Internal CD/DVD Drive Stopped Working, Not Recognizing Anything

Question

Level 1

20 points

Internal CD/DVD Drive Stopped Working, Not Recognizing Anything

Hi all - I've had an iMac G4 for about 3-4 years. It's been a great computer with very few, if any problems, until today. My internal CD-DVD-burner drive (the original drive the computer came with) stopped working. I insert a blank disc, a music CD, a burned DVD, a regular DVD -- nothing happens. The disc doesn't spin at all, doesn't show up on my desktop or launch the applicable program. I can insert discs/eject discs without a problem, but that's it. This happened out of nowhere and I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary like burning lots of CDs, etc.

I've run Repair Permissions, shut the computer for a while, rebooted, and began searching these discussion boards. I'm clearly well out of my warranty. Are there any do-it-yourself solutions? If I need to replace this drive I may wind up buying a new iMac all together, but wanted to check here first!

Thanks in advance for any help.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.7), 1GHZ Processor, 512MB Memory

Posted on Oct 25, 2006 2:08 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 25, 2006 11:29 PM in response to Randi_S

First, welcome to the discussions.
If you have repaired permissions, the only other thing I can think of before you resort to replacing your Optical Drive is to try this.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Good Luck Don

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Answer 2

Randi_S Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 26, 2006 7:39 AM in response to Donald Morgan

Thanks Don - I tried that and no such luck. It seems the only other step is replacing the drive, or getting a new computer, which was in the works in the next year or so...

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Answer 3

Dickwad

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2006 6:55 PM in response to Randi_S

Randi_S,

No answers here,just know your not alone. My sister has the exact same problem as yours at the moment.
I think these so called super drives are garbage. If I find a solution I will pass it along.

-Regards

iMacG4Man

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Answer 4

Oct 27, 2006 8:45 PM in response to Randi_S

My profiler does not recognize my internal CD drive. I have shut down and restarted several times, but no go. Does this mean my CD drive has died? Is there a way to get my computer to look for it again?

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Answer 5

Oct 28, 2006 12:09 PM in response to Craig happ

I am having the exact same problem. It started a few months ago and someone told me to try this:

Open hard drive/open users/dblclk on "house"/library/preferences
Drag the following files to the trash and empty:
com.apple.finder.plists
com.apple.cdhub.plists
com.apple.digihub.plists
com.apple.sidebarlists.plists
Log off then log back in as same user.

BUT BEFORE YOU TRY THIS, I suggest saving all the preferences in a separate folder. Becuase this fixed my problem for awhile but the problem resurfaced and not only does this preference fix help, but now the com.apple.cdhub.plists pref does not regenrate.

i could pull it from the install discs but of course, my machine can read any discs. if anyone is running 10.3.9, i would love to get a copy of this preference to see if that might help.

G4, 1.24G RAM, 10.3.9

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Answer 6

Nov 7, 2006 8:21 PM in response to Randi_S

I too experienced this problem without any warning. No help from permission repair, no help with removing the preference file (com.apple.DVDPlayer.plist.
What did help was blowing the dust out of the disc drive. Now I can only wait and see how long this fix will work.
(I have a 17" flat panel iMac with the following drive

SONY DVD RW DW-U10A:

Capacity: 805.64 MB
Manufacturer: SONY
Model: SONY DVD RW DW-U10A
Revision: A43h
Serial Number: EA7AE67C
Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Disc Burning: Apple Supported/Shipped
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk1
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
OS9 Drivers: No

17" Flat Panel iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Answer 7

Humility

Level 1

0 points

Nov 9, 2006 10:22 PM in response to Randi_S

Just to let you know I have got this problem recently. CD-RW can't recognise all audio CD but it can read data CD. Any expert opinion on this problem?

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Answer 8

Nov 12, 2006 7:26 AM in response to Craig happ

I've been having the same problem again. A year ago, a lens cleaning disc seemed to solve it. That's not working this time.

I tossed plists, ran programs to clean out caches, etc. and still no luck. I was ready to buy a new drive.

What I did is open a guest account and my super drive works perfectly from there, so now I know it's not a hardware problem.

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Answer 9

Misha35

Level 1

54 points

Nov 23, 2006 4:08 PM in response to Randi_S

Not an answer to the problem but identical problem with the DVD/CD burner on this G4 iMac. The iMac is about the same age as yours.
Audio CDs are recognized and play just fine.
Some DVD will play but others aren't recognized and simply won't play.
The problem just occurred; no internal/external damage...
The DVDs will play on a similar G4 iMac but this one has the original DVD burner.

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