Superdrive fail after Mountain Lion Installation?

I have a Macbook Pro early 2008 2.4 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram 667 MHz, GeForce 8600M GT 256MB, HDD500GB 7200 rpm.

The superdrive was working just great with OSX Lion, I've upgradded to Mountain Lion and it stopped working.


It try to read the disks and after 5 to 10 seconds after it ejects it. It doesn't matter if it it a CD or a DVD or if it ir empty or a original music CD. It simply ejects every type of media.


Did this happened with anyone?


I've tried to downgrade to Lion again but I only have Lion in DVD to make a clean intall but the superdrive doesn´t accept it. I don't know what else to do.


Can somebody help me?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 28, 2012 1:24 PM

Reply
136 replies

Oct 28, 2012 2:06 PM in response to C@bra

possible fix? worked for me!

last attempt before opticaldrive replacement-

found after reading around-


i have a late 2009 mac mini-

i upgraded to mountain lion from lion- then the opticaldrive did not read all dvds-

it tried then ejected-

so:

i down graded to leopard- and opticaldrive still did not read all dvds-

i then used a thin disposable microfiber with isopopyl(not sure which is better: denatured or isopopyl) alcohol and a this stiff plastic (1/32") and moved around in the slot not more than an inch inside-

voila...success!

for reals! why?i do not know- dirt or what ever-

so upgraded back to mountain lion(which is actually much nicer than leopard...in my opinion)-

all still ok-


the best of luck to you and all-

Oct 28, 2012 4:50 PM in response to Jahvetti

Same here. Boiling mad here. One of the main reasons I buy an Apple computer is to be able to do video editing. They made DVD Studio Pro 4 obsolete. And now they make me pay for an upgrade--Mountain Lion--that essentially makes my 2010 laptop worthless to me because I can't burn DVDs of photos I've taken and want to share with my family. What the...?!


My family had bought a total of 6 apple computers, 2 iPods, 2 iPads, 2 iShuffles, and 2 iPhones. If they don't fix this I will never buy another Apple product!!! And I will tell everyone I know to NEVER buy an Apple product.

Oct 30, 2012 7:30 AM in response to ppapple451

I agree that it's a software upgrade problem. Same as everyone else here. Working fine before last 10.7 OS upgrade. Ejects DVD/CD's after short period. I have tried PRAM reset, SMC reset, rebuilding permissions (which by the way looks a lot like the drive software is the problem) and FINALLY thought that maybe upgrading to Mountain Lion (10.8.2) would fix the problem. No Joy.


I took my MacBook Pro (Late 2008 2.4 4GB) in to the Mac Genius in Tampa. 75 miles one way. Waited an hour after my scheduled appointment and I was still several hours out from being helped. I decided not to waste an entire day there.


I came home and tried Parallels and Windows. Still not reading the DVD/CD. Ejects immediately. I'm not sure that Parallels isn't using the same Mac drivers though.


A DVD is how I get photos to my customers. Period.


Apple, I really hope you are listening. Lots of folks upset here. I have been a Mac user since 1984 and even I am getting disenchanted with these issues.

Oct 30, 2012 7:51 AM in response to mjbentoc

After doing the upgrade--which apple had the nerve to charge me for, not only can I not burn DVDs/CDs using finder, I can't burn them using iPhoto either. Really apple?! Are you trying to ruin the company on purpose?


Why sould I ever buy another laptop for a couple of thousands of dollars only to have the computer essentiall useless due to bad software within 2 years (mac book mid-2010)? I might as well buy some crappy Windows laptop for $300.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/298079080306985/

Oct 30, 2012 8:19 AM in response to mjbentoc

I have a 2010 Mac Mini and a new I7 Imac. Updated both to ML. The Imac super drive went dead. It was under warrenty. I had it replaced. I then tried the mac mini and I found that the superdrive was dead also! This was out of warrenty. I then found this thread... So I reinstalled Snow Leopard. The drive did not work. I then restored Lion with the "Command R" function and the drive came back to life! Just to do it again I then installed ML and the drive went dead again! I then did the process all over again starting from SL to Lion and the drive became active again. There is something in ML causing this issue. I know the new mac minnies dont come with super drives, so I wonder if this is a coding issue because of the new computers not coming with drives and there is a bug in the code for older machines....

Oct 31, 2012 5:43 AM in response to mjbentoc

I upgraded to Lion 10.7.5 on my Mac Mini (Early 2009) a few months back and now have the same issue. CD's don't get recognized on the internal Stupidrive (prerecorded get spat out after about a minute of clunks and whirrs) , and other similar issues. Not being a massive computer person I am not entirely comfortable downgrading and upgrading OSs so would like a patch please Apple! I have tried resetting PRAM and SMC to no effect. This is total arrogance on the part of Apple in assuming that the world won't want to use CDs/ DVDs anymore. Poor, poor show!

Nov 1, 2012 3:12 AM in response to mjbentoc

The same issue. I updated my Mac Mini (late 2009) one month ago, the superdrive was working right till then. I haven't used the superdrive since I updated the Mac and right now I've inserted a DVD and the superdrive sounds like it tries to read but hasn't got enough power supply.


Every time I've updated the Mac a problem happens; last time I've updated from SL 10.6.7 to 10.6.8 and I had to undo the process cause the optical output didn't work and Apple never solved it.

Nov 2, 2012 9:54 AM in response to palenque

Only partially agree with Palenque on the 'forced behaviour modification is ok' comment. Yes i agree when the requirement is totally based on Apple owned s/w, h/w and media but in this instance CD/DVD formats do not belong to Apple, are in universal usage and are used for sharing info between Apple and other OS applications and Apple h/w needs to be able to work with them from the word go without changes to *any* of its new OSs Lion ,ML, Stray Cat whatever . Also, it's normal (and polite if you ask me) to support your user base's equipment for at least a couple of generations before killing it's support. I mean Palenque, do you go out and immediately buy Tim's latest 'idea' and junk all your 'old' kit? If this is the way Apple is going to behave then I'll ditch Macs and use Linux in future. Maybe that's the 'alternative solution'.

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Superdrive fail after Mountain Lion Installation?

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