DVD drive is giving me headaches

It seems I just can't burn DVD's anymore. It's slowly gotten worse, and I'm trying too different brands (Verbatim - which I've always had great success with in the past) and TDK - both no work anymore.
Toast reports - medium sense error, and/or "failed to calibrate power of laser for this media" or something of that sort. Keeps winding up when attempting to burn, then winding. down, up...up down, repeats a few times then gives error.
Playing discs is usually fine, with the odd "Disc not Supported" type errors.
Tried burning under another user account, reinstalling Toast - nothing. Tried another app - no love.
I use the computer heavily and loathe the idea of taking it in to the local computer hack shop for diagnosis.
Any tips on convincing apple to send me a replacement (it's under AppleCare)? I did this once with bad ram. They sent me User Installable Replacement parts - but I think I just got lucky and talked to the right person at the time.
Or, does anyone know exactly what drive is in here, so I can go buy a new one? (if not too expensive).
It's a G5 Dual 1.8.
Thanks

we had been using toast to burn dvds for months and months with no problems at all. since moving to toast 7 we couldn't use most of the discs we'd had success with before. i've tried a few brands and the one that seems to work (so far) with no issues is philips.
i should also say that one of our g5s had a flakey dvd drive that would occasionally refuse to work with our tiger install dvds. one call to applecare and we had a guy come out to replace it on site 2 days later. i was very impressed.

Similar Messages

"No CD/DVD drive Available"

My luck with Elements has been down right rotten here lately ! I have been having trouble re-sizing pictures and now that I've just about got that figured out and I'm ready to burn them to a DVD I get a message telling me that there is "No CD/DVD Drive Available" !
Ok,no need for me to beat around the bush I have no idea what this means....I mean..... I do know that I have burned videos onto DVD's and made many music CD's on my laptop in the past with no problem,but I have never even attempted to burn any photos . So.... is this telling me that I need some special Driver in order to burn photos to a DVD ? Thanks again for sharing your knowledge ! You folks have been a huge help in my PSE education !

Here's some additional info about trying to solve your problems. In some cases CD burning problems can be caused by "filters", which are located in the Windows system registry. Here's a page with this information; http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic137666.html#post815753 as well as additional links for reference. Problems caused by registry filters normally cause system wide trouble with the optical drives, so I'm providing this for general knowledge as much as a solution.
PSE links to system functions by files called "dll (s)" (dynamic library links), they can be damaged or corrupted in various ways. There isn't much sense in trying to repair the PSE installation via these files. There are too many, and I can't tell you with which one the problem might exist.
Since you say that PSE has been giving you headaches in general recently, it might be time to try a reinstall of the program.
An un/reinstall may solve your problems, and won't damage or lose any of your catalog information. With that said, before you begin, write your tags and metadata info to the pictures. That file path is "File" (top menu bar) > "Write keyword tag and properties info to photos". If you haven't done this already, it's best to apply the data by selecting groups of photos rather than selecting all the photos at once. Too many photos selected at once might possibly crash the program, and in smaller groups you have the reassurance that the task has been accomplished.
If you decide to attempt a reinstall, completely disable your anti virus program before you begin.
I should add that sometimes malware infections can cause random problems with existing software. In an effort to be thorough, it might be prudent to do some scans with your security software before you begin. It can't hurt. Mr. John Ellis has stated that Norton security products in particular can have some adverse effects on a PSE installation. (At least I hope I've quoted him correctly).
Feel free to post back or begin a new thread, if you need any more info or assistance.

Initialization error-valid dvd drive not found-no icons, no disk eject

My mac mini is giving me a hard time. Actually, ever since I got it over 5 years ago, it's been a bit of a headache with the DVD/CD drive.
I've even had the drive changed once under warranty. Anyway, I'm trying to upgrade to OSX 10.6.3. For that, I need to put the CD into the drive.
Right now I have my start up disk in the drive as I tried to do some repairs to the disk before I installed the new OS.
But as in the past, my disk is now stuck in the drive. There is no icon of the CD on my desktop. My DVD player program says that no valid DVD drive has been found. I've tried every way I know to eject the disk as this has happened to me before. I've reset the SMC by shuting down, unpluging the power and other cables. Waiting 15 seconds and even a few hours to see if it made a difference. Plugged it all back in and turned it on. The CD whirls around in there as I can hear it, but then nothing. No icons, no nothing. It's as if I don't even have a CD/DVD dirve on the computer at all. I've tried starting up holding the mouse button down before start up, after start up, durring start up... nothing. I've tried starting up from the disk by pressing C. Momentarily (a fraction of a second)I get a little question mark where the grey apple is supposed to appear but then the grey apple appears and the computer starts up from the hard drive and not the disk. I've even zaped the PRAM a few times for good measure. I just spent $20 on Snow Leopard to install it. I really don't want go to the repair shop again and spend more money on something I already fixed once. Any suggestions or further tips would be very welcome and appreciated.

Whew, sounds like maybe Logic Board problems!?
Does iTunes Eject Disc work? (I doubt it, but...)
Maybe Double backed tape on a credit card to extract it???

Mac Pro will not sleep properly after installing new SATA BD-CD-DVD drive.

Hello and thank you in advance for time reading this.
I have been using a Mac Pro for 4 years and it never happened to me before.
This started almost immediately after installing a new SATA BD-CD-DVD Drive.
When the Mac is ordered to sleep, It shuts down 3 out of 4 Hard Drives
(I guess the one that doesn't is the OSX Drive) and It will not shut down the fans
and the display has no signal.
During that (when it won't sleep completely) the Mac is completely paralysed and it's unable to wake up.
Now, I've tried being patient and giving the Mac a ton of time to sleep.
In some cases it actually worked and the Mac did sleep completely and it was able to wake up,
but that defeats the purpose (being able to sleep and wake up in an in a few seconds).
In these few cases, the Mac took about 30 min to sleep.
In the rest of the cases the Mac never slept and I had to emergency shut it off from the power button.
In simply words, Mac falls into a "coma", not asleep but not awake at the same time.
As I said, this started exactly when I installed an SATA LG CH10LS20 optical Drive.
You may say that the Mac Pro does not support SATA for optical Drives.
This is why you should know that there is a SATA port on the motherboard of a Mac,
and with the correct method you can connect a SATA Drive AND be able to use it with out additional drivers.
http://www.tomorrowland.com/guides/mac-pro-optical-drive-install-part-1/
Now, you may say that If I'm so sure that it's the new drive causing the problem, why don't I disconnect it?
Well, please try to understand me, it's an all new drive and it cost a good load of money...
and other users of the same drive do not have that problem... yet...
Is there a way for the drive (which otherwise works fine) and the Mac to coexist and work properly?
Do you really think it's the new Drive?
Is the motherboard bothered somehow by the new drive and wont go to sleep properly?
Any kind of help is welcome and
I thank you in advance if you can help me.

Thanks for taking the time to respond RedBaron, I don't have a USB aircard in this system but I do have numerous firewire drives. I haven't unplugged everything yet and restarted. That's a good tip. I think I will try that to see if that is the problem.
Thanks again
Chris

How can i restore from Recovery Disk if my notebook's hard drive and dvd drives are dead.

Hi. Good day. My hard drive just crashed and im trying to restore from my restore disks. Unfortunately, my dvd is dead too. I copied the recovery disks to a new hard drive and tried booting from a flash drive but the noteebook is still giving me the SMART hd error message. Please help. Thanks.

Hi,
If you have, or can borrow an external CD/DVD drive it would be worth trying this although I'm not certain your notebook will support booting from a drive connected via USB.
Another option may be to see if you can find a second hand optical drive on somewhere like Ebay - the drives compatible with your notebook can be found on Page 59 of your Maintenance & Service Guide. It may even be worth removing a re-seating your existing drive just in case this helps as described in this section.
Does the drive show up in Device Manager? If it does, right click it and select Properties. Select the driver tab and see if there is an error code in the status box.
Regards,
DP-K
****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
****I don't work for HP****
Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Boot up/Keyboard/DVD Drive Issues & Questions

I thought I'd try this before giving up completely on this iMac. It's a 20" Early 2006 iMac that will not boot past the gray screen, Apple icon and rotating circle.
Here's the challenge - this iMac also does not recognize keyboard input from an Apple keyboard but will respond to an old Dell USB keyboard.
Questions
First the installation (retail Tiger) DVD is not recognized when I hold the Option (alt) key down while booting, only the hard drive is listed. Does this mean that the DVD drive is not functioning?
I managed to reset SMC which did nothing to get the DVD drive recognized and now the fans are spinning full speed as well as the computer not booting.
I would love to try resetting PRAM, how does one do that without a "Command" key? I should mention that I replaced the battery when I pulled the hard drive out to rescue the data on it. Would that have reset PRAM?
Is it possible to boot directly from an external USB CD/DVD drive, and thus be able to use Disk Utilities to attempt a repair or reinstall?
Any assistance is much appreciated!
Peace,
Gail
Message was edited by: Gail - Added more info

Kappy wrote:
Could mean the optical drive is malfunctioning or that you have a defective disc. Try cleaning the disc on both surfaces as well as checking for scratches or defects.
Both the retail Tiger disc and the original OS X Installer Disc One are in perfect condition (at least to the naked eye). Neither will boot from the drive.
How to run hardware diagnostics for an Intel Mac
Boot from your original OS X Installer Disc One that came with your computer. After the chime press and hold down the "D" key until the diagnostic screen appears. Run the extended tests for a minimum of two or three hours. If any error messages appear note them down as you will need to report them to the service tech when you take the computer in for repair.
Some "common" error indicators:
SNS - sensor error
MEM - memory error
HDD - hard disk drive error
MOT - fan error
I would very much like to do this but can't get the discs to boot from the DVD drive.
In order to reset the PRAM you need to restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION-P-R keys until you hear three additional chimes. See Reset PRAM and NVRAM.
I do not have a COMMAND key on the only keyboard I have on hand that works on this iMac. What would be another key combination or an equivalent for a non-Apple keyboard?
Is it possible to boot directly from an external USB CD/DVD drive, and thus be able to use Disk Utilities to attempt a repair or reinstall?
Yes, you can boot from a USB or FireWire external hard drive or optical drive.
This is the route I will probably take since apparently the optical drive is toast.
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the assistance!
Peace,
Gail

New DVD drive issues on DV6000 series.

I just got my replacement drive from hp. I pulled the old drive and got the new one in yesterday. The driver installed on restart and seemed to be fine, i just ripped a couple of cds to itunes. The DVD side is giving me trouble though. I can't change the region code or burn anything.
I get a warning when i try to change the region code: Make sure the drive contains region 1 media and you have adminstration privilege.
DV6604nr and Optiarc AD-7581A drive.

Dnewish2 wrote:
Ok, one more time. It's a brand new drive from HP. Got that.
Does it sound like the drive is bad? It will read cd's, my old drive didn't. It does recoginize a movie dvd as a data disc. Is there an updated or replacement driver for this drive on the HP site? Optiarc AD-7581a
"It is probably locked to a region, only solution is Software"
Got that.

IMac DVD drive issues (May 2011 Thunderbolt models)?

I'm going nuts. I picked this machine back up three hours ago from the Apple Store, where they replaced my Optiarc DVD drive on my 27" iMac with a new one (and also the cable).
I'm having the same danged problem. So either there's a rash of bad Optiarc drives out there, or the Apple Store didn't do crap.
Without going into all of the headaches, these are the disk CRC-32's from the "iMac Mac OS X Install DVD" that came with the machine:
On this machine:             $193BD913
On the "good" machine: $85FBE37B
Image made on good:     $85FBE37B (i.e., I made a read-only disk image on the "good" machine of this disk)
Image made on this:       "unable to verify" (twice)
Can somerun please run a CRC32 checksum for me on their May 2011 Thunderbolt iMac DVD and confirm the correct checksum?
I've tried similar DVD's with similar results.
I'm confident I don't have a software conflict, because that's just illogical, and also this machine won't install from the DVD onto a fresh drive (in fact I had to make a USB key on the "good" machine to get this machine to work).
Finally, is there a software method of determining the serial number of the Optiarc drive? System Profiler doesn't show it, and I want to make danged sure that they replace it next time.
Thanks!

No one can run a checksum for me in Disk Utility? Please?

New Mac Book Pro... No DVD Drive... Really?

I know there are 50 excuses to leave it out, but a laptop top of this caliber lacking a blu-ray drive is bad enough but lacking a dvd drive all together is ridicoulous.

OzziesMAC, if you already have an external BD Drive then there is no need for a SuperDrive.
Unfortunately, there are pros and cons to having an internal drive. I think this is a natural progression. Just look at Floppy drives of yesteryear. If you can recall that far back, there was outrage when the floppy disk went away but look to today, we survived and we've changed our process and it has worked for the best.
If you NEED a drive, use an external SuperDrive, or better yet buy an external BluRay drive and you've satisfied two requirements, a drive to burn and ability to watch BluRay.
If you have clients that require video, why not export a high-res 1080p video onto 16-64GB USB drive and deliver it to them. Not only will they have higher quality video but they can burn their own discs afterward. You still have the option of giving them an .iso on usb flash.
Ok maybe you really need to give clients a "final" product on disc. Then why gripe about carrying around a small external SuperDrive when you're already accepting of the fact that you are going to carry around a spindle of DVD-Rs? By the way, upgraded MBP 13" & 15" did not go away.
Most media professionals will likely be carrying this with them on site and attaching it to a Thunderbolt NAS and editing in the field for dailies or quick turn around projects. This is the protable MacPro for professionals.
I will agree with one thing on the need for a drive however, that is when I purchase BluRay with digital copy, half the time I'm required to place the disc into my drive in order to obtain the copy, even from iTunes. But I think that is a business process that needs to change.
Did I mention that they upgraded the MBP 13" and 15" lines without retina? If you need an upgrade with the same requirements you had for a machine you're replacing Apple offers it still. If you requirements do not include retina display that is.

DVD driver problem

I can't seem to get Windows 7 to install a driver for the DVD drive on an iMac. It is giving me an error:
"Device driver software was not successfully installed"
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A ATA device
Any ideas as to why it would not install? It was working fine and then someone tried to install some older software off a CD and the drive stopped working in Windows. It's fine on the mac side.
-gl

That mean that the entries for the upper/lower filters in the registry have been changed to something that the pc doesn't like.
Try this guide and remove lower/upper filters for your dvd/cd drive.
After you remove the registy entries, go to the Device Manager, rightclick and uninstall the dvd/cd drive and reboot the pc. Windows will reinstall it.
http://www.pchell.com/hardware/cd_drive_error_code_39.shtml

Replacing Internal DVD Drive with HDD in Mac Mini?

Has anyone tried replacing the internal DVD drive with a hard drive, giving you TWO internal hard drives? I think you need a cable to match up the SATA connectors. Then you could use a USB external enclosure for the DVD.
Thanks.

Very interesting, thanks el Duque. Too bad MCE doesn't make a carrier for the Mac Mini. I wonder if one for a Macbook Pro can be easily modified to fit?
I have just learned that the SATA connector on the logic board for the optical drive in Macbooks and the Mini is called a "Slim-SATA" connector. Instead of the power side of the connector having 15 pins, it only has 6, with both types of connectors having a standard 7-pin data side. Both power and data hook-ups are achieved in a single connector -- a power side and data side.
Since the ports on 2.5" hard drives are "standard" SATA connectors, AND they don't match up to the logic board's connector location (like with the connector location on the optical drive), a cable is needed to run between the HDD and the logic board connector.
Unfortunately, such a cable is not available -- yet. Instead, one has to be fabricated out of two types of SATA cables -- a Molex 4-pin to SATA 15-pin power cable and a combination cable that looks like this:
http://www.byteccusa.com/product/SATA/SATA-XP118/SATA-XP118.htm
The fabrication involves replacing the molex 4-pin power end of the combi-cable with the SATA power end of the molex 4-pin to SATA power cable (cutting and soldering). The BIG question now is whether a HDD will work with just the two-wire power cable (of the combi-Sata cable) that an optical drive normally uses? Anyone know if it will? Thanks.

Macbook DVD drive repeats eject sequence even when empty

Giving an old macbook (first model, white, 2006) away to a friend. He wanted Windows7 on it (don't ask ) so I got a copy from him and installed. Decided to use the bootcamp of Snow Leopard above Leopard, since Windows7 wasn't released yet when Leopard was released. Still I was a bit ambivalent as I didn't know if it would be suited to the rather old hardware of the macbook. All seemed to go well but after installation of the drivers of the Bootcamp CD I ejected the dvd drive and it started acting weird. What it does now is it keeps ejecting the drive, whether there's a cd in there or not. When I inject a cd (or dvd, no difference), I have to wait for the eject/load sequence to play out since it's locking the cd drive in between. When the cd/dvd is in, the drive won't read it, instead it will rumble a bit and eventually (about 20 seconds) spit out the CD.
Seems like a rather small coincidence that the drive, after all these years, would fail at this exact moment in time.... thinking there's something else to blaim but not sure how to proceed. What are your tips?

Nobody have any ideas or suggestions as to what steps I might undertake to solve this? Anything is helpful, thanks!

How can I get a replacement internal DVD drive?

I bought a refurbished Toshiba P55t-A5202 a few months ago. The internal DVD drive seems to be failing and doesn't always recognize dual-layer DVDs. Some DVDs recognize and play fine. Others aren't even detected and the system thinks no disk is in the drive. I would like to replace the opical drive. I am comforable opening up the sytem and swapping the drive, I just don't know where to buy the replacement part.
Does anyone know who to contact about getting a replacement internal DVD drive?

Hi, and welcome to Apple Support Communities.
Which exact iBook model is it?
You can choose from this list:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/index-ibook.html
Apple may not have the replacement discs at this point, but it's worth a try. You could try giving Apple a call and see if they have them available. If they do, they will send them to you for a fee.
You will need the serial number of the iBook when you call.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA27282?viewlocale=en_US
Good luck.

DVD Drive on Refurbed 1.3 Gig G4

The DVD drive on the machine I recieved today will not mount DVD's. It is telling me that the copy of 10.4 that I purchased is a blank DVD. I tried the DVD on a different machine, and it is not blank. It is telling me that my application DVD's aren't supported by OS X. I'm very confused. I don't know if it's a bad drive, or what. I can't find a setting in preferences that would be corrupted.
Any help that anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.

I just got off the phone with Seagate who say that while my model numbers are the affected drives, my two drives have serial numbers that do NOT need a firmware update. (Yet!)
However, I'm not feeling very lucky. I took these two drives from my Maxtor One Touch III 2 TB external hard-drive because it was failing intermittently-- "now you see me, now you don't." Not very good for a backup drive! But Maxtor/Seagate is providing nothing for Maxtor One Touch III owners under warranty but another refurbished (as in previously failed) Maxtor One Touch III and asking hundreds of dollar$ for data recovery. There is not even a firmware update at this point. People should be avoiding Seagate Barracuda drives (these used to be the best of the best, but not now) or at least researching them *very thoroughly* before buying.
I guess, the good news is that I don't have to struggle with getting a firmware update to work on my PowerMac. Though thanks to you both I will know what to do if these drives eventually do need a firmware update. The other good news is that I got all my data back by pulling the drives from their enclosure which apparently causes overheating. I violated my warranty, pulled the drives, and got all my data back.
At the moment both of my Barracuda drives are happily purring away in my PowerMac G4 giving that old baby 2 Tb to play with. (I use iPartition so getting the drives recognized on the G4 isn't a problem.) And since I have my new iMac 3.06ghz 24" with all my data backup on WD external drives, I will only use the G4 networked for extra storage (backup for my backup). (I am also using Disk Warrior and Data Rescue II to keep an eye on these drives.)
Thanks again for the advice.

My Slot Drive is giving me trouble. Doesn't burn or read discs that i have/want to work!!

My Slot drive is giving me trouble. It will not burn or read discs that i have/want to work on. It makes a strange noise when i put in a blank cd and spits it back out after 20seconds. It will read third party discs no problem which is very strange indeed. Last week i burned photos to a blank disc and went to make a duplicate and this is when the trouble began. Has anyone ever come across an issue such as this before?? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Well it looks like my media i.e. CDs/DVDs have gone past their sell by date. I purchased new discs to test your theory/bad experience and it looks like i too suffer the same fate!! It's great that this problem i have been having seems to be now rectified although it does lead me to a new issue, as the last two/three years of work saved on these discs are being rejected by my iMac If this is the case then what is the point in purchasing and burning discs for storage over a time that is quite reasonable really(at least 5years)!!!!!

DVD drive is giving me headaches

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