I am unable to use my external CD player. I am told that the player is being used by another application, and that is not true. I have quit everything and restarted. I've unplugged the unit. I have a fairly new mac mini 10.8. What can I do?

TSSTcorp CDDVDW SE-218CB:

Firmware Revision: TS00

Interconnect: USB

Burn Support: Yes (Generic Drive Support)

Profile Path: None

Cache: 1024 KB

Reads DVD: Yes

CD-Write: -R, -RW

DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RAM, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW

Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

Media:

Type: CD-R

Blank: No

Erasable: No

Overwritable: No

Appendable: No

I think it's USB. It's a fairly new Samsung device. It plugs in like all the other USB things. I don't know how to tell if it's by firewall... Here is what it says:

USB 3.0 Hi-Speed Bus:

Host Controller Location: Built-in USB

Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBXHCI

PCI Device ID: 0x1e31

PCI Revision ID: 0x0004

PCI Vendor ID: 0x8086

Bus Number: 0x0a

Thank you for your response... What does it mean for it not to have burn support? Did I get the wrong advice when I got the computer? This is the hardware that I was told to get, as the mac mini doesn't have one built in. I know you have to use a blank CD when you want to burn. I put in a different CD to see if it would play something from a CD, and it does; it just wouldn't make me a new one. I didn't know Finder would help me burn a CD. I thought finder keeps track of that you have and that you needed something like itunes to do that, but itunes is really really fussy and always changing things. In between messages here. the CD burner has started working on its own. The idiosyncracies and inconsistencies will hurt my business because part of what I do requires audio recordings either for me to bring along or to give to my client. Is there a way to trouble shoot this so that it does not happen anymore? You know it will always happen when you're pressed for time and need it the most...

I think I should also tell you that I've already made a CD on this computer with the Samsung equipment before the problem, too.

I misread your message. I thought it said I did not have burn support with the Samsung hardware.

When the CD goes in it says You inserted a bland CD. choose an action from the popup menu or click ignore

open finder

open itunes

open disk utility

make this action the default

eject ignore ok

However, when I am making CDs. I am in itunes. That is where my recordings areI haven't tried to do it from this vantage point.

I don't know how to make a screen shot on a mac.

I go to my playlist and click on the little gear icon at the bottom left and I leave things as they are - preferred speed - maximum. I leave it on audio CD - and then I select BURN.

When I tried this the other day, I could not get it to burn, no matter how hard I tried - everything I could think of, using a different CD, force quitting everything I was not using, restarting the computer, unplugging the CD hardware and plugging it back in after a little while, nothing worked. I got that message that said my player was being used by another application every time I tried to make the CD. This took over an hour. I don't know of another way to make a CD on the mac; I was not using another program or application. Now it seems to be working fine. I am burning another copy of something I gave away.

I wish I knew what caused this. It was a real problem Saturday morning.