Superdrive only mounts factory discs...which cleaner disc to use?

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Level 2

344 points

Superdrive only mounts factory discs...which cleaner disc to use?

I've tried to look at some (data or movie) dvd's that I burned a while ago and none seem to mount, "store bought" dvd & cd's mount fine. My burned dvd's will spin and never mount then get spit out.

Reading around here it seems that maybe I could try a disc cleaner, anyone recommend one?? I was in fry's the other day and the two they had said for "dvd players only" so I did not want to try them.

Is it ok to use compressed air in that drive?? I'm guessing not since it is essentially a closed container.

I recently got my powerbook back from that flat rate repair program. I was having problems with the keyboard and display. Both of those were changed along with the "top case", I'm guessing that's the upper part of the lower half of the powerbook. I had some old dvd-r jewel cased memorex discs that I was able to burn with no problems, and they mounted fine. All the discs I'm having problems with are tdk & maxell spindled. I have not been able to try my discs in another machine yet.

Thanks for any info!!

Drive info:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-835E:

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

G4 17 PB 1.67ghz 2gb Ram, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 80gb iPod

Posted on Jan 28, 2011 9:27 AM

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Answer 1

greg h Author

Level 2

344 points

Feb 1, 2011 1:30 PM in response to greg h

Crickets....

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Answer 2

Mar 1, 2011 9:02 PM in response to greg h

This is an onging problem. I suggest you forget about the disc cleaner option for right now.
In the past there have been problems with the use of what many call Cheap or Bargin Basement Optical Media. I strongly suggest you buy the best highest quality media you can buy. Mac's and Apple computers tend to love very good Optical Media Disc's.
In the past, before I knew of this as an issue, like everyone else I would use Memorex and would be with poorer than poor results period.
I have found there are a couple of things that are KEY: Read the packaging on the CD's and particlarly DVD's.
Make sure that while reading you see that the Media will burn. 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X, and 16X, DVD's.
I prefer Maxell 16X, DVD-R, or
Verbatium, or Sony, there are others but I tend to steer clear of Memorex.
Give this a whirl and see if this doesn't make your problem Go AWAY.
Don

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Answer 3

Mar 2, 2011 5:23 AM in response to greg h

Suggestion - Burn the DVDs at half the rated speed. i.e, 4X for 8X discs or 8X for 16X discs. Try this as an experiment. Takes a bit longer but should ensure quality burning.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 4

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,704 points

Mar 2, 2011 9:13 AM in response to greg h

Cleaning Disk; IMHO it's a decent first step as these slot-loaders get dirty. A friend was ready to replace the Superdrive in his MBP last week but I loaned him my cleaning disk to try. The drive now works perfectly.

The disk I have is branded IXOS and is model XC07. I don't know about others, but this one does its thing and then mounts on the desktop like a regular optical disk to let you know you are done. Then it can be ejected normally.

The disk quality issue is huge, as Donald so rightly points out. Here is a useful site devoted to DVD disk quality:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

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Answer 5

greg h Author

Level 2

344 points

May 15, 2011 12:34 PM in response to Allan Jones

Sorry for the long delay in responding...it looks like the entire format changed here too!

It tunred out that the superdrive was beginning to fail and I was able to have it replaced under the recent repair ticket without additional cost.

Allan, when I spoke with apple months ago they did not recommend using any cleaning disc in the slot loading drive and I couldn't find any locally that said they were for slot loading drives.

I will heed all of that great advice, I do appreciate it!

***This new format is weird, I wanted to mark my question as solved but that option isn't around, now it looks like I'm trying to give myself brownie points.

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