Superdrive will not burn DVD-R 1-16x discs

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

The lack of serial number seems to be normal, and hasn't affected my ability to use media on my iMac Instal Core 2 Duo. The fact that some DVD-R disks work and not others says you have a bad batch of media. See this article on media:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia/

1. Never burn at maximum speed. Most drives don't support more than 4x, and a few don't even that.

2. Never use media which is on a spindle, and only use the jewelcase media.

3. Don't label or write on media except on the inner ring of the disc.

Hi-

Should the G5 have a dry optical disc drive cleaner disc run through it????

It's worth a try.

Before using such cleaners, if the machine is under AppleCare, I'd have the machine looked at by an authorized service technician. Macs which are under a year old are under AppleCare as well as those you purchased an AppleCare plan for.

I have the EXACT same problem. TDK DVD-R 1-16x blank DVDs will not burn in my system. (System specs are the same - just less RAM). It worked fine before 10.4.8.

Two other weird things

The culprit drive burns CDs.

I can burn the media on my Macbook Pro.

Anyone have any suggestions other than whats already been posted?

My G5 Dual 2.5 GHz (2 GB RAM) will not burn DVD-R 16x discs either. I suspect that the "factory" SuperDrive (Sony DVD RW DW-U21A) does not burn discs greater than 8x. Anyone know the facts about this, since I'm just guessing...

Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5 GHz 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2.0 GB RAM

my G5 will not burn a DVD of any kind. i get this "error cose 0x80020063".
i can burn CD's.
i burn at 4x and still wont verify.
any help?

My G5 Dual 2.5 GHz (2 GB RAM) will not burn DVD-R 16x
discs either. I suspect that the "factory" SuperDrive
(Sony DVD RW DW-U21A) does not burn discs greater
than 8x. Anyone know the facts about this, since I'm
just guessing...

Power
Mac G5 Dual 2.5 GHz 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)
2.0 GB RAM

I have the SONY DVD RW DW-U10A "factory" SuperDrive and I just tried Memorex 16X DVD-R's and I get some sort of power error. I wondered if there is a firmware update that will allow us to use these DVD's?

Hi-

If there is, you will find it here:

http://forum.rpc1.org/index.php

I am having the same problem -- on two identical G5's with the same configuartions.

I too have used different DVD manufacturers and have discovered that no matter what settings I emulate on the software side (reducing burn speed, buring from Toast, Finder, DVD Studio) -- I still get a DVD verification error.

When I use DVD-R 8x I can burn fine form any application -- however, when I use DVD-R 16x that's when the error occurs. My sense is, and I haven't been able to get Apple Care to confirm this, the SuperDrive can't verify to (so won't burn to) 16x media. I've seen posts that perhaps the lead-in on 16x discs is different (longer?) from that of slower media.

In any event, Everything that is in this original post I can confirm 100% -- bottom line, no matter what brand, the G5 with the factory installed SuperDrive will not burn to 16x media! Please, please, if anyone has figured out a work around please post a reply...

The other crazy thing is I can no longer find -R 8x DVD's -- they are all 16x!

HELP!

--cy

Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I have absolutely same problem (I posted my details in a wrong category by mistake, in fact I have a G5):

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4229521#4229521

What makes my situation worse, I actually came to an Apple store and they suggested to replace the drive(:_.

It becomes almost 100% clear that:

a) G5 (at least with SONY DVD RW DW-U21A ) can only burn certain types of DVDs, likely old ones. (In my case, the only successful try was with the Apple(!!!) DVD-R manufactured in Taiwan in 2004. Just yesterday, I bought a box of Sony DVD-R, hoping that Sony drive must burn Sony disks. No luck there either.


b) It has started happening after (what? I personally believe, after one of auto-updates). All of us here seem to be able to burn DVDs in the past.


c) Apparently, Apple doesn't care to comment or acknowledge there's a problem.

Finally,
d) I was invited to :
"Tell us about your experience at the Apple Store. Visit
www.apple.com/feedback/retail.html".
However this site doesn't work (with the promise or re-opening in March:-)).


I think we must do something about that.
















Power Mac G5; Dual 1.8; 2G DDR; SONY DVD RW DW-U21A Mac OS X (10.3.9)

THE BAD NEWS:

I too spoke with Apple Care and went to an Apple store to speak with them -- all they could tell me was that my drive was bad and I needed to buy a new one (they also gave me five blank 8x DVD's from STAPLES so that I could burn in the meantime.) When I asked if my Apple Care protection plan would cover the cost of a new drive they told me that they would just replace the SuperDrive with the exact model of the one that was bad -- I opted not to waste anymore time and find a solution myself.

THE GOOD NEWS:

I have figured out the problem and it does require getting a new drive AND upgrading to Tiger (10.4.9).

First I tried swapping a new DVD drive that I bought at Fry's for $59.99. Pioneer DVR 1810. OSX (10.3.9) didn't recognize the 16x media. So I started to believe it wasn't the drive and perhaps was the OS.

So I took the new drive back out and replaced the old drive again and upgrading one of my G5 systems to Tiger (10.4.6 with an update to 10.4.9). I tried to use blank 16x media (with the original Sony DVD drive installed) and got the same error that I had been getting while running 10.3.9. So now I thought that it can't be just the OS -- perhaps it is a dual issue (drive and OS).

I then replaced the old drive with the new one I just purchased and tried burning to a 16x DVD -- Sure enough it worked! The Finder, Toast, DVD Studio Pro -- all worked fine.

The bottom line -- I'm convinced that one of the latest updates (perhaps 10.3.8 to 10.3.9) rendered the factory installed DVD useless with 16x DVD media. AND just upgrading to 10.4.9 won't do the trick. You need to replace the old Sony SuperDrive (not so super - huh?) with a new one AND upgrade to Tiger.

The good news is that so far the machine (with 10.4.9) seems to be running well. All the apps and data that I had installed on the machine are still operating and coming up fine -- even FCP 4.5 HD seems to be functioning well.

In any event, after 20 years of working on Apple machines and software I have to say that this was a first with regards to a) not being able to get a direct answer from Apple Support and b) one of the most frustrating bugs that I've had to smoke out.

Hope this helps anyone else that is wasting time trying to figure this out!

Best,

--cy

Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

The bottom line -- I'm convinced that one of the
latest updates (perhaps 10.3.8 to 10.3.9) rendered
the factory installed DVD useless with 16x DVD media.

I was thinking about my post and I realized that it probably had nothing to do with Apple's update to the OS. No one was having problems burning to 8x DVD media -- it was only at the introduction of 16x DVD media that the problem started to occur. My guess is that the SuperDrive that shipped with the G5 never supported 16x discs.

--cy

I have G5 Dual 2.5 with the Sony "super drive" I have found that only one disc will work; Verbatim 8x DVD -R. It's not the end of the world just have to buy that type of disc. I've tried lots of other and nothing.

OK, hope this helps

I have G5 Dual 2.5 with the Sony "super drive" I
have found that only one disc will work; Verbatim 8x
DVD -R. It's not the end of the world just have to
buy that type of disc. I've tried lots of other and
nothing.

I found (using several different manufactuers) that there is no problem using 8x media on the SuperDrive that comes pre-installed on the G5 (under 10.3.9 --> 10.4.9); The issue of burning errors arises when you try using 16x media. And I have found it very difficult to find 8x media in bulk. Most major retail chains no longer carry 8x -- everything they sell is 16x. If you want to use 16x media the SuperDrive will not recognize 16x speed (regardless of manufactuer) and throw and error. The only work around is to find old 8x media or to upgrade the burner to a newer version that can read 16x media.

--cy