs though. After putting CD into drive, went to Applications/Disk Utility, the CD is listed there under the name of the superdrive although greyed out and named only "audio CD". I clicked on it anyway, the mount button at the top of the window becomes accessible and when I clicked that mount button, viola! the CD is mounted and accessible from the desktop and from iTunes. I've tried this twice with two CDs and so far so good.

Doesn't fix original problem, Apple needs to attend to that, but it does give a work-around as long as it stays stable.
Hope this helps a bit

Similar problems here but it is not Matshita,
it is,
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA11N:
Firmware Revision: JA18
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, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846 drive in my 20" iMac won't eject DVDs now. It starts to, but before the disc even pops partway out, it changes its mind and remounts it.

Have tried holding down mouse key while restarting, using drutil tray eject, etc. Any solutions yet?

Same problem here. My MBP is from late 2007. Matshita DVD-R UJ-857E. Shows blank CDs or movie DVDs on the desktop, but ignores blank data DVDs. I have the option to format and eject DVD-RWs in the Disk Utility Tool though, formatting doesn't work.

On my Windows partition I don't have any problems.

firmware FM3J

same issues, cannot burn DVD's, tried TDK +r -r staples brand dvd -r older tdk +r ...nothing can be burned... failed to calibrate and unknown error are common ...did get 1 staples branded dvd to burn

10.5.8 is my system software level

I was never able to burn dvd's before when I had Tiger, but I had friends who, with Snow Leopard and the same computer/program I tried, could burn dvd's. I upgraded to S.L. fine, no problems, with the following info:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846:

Firmware Revision: FB2U
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: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

I am NOT able to burn dvd's though, the program I use is "Burn", I have switched my region from PAL to NTSC and that still didn't help. The program converts the movie files to all 4 of my choices, VCD, DVD, SVCD, and DivX, but none of them will burn. I just get an error message saying the blank dvd is invalid or something, and to try a different kind of blank dvd. Any tips from anyone? Thanks!

Similar problems. Matshita Superdrive sudddenly stopped working. Won't accept any discs - makes strange noise.

UJ - 846

Firmware revision FB2U