External USB Optical Drive Not Recognized

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Tom Hanser Author

Level 2

170 points

External USB Optical Drive Not Recognized

What's the trick to get the OS to recognize your external USB optical drive, for playing CD or DVD disks?

The drive DOES show up in System Information:

DVD+-RW DS-8W1P :

Product ID: 0x1040

Vendor ID: 0x13fd (Initio Corporation)

Version: 1.06

Serial Number: 0000000000000000W

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/s

Manufacturer: Initio

Location ID: 0x00120000 / 25

Current Available (mA): 500

Current Required (mA): 2

Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

Media:

DVD+-RW DS-8W1P:

Capacity: 4.56 GB (4,560,750,592 bytes)

Removable Media: Yes

BSD Name: disk3

Logical Unit: 0

Partition Map Type: Unknown

S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

USB Interface: 0

I can get DVD Player (app) to run, but it will not play a disk inserted. I've tried different DVD and CD disks, to no avail.

Any suggestions? Are we all done with optical disks on Mac OS X now?

Mac Pro, macOS 12.3

Posted on May 7, 2022 8:16 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

jeffreythefrog

Level 6

11,960 points

May 7, 2022 10:23 AM in response to Tom Hanser

Tom Hanser wrote:

Can anyone suggest a newer USB optical drive that WILL work with Mac devices? This drive I'm having problems with isn't an expensive device, so...replacing it is no problem.

i personally really like my Apple USB superdrive. it works really good and has given me a very long life, and it's still going. when it finally breaks, i'll be replacing it with another superdrive. but some people have found them to be troublesome. and, while most any optical drive should work, i recommend going to OWC’s website and shop for an optical drive there. they test their hardware on macs, so you can be sure that their hardware works as it should.

i'm not affiliated with OWC. i'm just a satisfied customer.

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Answer 2

lllaass

Level 10

210,417 points

May 7, 2022 8:50 AM in response to Tom Hanser

How are you connecting the player? Directly to the Macc, not through a hub.

What specific player?

Is the player powered by the Mac, niot through a seperate power supply.

If you put a disk in the drive does the info in System information reflect the disk?

Did this player work before when connect to this Mac?

Does it work when connected to another computer?

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Answer 3

Tom Hanser Author

Level 2

170 points

May 7, 2022 9:55 AM in response to lllaass

Illaass:

I've tried connecting the drive directly to the Mac Pro USB ports and also using a POWERED USB hub. Drive is still not recognized by the OS.

The specific player is manufactured by Valoin and purchased from Amazon. This is a USB 3.0 optical drive.

The player (optical drive) is powered by USB, with no separate power supply.

System Information indicates there is a USB optical drive connected but does not show if a disk is inserted. Every time I test this drive, I make sure a disk is inserted. No luck.

I believe this USB drive DID work with any of my Mac devices at one time, but I hardly used it,if at all. I cannot get it to be recognized on my Mac Pro (late 2013) or my MBP (2018).

This drive I have DOES work with Windows 10. I just tested it.

Can anyone suggest a newer USB optical drive that WILL work with Mac devices? This drive I'm having problems with isn't an expensive device, so...replacing it is no problem.

Thanks.

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