Combo drive noisy/CD playback freezes

I've had my ibook for about a year and a half. There are one or two CDs i own that my combo drive has never been able to play-- it makes a lot of noise (whirring, like the lens is shifting around a lot) and i just get the spinning beach ball in iTunes.
Recently, I've started to notice it making such noises while playing back other CDs, and iTunes has eventually frozen w/the spinning ball a couple of times while playing those CDs.
It could just happen to be those discs, but i'm a bit worried as this has started to happen over the past couple of months. Anyone else had similar problems, and as a related question, do CD/DVD lens cleaners do anything? Are they even a good idea with the slot loading drive?
Thanks.

Ihave recently been having the same problem with Audio CD's only, data discs and DVD's are fine. Not sure why....

Similar Messages

Is the combo drive noisy?

Any MacBook users with the combo drive (not Superdrive) find it's noisy and/or vibrates when inserting and playing CDs/DVDs?
Is this normal? Anybody had their's fixed for this?

Mine is noisy when I insert and take out CDs. It sounds like a bug is being slaughtered in there. The guy at Apple said it's normal to make sounds when inserting and taking out discs.

IBook G4 Combo Drive Not Recognized / Freezes

Hello all,
I have a problem with my iBook G4 1.25ghz
I have erased and reinstalled the OSX do to a hdd error, something about the tree. I dont remember now.
It will intermittently freeze during boot, if I hit the case above the hdd it will unfreeze and continue loading. When the OSX loads (10.4.11) again will intermittently freeze (hit the case and it comes back to life)
It doesn't recognize the combo drive, I therefore cannot do a disc repair from Tigers OSX disc, nor can I load tech tools.
Tried re-seating the Ram, resetting everything PRAM, PMU, NVRAM and countless other suggestions that I have read.
Im kinda hoping its just a hdd and can replace that. Before I tear this thing down anyone have any suggestions? The combo drive not being recognized is throwing me for a loop.
Thanks

"I have erased and reinstalled the OSX do to a hdd error, something about the tree. I dont remember now."
Sound like there is directory damage. Try DiskWarrior
Similar issue here: http://forums.macworld.com/message/185445
The Disk Utility app that comes with the Mac OS is cannot repair that type of error. That is directory damage. You need DiskWarrior.
Carolyn

Rev. B iMac with noisy Combo Drive?

Just got a brand spankin' new iMac 1.8 17" with Combo drive. I put in a cd and ripped it using iTunes, but noticed that it sounded like my iMac was accellerating to Mach 2. The sound didn't seem out of the ordinary for what a drive would make, just a bit louder than I'm used to. Of course, I'm also used to having a Dell box sit on the floor, not right in front of my face.
So, ym question - does this sound like a normal noise to you?
Jayson

It's the drive, as well (probably) the processor cooling fan.
Mine cranks up a bit when I am ripping CDs.
b Just got a brand spankin' new iMac 1.8 17" with Combo drive.
You do mean the Rev B, not the Rev C iSight, correct?
The new iMacs are 1.9 or 2.1 and do not come with a Combodrive, only a Superdrive.
Why/how did you get it brand new a month after they quit selling them?
And I hope you got a really good deal as the iSight is $200 cheaper.

Combo drive playback - DVDSP 4

I have just upgraded to Final Cut Studio (Universal).
When i create a DVD in DVDSP4 they will not play correctly in 4 different laptops all having combo-drives.
They are:
12" 1GHz, 15" 1GHz, 17" 1GHz and an iBook G3 about 2 years old.
All have the combo drive and none will correctly show menus which contain photoshop files (backgrounds). The photoshop file just don't show up. Otherwise the DVD plays fine.
The pshop files are TIFF and flat.
They play fine everywhere else. Anyone else seen this?
Chip
various G4 desktop and laptop Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Have seen it happen with layered files, and some people seem to have had it with flattened files (JPEG/PNG recentlly), you may want to try PCT flattened, they seem to be the most reliable
How did you make the menus, did you also use an overlay or use DVD SP interface for buttons and so forth? I usually find the best results are making everything everything outside of DVD SP and bringing finished assets in, I often see more issues with playbacck and so forth when I have used anything (such as templates and so forth) that are in DVD SP (Not that there are alot, but I will make a DVD using a menu from the templates and it will be glitchy and will not play at the menu, yet if I put mmy oown menu it, same DVD works)

Combo Drive Problems

I just installed the IDE CDRW/DVD combo drive and the PowerDVD software that came with it. Unfortunately I cannot seem to get my DVDs to play correctly. After about 10 minutes the playback goes buggy on me. It sort of crashes. By that I mean the DVD will go start over at the beginning (the studio logo part). I played the disc on two other players and it works fine. I also tried using another disc, and I experienced the same problem. The thing kind of resets. Further attempts have resulted in crashes and lock ups. I attempted playing the disc with PowerDVD and Windows Media Player. I made sure the drive was set to DMA and I did flash the drive BIOS. The hardware manager for the OS says the device is functioning properly. Anybody have any suggestions? Is this a hardware or a software issue?

Okay, I reinstalled the OS, installed WinDVD 4 and tested the discs. So I concluded that the problem was solved by reinstalling the OS. I assumed it would be safe to install PowerDVD 5. I did that and tested the disc and look what happens. Same old problem. I uninstalled it but still have the same problem! All that hassle of backing up my old data, reinstalling the OS...and the suffering. Oh the suffering.
At this point I think I'll just roll over and play dead. Fine...I can't watch Underworld on my deskbox past chapter 3...strangely, Matrix used to skip backward too, but that problem seems to have gone away.
I saw Wonkanoby's post about the new Nforce drivers...I picked those up...no help. I've pretty much done everything I can think about. At one point I've even taken the drive back and exchanged it for a new one. All updated drivers...DirectX 9...WinUpdated all current...really, nothing I can think of short of getting a new drive. But...it works fine for some discs?!
I think I'm going insane...man...look at this thread...I must be insane...I've spent a great majority of it talking to myself...

I have a G3 700 MHZ dual usb combo drive TRYING to install 10.4 TROUBLES!

hello
this is my first apple mac and i bought a ibook g3 powerbook which is:
700mhz processor 512k level 2
128mb SDRAM + 256mb stick
20GB ultra ATA hard drive
combo drive
400mpbs firewire port
video VGA
originally i tried to do a COMPLETE new install of 10.4 which the CD install completely wipped the laptop for before new install. the 10.4 disks installed and showed as installed on the hard drive as it took up about 3GB of space... i then went to restart computer like it requests but i got an UNHAPPY face and a QUESTION mark! i tried booting up from OS X cd selecting the hard drive but kept getting the same results...
can anyone help or say why it wont load???
i then reinstalled the original 10.1 disks i got with the laptop and i then tried to...
...update it to 10.2.4 from 10.1 and it worked absolutely great :O)
(i thought i'd try going though all the upgrades to get to 10.4...
i then got a 10.3.4 disk this is when problems happened again, i loaded disk first time i did an upgrade install and i did custom install (i didnt want printer drivers and languauges on so disabled them) about 10 mins later came up with error while installing so i quit install, restarted G3 and reset cd off again to upgrade....
the second time i forgot to deselect printer drivers and while installing them 'narna' froze. so i had to put power plug out to get it to restart up.
i switched back on and got a grey language screen telling me to press power button to restart. thats all i got...
i've tried option button with disk so i can select the drive from which to start it up and my drive is there with 10.3 on it with a red cross on the box. if i selected that drive to boot G3 up from it restarts computer and then while it loads i got the grey apple screen and then it freezes again but this time i got lots of grey/white lines across the screen...
so i THEN AGAIN wiped it and i am now back to 10.2 version and wanting to try upgrading to 10.3 if anyone knows reason it wouldnt work
OR
if someone can help me get 10.4 on it. i know the RAM may seem low but it is enough to install as the cds/books say it is...

hi ronda,
i've 1GB RAM in the mini. but that's not the problem.
even on my G5 1,6GHz powermac with 3GB RAM you can't play any of those heavy flashgames like farmville, frontierville or treasure isle. takes forever until they've been loaded by the browser and when you try to move your avatar and do some game action it will at best move in slow motion or you will get the spinning beachball until finally browser or flash plugin crashes.
so that's for a G4 mini and a G5 powermac. the OP asked if farmville could be run on a G3 700MHz ibook. it's a no go. sorry.

CC 7.2.1 playback freeze then crash

Premiere Pro 7.2.1
MacBook Pro Retina with 27 inch apple cinema display (two screens)
Mac OSX 10.8.5
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
CUDA Driver Version: 5.0.61
Footage is a mix of RED 4K R3D, 5D H264, Sony FS700 MTS, GoPro H264.
Mercury playback is on - CUDA
Problem:
Right after i open up Premiere I put the cursor at any point on the timeline or just press play on the current timeline and playback freezes. Some times I can get two to 10 seconds of playback and then it freezes. The rest of the program work fine just no playback in the sequence window or the preview window.
I can save, I can open an new bin, the drop down menus work etc. No spinning beachball.
When I go to quit, Premiere locks up and I have to Force Quit. No crash log most of the time. If I get a crash log I will add it.
When this happens, it usually happens 3-6 times in a row. I can't seem to get past the first playback after openning the project. If for some reason I can get it to playback after opening the project.... it's fine and runs most of the day with no propblems. But I have no idea what gets me past the first playback.
Notes:
I have tried to reboot the whole computer and then run through all of the following.
I have tried cleaning the Media Cache. Seems to have no effect.
I have opened Premiere while holding the shift/option keys. Seems to have no effect.
After playback freezes i have tried to switch to "software only" to try and free up the freeze. Still frozen.
I am using Magic Bullet Looks 2.1.3 (this was supposed to be and update for CC 7.2) but none of the footage freezing up has any effects on it.
I am using an older cuda driver because I was having just as many or more problems with 5.5.25

First reset the prefrences for Prmeier pro by going the below mentioned locations
1. User account->User library->Prefrences->Adobe->Premier pro ->7.0(reame the folder to Old_7.0)
2. Documents->Adobe->premier pro ->7.0(rename the folder to old_7.0)
Tried this first: Did not change anything same freeze and crash.
Please empty the media code folder(location for media code folder is as below).
Macintosh Hard drive->Library->application Support->Adobe->Common->Plugin ->7.0->Media core
Tried this second: Worked! Playback seems to be fine. THANK YOU.
Pretty sure the culprit was Magic Bullet LOOKS!!!!!
So here's my new problem. My guess is that the Magic Bullet LOOKS plugin was the culprit. There were a few other plugins in the Media Core folder but that was the only one I was currently using. Soooo I'm going to edit for awhile without it just to make sure that was the problem but I really need that plug in. I'm going to go back to Red Giant and tell them what's going on. I know it's there problem but do you have any recomendations from your experience on how to make the Magic Bullet LOOKS plugin work?

Premiere Pro CC 2014 playback freezing and crashing with new iMac i7

Using Premiere Pro CC 2014 and having constant playback freezing and software crashes on a brand new iMac i7.
Here are the specs:
iMac i7 4.0GHz 5k Retina
32 GB Ram
AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB graphics card
512GB Solid State Drive
I was on chat yesterday with an Adobe tech. Although playback/render settings show the OpenCL option to utilize the AMD graphics card for processing, I was advised to switch to "Software Only" as that card is not supported yet. I had to re-render my 45 minute documentary (which doesn't appear to be any faster than it was on my old 2011 iMac by the way) and it still has the same issues.
So frustrating? Anyone else experiencing this? Any advice? I hope I didn't just buy this "super machine" in vein.
Thanks,
Jason

Hi All,
Taking some tips from Kevin Monahan. If you haven't already gone through this list please do so.
Sign out from Creative Cloud, restart Premiere Pro, then sign in
Update any GPU drivers
Trash preferences
Ensure Adobe preference files are set to read/write
Delete media cache
Remove plug-ins
If you have AMD GPUs, make sure CUDA is not installed
Repair permissions
In Sequence Settings > Video Previews, change the codec to one that matches your footage
Disconnect any third party hardware
If you have a CUDA GPU, ensure that the Mercury Playback Engine is set to CUDA, not OpenCL
Disable App Nap
Reboot
Best,
Peter Garaway
Adobe
Premiere Pro

Basic CD-ROM drive to combo drive/wireless internet

I have a 12-inch iBook G4 with a basic CD-ROM drive - but I want a combo drive so that I can play DVDs on my computer. Does anyone know how I can get this done and about how much it costs??
I'm also looking to find a wireless internet card for the same computer - any suggestions??

You may want to look here for drive upgrade options:
http://store.fastmac.com/advancedsearchresult.php?keywords=SuperDrive+8x
That was only a superdrive. If you are looking for an internal combo only you may want to look at otherworld computing:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/
Another option is an external. This works for me for playback w/ the Apple player. If you find a cheap one and have issues look to vlc. Bus power is a major plus here.
If I were you I would consider looking into an external bus powered burner, as this will be portable to any other machines or future ones.
ex: any of the products here: http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10037
There are successful wireless options from third parties. This link should give you a rundown of options:
http://www.macosxhints.com/search.php?query=usb+wireless&type=stories&mode=searc h&keyType=all
Unfortunately, many of these products are specific down to the last tiny letter on the outside of the box. Some are mystery products where the actual device inside the box may or may not work. As far as I know, none of these are directly supported by Apple and that, to me, is a serious drawback.
Good Luck
-j
(is your mac an education one?)

G4 PB667 mHz-combo drive? itunes? quicktime?

Installed 10.4.8 on my PB after the HD died and new HD installed. PB has been working great for everyday tasks- BUT...
Now it'll be used by my wife and i wanted to load all the CD's into itunes for her use.
pop in a CD
The CDDB worked and the titles came up, but the CD is not spinning as it should (?)...ITunes does not respond, have to force quit.
Restarted PB and was able to import.
Next cd, nothing, force quit itunes and restart...
Put in CD opened it as file, got quicktime to start playing a song and then could import into itunes- once.
Now neither quicktime or itunes will play or import the CD.
Have just put in a cd of jpgs, am able to open with preview and import to iphoto..
Help, hints, clues?
At present I am putting all her cd's onto my mac and will have to move them over ( what the easiest way to do that?)
Thanks, Mike

As in the posting of Oct 3 from regmetc, following
the install of iTunes 7.0.2 and QT 7.1.3, my combo
drive won't play most commercial CD's. Most curious
is that I have so far found ONE commercial CD in my
library that plays just fine, but haven't had the
time to check all of the 200+ cds I own. It will burn
CD's and read DVDs. but iTunes will freeze when I try
to play commercial a CD.
An external CD firewire writer has no problem and
works with iTunes just fine.
Booting from an external backup drive with an earlier
cloned OSX 10.4.6 and iTunes 6.0.2 did not cure the
problem.
Hardware test shows no hardware problems.
as a followup ... did extensive hardware testing and software re-loading and found that there was nothing wrong with the hardware ... everything worked just fine if I returned to OS 10.3.9 or earlier and itunes 6 or earlier. I found I could run OS 10.4.0 through 10.4.8 and have the cd drive work fine if I stayed at itunes 4, but once I changed up to 6 or 7 I lost the drives ability to read music cds. Data cds are not affected and DVDs play just fine.
I am now assuming that there is some code change whereas OS 10.4 and itunes 6 or 7 doesn't provide the proper driver for the cd combo drive. I have a cd rom drive in another laptop that is not affected and any external cd drive seems to be fine. It would be curious to know if a different enternal drive like a superdrive would work.

Combo drive problem on Pismo

My Pismo has a Sony CRX820E combo drive, and quite often, while the computer is up and running, the drive decides not to open and won't work until I restart the machine. This can be a pain if I get something done and want to burn it to disc - to put the disc in and get the drive to respond I need to restart.
Of course, I can `open' the drawer with a paperclip, but the drive won't work until I restart. When it works, it's all fine!
Is it just a matter of resetting something?
I've checked for possible drive driver updates but I think everything is in order there.

Alex,
Welcome to the Discussions.
If this behavior is intermittent, I would think it is a hardware problem.
Can you return functionality to the drive by removing the optical drive, then reinserting it while the 'book is running? These media bay devices are hot-swappable.
Or can you return functionality by sleeping the 'book, then waking?
I cannot recall if the 820E needs the "solder-fix" for full functionality. Will the drive boot a CD by pressing the 'c' key? Does the powerbook freeze when waking from sleep? These are two symptoms of an optical drive that is set to slave or cable-select.

Combo drive won't play CD's

after recently (seemingly) ironing out the bugs in iTunes 7.0.1, my combo drive won't play commercial CD's. MP3 CD's play in iTunes just fine and it will burn CD's. but both the finder (copying) and iTunes freeze when i try to play commercial CD's. when trying to copy aiff files to harddrive as a workaround, i get the following error message:
"some data on (in the file) is unreadable or unwritable. error (-34)"
i suspect the problem is with the drive itself as an external CD-DVD firewire writer has no problem and works with iTunes just fine.
is the combo drive dying? is there a software patch somewhere? is the problem caused by iTunes? quicktime?
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

As in the posting of Oct 3 from regmetc, following
the install of iTunes 7.0.2 and QT 7.1.3, my combo
drive won't play most commercial CD's. Most curious
is that I have so far found ONE commercial CD in my
library that plays just fine, but haven't had the
time to check all of the 200+ cds I own. It will burn
CD's and read DVDs. but iTunes will freeze when I try
to play commercial a CD.
An external CD firewire writer has no problem and
works with iTunes just fine.
Booting from an external backup drive with an earlier
cloned OSX 10.4.6 and iTunes 6.0.2 did not cure the
problem.
Hardware test shows no hardware problems.
as a followup ... did extensive hardware testing and software re-loading and found that there was nothing wrong with the hardware ... everything worked just fine if I returned to OS 10.3.9 or earlier and itunes 6 or earlier. I found I could run OS 10.4.0 through 10.4.8 and have the cd drive work fine if I stayed at itunes 4, but once I changed up to 6 or 7 I lost the drives ability to read music cds. Data cds are not affected and DVDs play just fine.
I am now assuming that there is some code change whereas OS 10.4 and itunes 6 or 7 doesn't provide the proper driver for the cd combo drive. I have a cd rom drive in another laptop that is not affected and any external cd drive seems to be fine. It would be curious to know if a different enternal drive like a superdrive would work.

How can I remove a CD in Combo Drive of Mac Mini?

This is a Mac Mini operating on OS 10.58. I have a CD in the combo drive, and it apparently has something recorded on it. I think this CD had started to be burned and I stopped it. The computer indicates that this CD is not blank. The result is that it will not eject, even after several attempts using the small eject arrow at the top of the desktop, the use of apple-E, and after repeated efforts with a complete shutdown -- still the disk is stuck in the drive. I suspect that it's in a loop situation, where it tries to run the CD with not effect, but it also cannot eject it.
I notice a small black square, appearing to be black plastic, at the far right end of the CD/DVD player slot at the top of the Mac Mini. In the old days there was such a hole into which one could stick a straight wire, like a heavy duty straightened paper clip, and it would physically eject a stuck disk. Is there such a thing on this Mac Mini?
Any good suggestions, please!? Thanks!!
George

Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive
Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the left mouse button until the disc ejects.
2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work try this: Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:
/usr/bin/drutil eject
If this fails then try this:
Boot the computer into Single-user Mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.

Tiger no longer recognizes my Combo Drive

While watching a DVD, my laptop had a bad crash. I was able to restart the computer, but since then, the OS no longer recognizes my Combo Drive.
When I start the DVD Player app, it gives me the message "There was an initialization error. A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70002]"
And in System Profiler, the DVD player no longer shows up.
Two questions:
1- how can I restore the OS's recognition of the DVD drive?
2- how can I get the DVD drive to eject the DVD that is stuck inside my laptop?
Thanks in advance.

To eject the disc, hold the Mouse button down, (left one if you have more than one), while it's booting up.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
At step 4 or 5, does your optical show? Or did it even boot from it?

Combo drive noisy/CD playback freezes

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