Super Drives not reading DVD-R

Question

Super Drives not reading DVD-R

I've got 2 G5's with Super Drives in them and whenever I insert a Mac Burned (DVDSP 4) disk, it spits the disk back out (The tray re-opens)

I tried playing the same disk on my Powerbook and it works fine. But neither G5 wants to do the job.

I placed a commercially burned disk in both and they all work fine. Just disks burned by me (or other people on other Macs) won't work.

Whachathinksgoin'on?

G5 2.0 FCS (FCS.5) X.MB Ram, Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Mar 24, 2006 3:03 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 25, 2006 4:41 AM in response to Christopher Knell

Can you burn brand new DVD-R DL (double layer) with such superdrive in the PowerMac G5?

I suggest using Verbatim media.

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 25, 2006 7:25 AM in response to Gabriel Dorado

Can you burn brand new DVD-R DL (double layer) with
such superdrive in the PowerMac G5?

I suggest using Verbatim media.

I've been using Sony media. I assumed that that was one of the best and I'm not sure that a Dual 2 G5 has dual layer burning capabilities.

Do you think that Verbatim media will make a difference?

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 25, 2006 9:12 AM in response to Christopher Knell

The media may be quite different from one manufacturer to another. Verbatim ha been found to have less errors and be more durable. Apple itself uses Verbatim (the CDs and DVDs suppplied with Macs are Verbatim). Having said that, you have your own milleage.

All the Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz, Power Mac G5 Dual 2.3GHz & Power Mac G5
Quad 2.5GHz can indeed burn to DVD+R DL as described in:

http://www.apple.com/powermac/specs.html

Optical drive 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW); writes DVD-R discs at up to 16x speed, writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 6x speed, reads DVDs at up to 16x speed, writes CD-R and CD-RW discs at up to 24x speed, reads CDs at up to 32x speed

But my question is can you burn brand new DVD-R DL (double layer) --not just DVD+R DL-- with such superdrive in the PowerMac G5?

Reply

Answer 4

Mar 25, 2006 11:55 AM in response to Gabriel Dorado

But my question is can you burn brand new DVD-R DL
(double layer) --not just DVD+R DL-- with such
superdrive in the PowerMac G5?

I have never tried. Just Single Layer DVD-R's.
But why do you ask?

Reply

Answer 5

Mar 25, 2006 11:59 AM in response to Christopher Knell

Because maybe you have the wrong superdrive in your Mac. Testing such formats will tell if you have the right one.

Reply

Answer 6

Mar 25, 2006 5:04 PM in response to Gabriel Dorado

It's the stock drive for each.

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-106D:

Firmware Revision: A606
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 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, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: No

Reply

Answer 7

Mar 30, 2006 4:50 PM in response to Christopher Knell

Macfixit.com had a running series not too long ago with many reports from people with the DVR-106 drives having issues reading discs.

It sounds like that particular model is either particularly error prone or extremely picky.

Reply

Answer 8

Mar 31, 2006 8:46 AM in response to Christopher Knell

I've been having some of the same problems. I created a new account, and the superdrive (Pioneer 106D) worked fine under it, making me think the problem was in my user preferences. The problem returned under my old account, but then I tried something totally in left field. I have Norton Anit-Virus and tried switching off the Auto-Protect feature. Now the superdrive seems to function fine, at least for the present.

Reply

Answer 9

Mar 31, 2006 9:20 AM in response to Bill Bogard

Another thing is that the disks in question produce an error code to be diplayed on my consumer Sony DVD player. (Model # DVP-S330)

C 13 00

Only with disks I've burned on either of my PPC's cause this error.

Is there a solution? I dont have Norton running on either Mac.

Reply

Answer 10

Mar 31, 2006 10:22 AM in response to Christopher Knell

Another thing is that the disks in question produce
an error code to be diplayed on my consumer Sony DVD
player. (Model # DVP-S330)

C 13 00

Only with disks I've burned on either of my PPC's
cause this error.

Is there a solution? I dont have Norton running on
either Mac.

How old is the S330? I have a DVP-S550D, which is from 1998 or so. It will periodically get the C 13 error on commercial disks that are suspect or scratched. I believe it may be an age problem with the mechanism inside. I'm sure that googling the C 13 error code will turn up lots of info.

Reply