DVD burner not recognizing DVDs

I have the exact same problem. Strangely this started to occur after the latest BIOS upgrade. Any information will be truly helpful!

Speculation: Sony works in mysterious ways, perhaps you have a rootkit onboard that is checking the DVD's you are trying to use?


Intel Mini Mac/ AMD 64 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1G, 120G HD, SuperDrive

...[whispering]roooooozebuuuud...
http://www.jschilling.net/sw_icat.php

Sorry, couldn't help it

Rootkit? Is that what I think it is - some kind of malware (egad!)?

I can't believe how that would end up on my mini - I truly only use it as a media centre for MP3's / DVD's / TV... But anyway, is there a way to test for this?

Thanks!

If it were a rootkit installed by the DVD as per Sony's recent debacle, then many, many other Mac users would be reporting exactly the same thing. I think the relatively lack of widespread complaints about DVD playback failures makes this a very unlikely proposition indeed.

Much more likely is that the drive itself is faulty. I would first suggest you drive a cleaner for the drive since it's possible that the drive itself has suffered ingress of some dirt. The next possibility, which seems unlikely since more than one disk is involved, is that the DVDs themselves are damaged. You might try them in another system just to make sure they play.

I would also suggest that you burn a new DVD and then try and play that.

Thanks a lot 🙂

But adding to the confusion: My Mini does not accept burnable DVD's either, i.e. I cannot even put in a blank DVD for burning tests. And for the record: the DVD's tested so far have been tested on other systems with no problems. Still, it is weird that it recognises regular, retail DVD's / CD's...

Again: I strongly believe that this started to occur after the recent BIOS upgrade... I'm dumbfounded... (@_@)'

Apologies - part of my response was directed at you and part at the original poster!

In your case, the fact your mini doesn't accept DVDs to burn points to a different problem. It may be that your mini is extremely fussy about exactly which blanks are compatible, or it may be that the drive itself is faulty.

One way or another, it is rare (but not impossible) for an update such as the latest one to cause these sort of issues. Indeed, if it was the update that caused it, it would be reasonable to expect a significant volume of other posters reporting exactly the same thing. In the absence of that, it seems more likely that the cause is elsewhere in the system.

If you post the make and model of the burner in your mini (as found in the System Profiler) perhaps others who have the same unit can report which brand of DVD blanks they have been able to successfully use so that at least you can try the same to see if your burner can cope with known-good media.

Huge thanks again. :-D

I hope Garwood also is getting some good info - I feel I've "stolen" his thread!

I surely do not hope it's a faulty drive. I have been burning DVD's before on it, but I cannot remember if I've been using the same brand throughout. I will try a different brand later today* and see what happens and then post some info!

* Will try a DVD+R instead of a DVD-R, since we're dealing with a Sony drive. Could this be the issue?

I surely do not hope it's a faulty drive. I have been
burning DVD's before on it, but I cannot remember if
I've been using the same brand throughout. I will try
a different brand later today* and see what happens
and then post some info!

Some of the superdrives used by Apple have seemed very fussy about what media works and what doesn't - more often than not in regard to burn speed, rather than whether the drive can burn.

* Will try a DVD+R instead of a DVD-R, since we're
dealing with a Sony drive. Could this be the issue?

The System Profiler should tell you what media is supported, but in general I would expect the drive to support both - and + R.

Tried a different type of media. This time, it ate the DVD, but the drive gave all kinds of errors, when I tried to write to it (via Toast). I guess we're dealing with a damaged drive... {{sigh}}

The drive is btw. a Matshita DVD-R UJ-846...

Do you get the same results trying to burn from the Finder - just in case the issue may be with Toast?

If you still have a warranty on the unit, I'd be inclined to let Apple, or an authorized service provider, take a look at it. Or take it to a local Apple store if you're lucky enough to have one!

I'm having exactly the same problem as this.

The last discs that I burned would have been in October/November, and after that I noticed that the Mac would no longer recognise burned DVD's.

As I need to burn some more discs I've been testing in the past few days and can confirm:

1. Will not read from burned DVD-R
2. Will not recognize blank DVD-R
3. Will recognize blank DVD-RW, but will not burn to them

I'm now searching around to see if it's a hardware or a firmware problem.

The data on the drive from System Profiler is as follows:

"
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-835F:

Firmware Revision: GGND
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 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, DVD-DAO
Media: No
"

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance.

Mac Mini G4 1.42ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I've just solved my problems.

Inspired by another post in this forum (can't remember which one now, sorry), I bought a DVD cleaner kit and ran it on the Mini. Suddenly it could recognise everything again! Perhaps too much dust was the culprit. The forum post talked about the Mini being prone to dust problems through its cooling fans that may channel it toward the DVD unit. This must have been the case with me, because I almost have my Mini turned on all the time.

It may not solve your problems, but it is worth the few bucks trying!

...[whispering]roooooozebuuuud...
http://www.jschilling.net/sw_icat.php

Sorry, couldn't help it

...LOL, dude, you should be doing stand up (for the deaf).



Intel Mini Mac duel Core Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1G, 120G HD, SuperDrive

I have the exact same problem,both in symptoms and hardware specs;
I waited to see if you get any knowledgeable responses and in the meantime bought a cleaning kit,only to have discovered that the drive is working on and off !!! No idea as to why one minute it works perfectly and one minute later the old symptoms resurface.
I am going to run the cleaning procedure and report afterwards.

1st gen g4 1.42 mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)