superdrive is not reading discs any more

Is it just that disk? Or do others have problems, too?

Occasionally, if you use one of those DVD player cleaner disks that will fix things. It's equally - if not more - likely your drive is defunct.

Information.

CD/DVD Drive - Troubleshooting

CD/DVD Drive - Troubleshooting (2)

A CD/DVD drive that can't read all CD or DVD discs inserted into it is defunct. That's like saying the transmission in my car is ok because I can still back the car up, I just can't get it to go forward.

ThomasAsks wrote:

I tried several discs... Fun thing is: i can watch dvds but no audio cds!

I used time machine to backup my data and installed OSX completely new - thought it was a driver thing. Didnt seem like it.

Anyway IT IS NOT defunct if it can read DVDs.

I believe the Superdrive has two laser readers. One for DVDs and one for CDs, so I would guess either the CD laser is dirty or kaput.

Cheers

Pete

petermac87 is correct. The Superdrive in my iMac quit reading CDs and when I took it to the Apple Store, the gentleman helping me explained there were two readers.

I realize that this is an old thread, but I just thought I'd mention that I have the exact same machine specs as the original poster and I'm having the exact same problem. DVD's (movies) seem to load just fine, but when I put a music CD in the drive it seems like it makes multiple attempts to read it and then after a few minutes it just spits the disc out. I've tried CD Drive Cleaning tools but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Thanks to Eric Root and Petermac87 for the explanation re: the two readers. Guess I'll have to pony up for a new drive.

An external one would probably be less expensive.

After going through a ton of threads and trying several different things I was resigned to buying a new superdrive. I did one more search and came across a thread that recommended taking a business card and using it to push a cleaning cloth into the superdrive. Tons of people responded that it worked so I tried it. It worked!

In my case I used a playing card and a thin microfiber cloth. I put the cloth partially over the playing card and pushed it in the slot as far as I could get it (I moved it around some once it was in there). I repeated this with the playing card on top of the cloth and on the bottom so I could get both the top and bottom of the drive (I have no idea where the lens is). It was pretty easy to get the cloth in and out so if you feel resistance you might need a thinner cloth or something more serious could be going on with your drive. At any rate, this worked for me and saved me a trip to the Apple Store.

I can vouch for this. I was actually having the opposite issue, my drive was recognizing CDs, and spitting out DVDs. But when I used a microfiber cloth and a credit card as ilikebluedoyou described, it starting running/ripping DVDs like a charm. Thank you to that guy!

This may be an issue related to having two laser readers, but my drive reads DVDs with no trouble, and yet it refuses to read audio cds (gives the "disk you inserted is not readable by this computer" message). The really funny thing is that I only discovered this quirk while the thing was burning an audio cd. The audio cd, upon being burned, brought up the rejected disk message. The created disk plays fine on several different cd players. So the issue COULD be a dirty laser for the audio read, but would this also allow for successful burning of disks? Seems a bit unlikely to a non-expert.

I am having the same problem with the internal cd drive on my 2010 mac mini: "the disk you inserted is not readable" by this computer". I also tried this on 2 external USB superdrives (1 brand new) that work fine on other macbook pros, with the same result, so it's not a dirty drive error. It won't recognize brand new store bought CDs, or blank CDs, but DVDs, work and play fine. The CDs work fine on the other macbook pros as well. I'm just trying to rip my music to itunes.

The error message prompt is "Ignore" or "eject". If I choose "Ignore", I can open an audio ripper program like "Max", and it can see the CD and rip it without a problem. The problem is that the CD does not show as a device and is not recognized in itunes.

I'm stumped. I've read dozens of people with the issue on external hard drives, and recommendations about cleaning drives, or buying new drives, but this is not my issue, as I know the drives and the CDs work fine with other computers. It has to be some kind of driver or permissions problem, and not a physical issue.

Just wanted to add the ilikebluedoyou's card/cloth solution totally worked for me. I had given up on my iMac's hard drive and actually bought an external super drive today as my solution. Upon learning (after the fact) that my new external super drive is not supported by my iMac, I discovered this forum and with the card/cloth trick I rehabilitated my built in super drive. Ripping CDs as I write this...

yes… card+cloth 🙂