Trouble with MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857

Yep you are not alone Paul. Unfortunately there is no scientific explanation. Sometimes it reads the same makes sometimes it doesn't. But if it is any consolation I never had any problem with the Apple branded ones. if you don't mind paying the extra....

You are more than welcome. If the threads in the forum anything to go by, i think you will find they have teething problems too.

Try using Ritek media. That seems to work best for me. I had lots of problems with Memorex and Verbatim.

- Bmer
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Greetings all,

For the record, I have the same optical drive as everyone else here, and could not burn CDRs (only DVDs would successfully burn) UNTIL I did and archive and install of the OS from the restore disks (I know that this has not worked for some, but....)

I was all set to take it into the Apple Store where I bought the computer from, but this morning I tried the restore, and bingo!

Good luck to all,

SteveO

C2D 2.16 Ghz 1 Gig RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Occasionally I'll insert a disc and nothing will happen. After reboot everything works again.

The drive also acts very slow burning and reading, though I haven't done empirical benchmarks. It's definitely slower than my 2 year old external firewire DVD+-RW burner.

My 2.16 C2D MBP is refusing to write or erase any of my Princo-branded 80-minute CDRW discs. Has anyone been able to use 80-minute CDRW discs.

I'm able to write to 80-minutes CR discs and haven't yet experienced any other negative issues with the built-in UJ-857D.

My 2.16 C2D MBP is refusing to write or erase any of
my Princo-branded 80-minute CDRW discs. Has anyone
been able to use 80-minute CDRW discs.

I'm able to write to 80-minutes CDR discs and haven't
yet experienced any other negative issues with the
built-in UJ-857D.

Expanding on my last post...

The UJ-857D drive has successfully erased/written to a Verbatim 650-meg CDRW.

My Princo 700 megs (80-mins) CDRW discs can be written to and erased without issue in my external DVD/CD writer but the internal drive is unable to modify them, although it does read them. This suggests the problem lies with the UJ-857D rather than with the discs or with the OS. I'm also able to use the Princo discs on my other Macs: 700MHz G3 iBook and Dual-1.25 G4 PowerMac.

The behaviour is consistent across Disc Utility and Toast in OS X and Nero in WinXP within Parallels.

It does seem that the UJ-857D is faulty or in need of fresh firmware.

MBP 2.16 C2D Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I actually have the same problem as you. For a few days I had trouble reading blank DVD's/CD-R's. The day I went to take it to Apple to get it looked at...a miracle happened. It started to work on its own!!! It was reading the blank DVDs I was having trouble with. I still don't know what the deal is, but hopefully this can be solved.

Mac Book Pro 2.16 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I have had the same weird stuff.

I've had the MBP for a year - no problems.

Now it doesnt read CDs or CDR but it does read DVDR.

Took it to the shop for repair and iut started working again!!

Now it is not reading CDs & CDR again.

Very frustrating.

Tommy Banana

it is reading & writing dvd r, but not reading or writing cdr apart from the other day it wrote a cd in itunes....

any ideas?

best

tommy b

I can suggest trying a different brand of CDR or CDRW. I've found that I can write to a Sony-branded 80-minute CDRW disc I have but not my Princo ones.


MBP 2.16 C2D Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I found something interesting with my laptop. My MBP can still burn blank CD's/DVD's in an interesting way. Even though I still get those error messages about "disc is not recognized." I found out that I was able to burn blank CD's/DVD's by using the burning program "Toast." For some reason I have been able to burn blank CD's/DVD's on a regular basis, even though I can't burn any discs by using the OS. If your still having trouble burning blank discs then I would suggest using Toast to burn your discs. For some reason it reads any of my blank discs and works just as great. Hope this works for you.