Combo Drive Reading nothing but DVDs

I am trying to install a printer on a Macbook, which has a combo drive. When I insert the installation CD the drive doesn't start up and after about one minute it ejects the CD. The same thing happened with a pre-recorded music CD, a blank CD-RW and a blank DVD+R. However, when I inserted a DVD movie it worked properly. On my Macbook with a superdrive everything is working fine.
Any help is very much appreciated.

In case anyone wants to know the outcome.... I reset PRAM and SMC (as suggested by Apple in another user's post), but it did not work. I then phoned Apple and she straight away told me to take it in. She didn't even suggest any measures to try out first, just take it in. This Macbook is 7 weeks old. I was trying to use a printer installation disc and came across the problem. My daughter is leaving for university tomorrow and obviously needs to take her computer. Perfect timing. I am not impressed.

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MB Combo drive reads no original DVDs but burned ones

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thanks
michael

Details of MBP Disc Drive:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857:
Firmware Revision: HAEA
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Mack

Welcome to Apple Discussions, humain.
I have been burning DL DVDs from another Mac for quite some time now. Never had any problems with the DVDs being unreadable on my PowerBooks except when there was a bad batch of discs, which then meant only the Mac that burned the disc could read it.
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Can my Combo-drive read Dual-Layer DVDs?

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Welcome to Apple Discussions, humain.
I have been burning DL DVDs from another Mac for quite some time now. Never had any problems with the DVDs being unreadable on my PowerBooks except when there was a bad batch of discs, which then meant only the Mac that burned the disc could read it.
15" 1.25GHz/12" 1GHz PBs, PPC Mac minis, 12" iBooks G3/G4, Mac OS X (10.4.5) Cube, TAMs, iPods 2G/4G, iPs, AEBS, AX

Combo Drive reads CDs, rejects DVDs

my macbook pro (original), recently started rejecting DVD's (Games, Movies). three attempts are made to read the dvd's and then it spits it out.
I have no issues regarding cds
How do i resolve this problem?
Message was edited by: Abeer Thapar

Details of MBP Disc Drive:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857:
Firmware Revision: HAEA
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

What DVDs can combo drive read?

Can my Powerbook G4 12 inch combo drive read DVD+r? DVD+r dual layer? DVD-r dual layer?
I've found conflicting information online. Thanks.

This subject matter can get quite confusing. Companies have confused the "Dual Layer" term and crossed their wires doing so. I have posted detailed info in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5095860
Also, if you have the 12-inch model that I do, the 1.5GHz SuperDrive edition, then it reads both DVD-R and DVD+R discs. (A DVD±R drive). It will read DVDs with two sides to it, a side A and side B disc, you know, the ones with no artwork on the disc that look like bootleg DVDs but aren't?
It won't read discs that have two writable layers in it.

Combo Drive reading Dual Layer / booting from external DVD USB

I am helping a friend with an iMac G5. He has the combo drive which is not able to read the dual layer Leopard DVD. I have looked to see if there is a firmware update for the drive however no luck. I am able to put an external usb DVD and it reads the disk however I was not able to boot from the disk using keyboard commands I tried AppleOption+ShiftDelete, C, and also tried Option but no luck.
I have been reading that booting from usb external drive is a no no on older G5 iMac's unless you are using fire wire. If any one can give me some help with getting the USB drive to boot, or figuring out why the combo drive spits out the DVD every time I would appreciate it. I am also willing to make a bootable usb leopard thumb drive, but I don't want to waste my time if it's not going to boot from USB.
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Do you happen to have a more recent Mac that can read the Leopard installation DVD?
If so, you may be able to start up your Mac in FireWire Target Disk Mode,
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
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Also, it is true that PowerPC Macs can generally only boot from external drives that are FireWire.

Can Combo Drive read dvd double layer?

Can Mac Mini Combo Drive read dvd double layer?
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It should be able to handle commercially-made movie double-layer DVDs.

Combo drive doesn't recognize DVD movies

a665s5186 (1 year old) dvd/cd combo drive does not recognize dvd movies (does not show up in my computer).
Cd's play, record fine! Will recognize previously burnt sony dvd's, will not recognize previously burnt memorex dvd's. Will recognize blank sony and memorex dvd's and burn files to them, after ejecting will not recognize memorex dvd's, will recognize sony dvd's? MY SYSTEM BACK UP DISCS I BURNT TO MEMOREX DISCS CANNOT RE- INSTALL OPERATING SYSTEM. Please help my combo drive recognize and play dvd movies.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Peter,
I apologize for the hiatus. I tried several restore points, and reinstalled to out of the box state from the hard drive partition. Neither corrected the problem.
Out of curiosity, I installed Ubuntu operating system. The problem is duplicated, combo drive recognizes CDs does not recognize commercial DVD's. Does not recognize Microsoft office home & student 2010 installation disc,etc.
What else can I do? With the problem being duplicated with another operating system is it safe to say this is a hardware problem (the combo drive is defective?)
Thank You,
TPeterson1st

Combo Drive read DVD but refuse to read CD

I have the problem that I can use the combo drive only with dvd when I try to insert a cd it will not recognise and the drive eject the cd. I have checked al kinds of cd´s and I have also tried to burn a cd but without sucess. I have also reseted the PRAM but also without sucess.
Is there´s a chance not to buy a new drive ?
The Ibook G4 800 Mhz is just 2 years old and handled with care so I can not see any fault which causes the problem.

The drive was damaged I have bought a new one. bad luck just 2 years old and not used very often. Since 8 Month I have an IMac G5 and since now I have the same problem with a superdrive but good luck because I still have warranty from Apple. It seems that the slotin drives are not the robust ones.
Does other users have the same expirience ?

How to make Combo drive read DL DVDs?

As you see the question in Subject.
Thanks in advance,
Ivan

The combo drive in my first eMac (700 MHz) couldn't read DL DVDs either. It could read the first layer but skipped and got hung up when it got to the 2nd layer. A trip to an Apple Store and a call to tech support revealed that the drive in question was never intended to support DL, and well, too bad.
The point is, if your friend's drive is old enough, it simply may not support DL, and no amount of software finagling will make that capability appear in the hardware. Your only options are replacing the drive or adding one via FireWire, (or USB2 if the machine supports it).
eMac 1.42GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

CD/DVD combo drive ejects CDs-but only specific ones !!

hi all,
I have the following problem with my mac mini:
a)when I enter any movie DVD, it is either ejected in a few minutes, or worse, it just sits in the Drive,(no mounting on the Desktop) and I have to restart (w/ mouse button pressed to eject)
b)any movie CD I enter (recently got brand new PoC-DMC; so no scratches etc on it too) same as (a) above
c)Insert the "Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and Apple Hardware Test" DVD (that came originally with my mac mini), and same as (a) above
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As of writing this, both Disk Utility and Sys Profiler have hung up. though had the same problem as mentioned above yesterday too, and then Sys Profiler was listing the combo-drive, and Disk utility was not. (as per what i read on some other posts in this forum, that would be proper behavior by the system)
Would appreciate any insights into this.
Thanks
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Is there any other means of resetting a hardware
optical drive??
I'm not confident this will work but it's worth a try, it certainly won't damage your machine. Boot into Open Firmware ("Command + Option + O + F" on startup chime) and run 'reset-nvram' followed by 'reset-all'. Then boot into OS X by typing 'mac-boot'.
If this doesn't work boot into Open Firmware again and run 'eject cd' followed by 'mac-boot'.
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Matt

Combo drive reads cds, stopped reading dvds

My combo drive won't read DVD movies. However, it does recognize CD's. I get an error message with DVD discs that reads: "DISC INSERTION The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."
I took my iBook to the Apple store yesterday and they archived and re-installed my OS. This process made the drive work, but this morning it gave me the same error again.
Suggestions anyone??

"I took my iBook to the Apple store yesterday and they archived and re-installed my OS. This process made the drive work, but this morning it gave me the same error again."
maw87, welcome!
Did you use the same DVDs that worked yesterday when you got the failure this morning? Or are we talking different discs?
Are these commercially manufactured DVDs or home-burnt?

Could iBook G4's combo drive read DVD+RW discs?

I want to know whether it can read these ones or not.

Nie Hau!
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Ted

Combo drive will not burn DVDs

My original internal DVD Drive (PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-104) is not recognized to burn DVDs. I can burn CDs just fine. When I insert a DVD-R into the tray, the computer searches for the drive and I get the message " Waiting for the drive" followed by the DVD disc being ejected and the message "Waiting for the disc to be inserted." If I insert a CD, the drive works flawlessly. I have no clue where to begin to correct this problem!

Some of these SuperDrives (not a Combo) appeared to develop
defects, sometimes coincidentally after an upgrade to Tiger, but
not necessarily so related. Could be the optical drive has defects.
Will the computer boot from an OS X installer on DVD, so as to
use the Option key on boot to see if you can select the Apple
Hardware Test (as shipped with Macs whose original OS was
on a DVD boot install disc) - or if on CD, run the original Apple
Hardware Test to see if it shows any defect? There may also
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And in a few cases, a repetitive cleaning of the optical drive's
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There are third party replacement optical drives that can be
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Good luck & happy computing!

Combo Drive Reading nothing but DVDs

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