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.

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DVD drive issue on T61

My dvd-drive (HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-U10N) have worked properly on my T61 since I bought it for a month ago, but now Windows XPP refuse to recognize it, refering to an error 39 ("This items driver could not be found or the driver is damaged" translated from danish).
The drive does not show up in My Computer and it has a yellow "!" in the Device Manager.
What could have caused this problem, and more important, how do I solve it?
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Good advice, I wish I would have known this before I thru mine over the Balcony! I use an external now.
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Replace DVD Drive

I have an HP 7320 slimline desktop, running XP 32 bit. I'm upgrading to 2 gig memory, and need to replace the DVD drive. It is IDE; however, the hard drive is SATA. On the motherboard, it looks like there is a second, open connector for another sata device. My question is it available for a new DVD drive? I do not like the cable for the IDE drive. The problem with the current drive is when I push the button to open the drive it "kerchunks" a couple of times, but the drive does not open. I tried using a straight paperclip & punched into the small hole on the front of the drive, I can feel it engaging in some sort of a button inside, but the drive does not open. Can I replave with a SATA drive????

Hi:
Yes, you should be able to, if you have a SATA power connector near the DVD drive you plan to replace with a sata one.
You will also need a SATA data cable, of course.
I did that on an old HP d530 CMT. I didn't have a SATA power connector near the optical drive, so I had to get a Molex to SATA power adapter.
Below is what I got.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details-print.asp?EdpNo=3151189&Sku=ULT4010...
Mine had an IDE HDD and IDE DVD.
So after replacing both with SATA and those thin data cables, it really opened up the real estate in the case for better airflow.
Paul

DVD Drive Having Issues Reading Discs

Hi there,
I have 2 MBP's (original and unibody model) and an iMac. However, the computer having the issue is the original MBP as listed below. I barely use the DVD drive but I thought I'd treat myself to the Sims 3 only to find that the DVD drive keeps spitting it out and 3rd time was lucky but then repeat over and over. It makes a noise like it is failing to read it properly. I thought it might've been a dodgy Sims disc so tried in my unibody and it works perfect.
This is not the only time I've had issue with it though. When it was still in warranty it would be very picky with certain DVD movies and the picture would freeze/randomly skip/not play at all. I did send it off to repair but as it works perfect with other discs, they couldn't find a problem and nothing was ever done about it.
I've just put in an audio CD I bought at a gig (so assume it was written on blank media) and the computer is saying it is a blank disc when it is not.
I dropped my laptop and it was sent in for repair a few months ago, they checked everything (as it was obviously dropped) and again, found no fault with CD/DVD drive (although the problems originated before it was dropped anyway).
Is there anything I can do my end? Resetting or something? If I send it in again it will cost me money as now out of warranty and I feel they will just tell me they cannot find a fault, again!
Thanks for reading,
-Lisa

Many people will recommend a lens cleaning disc first, cheap and easy if it helps. Otherwise, I would consider replacing the optical drive, which a careful person can install themselves with online instructions. The replacement drives are less than $100USD. These drives often seem to get dodgy.

DVD drive problems.

I have a Rev. A 17" G5 iMac with 1 Gig memory running OS 10.4.5. In the past few weeks my internal DVD drive, a Matshita UJ-825 has started acting flakey. I keep getting a different error message each time I try to record a disc; e.g.:
"Unable to burn "XXX.img" - The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media"
"Unable to burn "YYY".img" - The device failed to respond properly, unable to recover or retry."
"The drive reported an error: Sense Key = Hardware Error Sense Code = 0x03" plus a few others I didn't write down.
I'm using Verbatim DVD-R 8X discs and trying to burn at 2X (though the drive says 4X is possible). My external LaCie DVD drive (based on a Pioneer DVR 106 mechanism) records the same data on the same media flawlessly.
I contacted Apple support - I have Applecare - and their "DVD specialist" told me that all these is meaningless since I'm not using Apple branded DVD discs. This explanation sounds bogus to me. When the manufacturer of the DVD drive (Panasonic) sold it to other OEMs it certainly did not specify that their users had to use only Apple discs for reliable operation! I'm tempted to order a Pioneer K05 but since I paid for the Applecare I don't want to give up so easily.
Any suggestions?

I am appalled.
Call back and talk to someone else. That "not Apple disks" is pure BS - sorry to be so blunt. How did you not burst out laughing when their "specialist" told you that?
I love Apple, but there is no way that I would have accepted this as the answer. Apple doesn't make optical disks. All quality brand disks are made to international industry standards. If I am not mistaken, Verbatim makes the disks for Apple anyway.
Have you tried a simple reboot. I have had many things act wierd that were then solved by rebooting.
In any case, it sounds to me that the drive is dead or bying, so try again and maybe you will get someone who actually wants to help you out.

My CD/DVD drive automatically ejects every disc I put in.

Hi!
I have an Mac Book 15" - Late 2011 / OX 10.9.2 8 Gig RAM AND 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 Processor.My CD/DVD drive automatically ejects every disc I put in immediately. I can't figure out why it's doing this as till December 2013 it was doing fine? I had to reinstall OX and Maverics as my Laptop was lost and recovered and I had actioned erase all data.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Check this FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/cdrfailure.html
Also check this article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal
If you suspect it could be the latter, you may just have to replace the optical drive, or add an external one that supports Mac OS X utility booting, and not use possible rootkit CDs again.
* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Do new macs not have a dvd drive

I think my emac has died. When. I switch it on i get a blue screen with a sign in to apple but the mouse does not work. the only way I can switch it off is by the main wall socket. It is a 2003 running ox10.4
guess its time to bite the bullet and buy a new machine. What to go for? Do new macs not have dvd drives any more?

I'd like to figure this out if you can bear with me. I'm retired too so have time to research Mac stuff when I'm not taking a power nap!
There are two families of eMacs with two variants each; some have known issues. If you are up to it, please read this Apple article that lets you find your exact eMac variant by serial number:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2395
Without posting your serial number here, post what model the article says you have.
If the model returns as "eMac (USB 2.0)" that is a group with very bad logic board issues. Affected eMac USB 2.0 units tend to fall in these ranges of serial numbers:
G8412xxxxxx- G8520xxxxxx
YM412xxxxxx - YM520xxxxxx
VM440xxxxxx - VM516xxxxxx
Your symptoms sound like it could be this model. Apple had a repair extension program to replace defective logic boards but it expired over two years ago. Today, the fix is not economically feasible.
Guess I will have to go and look at PCs.
Consider the 13-inch MacBook Pro I linked. I had a 15-incher that I bough about six years ago because I did not think anything smaller would work for my old eyeballs. However, in June I bought the 13-inch as a refurb directly from Apple for only about US$1000 and, as long as I remember to put on my computer glasses, I have no trouble with the smaller screen.
Based of the lack of issues with that model reported in the MacBook Pro forums, it seems a reliable model. My son bought one for university as a refurb. I liked it a lot so bought mine in June. A friend who had been using 1998-vintage Powerbooks until this year liked mine so much that he bought two. You can use them like a desktop computer. When I'm not using mine away for home, I have a wireless keyboard and mouse set up for it so it's very much like a desktop until until I hit the road.

I need a 2nd DVD drive, wich one?

I have an HP DVD writer from my old PC. i tried hooking it up on my MacPro but when i try to open it up, it doesnt open because the faceplate is too big, it wont let the drive open completely. I also have an LG DVD Drive, but the same issue, the faceplate is too big and it doesnt open. Which DVD should i buy? i want DL capabilities, RW + -.
Thanks guys

Hello everyone. I deal with a similar issue with regards to adding a second optical drive to my Mac Pro. Checking the prices, it was cheaper, not to mention more flexible to purchase a seond IDE optical drive online. I purchased a new Plextor, though ones from Lite-On, NEC, Sony, and Pioneer are also good choices. As mentioned above most of the DVD recorders sold currently have a similar faceplate, therefore with a little modification, they can be made compatible with the drive lid on the Mac Pro's case. Although one can saw the faceplate to make it fit, I found that using sandpaper of a medium grit along the bottom edge made trimming the faceplate a bit easier. You can of course remove the plate, usually by applying steady upward pressure (perpendicular to the disc tray), but I found that the drive may sound a little louder without the faceplate. Also, make sure to set the drive jumper to cable select, same as the top optical drive. Hope this helps.
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8) Previous owner of G4 DA with Giga Dual 1.8 GHz

MacBook just returned from repair and DVD drive blocked!

Hi,
I just got my MacBook back from repair (screen flicker) but there is something seriously wrong with my DVD drive...
I can't put a disc in -- it feels like it's blocked. At first I thought the engineers might have left a disc in there, but I can't get it to eject.
What to do?
Steve.

I just received a refurb macbook yesterday, unpacked it, and when I went to insert a CD into the drive, I had the same exact prob you have. I made appt with Genius bar and they looked at it... they said it was a quite common prob with the drive going out of alignment when they snap the case shut during assembly. The Genius took a small plastic tool, wrapped the tip with tape and pried the slot which caused the drive to align properly. Of course, my mind started to wonder, it this fix just a band aide, or is it really fixed? … but I guess I was just happy not to have to send it out, the same day I received it, for repair… and if I continue to have probs with the drive, the Apple Store is just a block from where I work, and I have the AppleCare I bought with the $ I saved w/ buying a refurb.
macbook white 2Ghz C2D Mac OS X (10.4.8) refurb

My Mac Mini won't acknowledge Snow Leopard disk to upgrade OS. DVD drive works fine.

Purchased my Mini January 2009 with 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor w/ 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. Trying a long-overdue upgrade from OS 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard, the computer won't acknowledge the disk, and the DVD drive runs other disks.
According to other links here, I should be able to upgrade through OS 10.7 without problem, correct? (FYI, I have four USB ports on this thing.) Also, I noticed my Snow Leopard disk - purchased from Apple, not bootleg - is 10.6.3, which is what they shipped when I said OS 10.5.8 is in here. Am I missing an earlier version than 10.6.3? In any case, the disk just grinds awhile, then spits out. Nothing ever shows on the display.
I have 59 gigs of internal hard drive space available.
I'm not really tech savvy, so any thoughts?

Thanks for your response, and good call! I discovered the Mini will acknowledge other DVDs that I know have content, but displays them as blank; otherwise, it won't open/run anything. It's more than I knew before.
Looks like I'm heading to the Apple shop.

New 27" iMac; Glitch with DVD drive

Just got my new refurbished 27" iMac yesterday(my first mac computer ever) and after starting up and playing around few things, I tried to play DVD and it would not accept any DVDs including the setup dvd that came with iMac.
After talking with tech support they asked me to powered down and take out the power plug for few second and restarting the mac solved the issue with DVD.
Not sure how did powering down and restarting helped with DVD in this case. Should I be worried about this DVD drive?
Thanks,
Jeegar.

I guess at least it is now working - I have just bought one myself and just been shipped. First refurb Mac i have ever bought so fingers crossed...

Stuck: Need Disk repair but DVD drive dead and only have USB 1

[1 Ghz flat-panel iMac with USB 1 ports (no USB 2) and also Firewire 400]
I noticed a strange discrepancy (small but concerning) between the size of a folder on hard drive (folder of all mp3's with no subfolders) and the backup of the same folder on a mounted thumb drive.
(The size difference was not due to any invisible .DS_Store files and both folders are displayed in List view format.)
Disk Utility reports three things:
1. Incorrect number of thread records
2. Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
3. Checking volume information.
Volume free block count",0) [I might have mangled this line]
(It should be 13438611 instead of 13437937)
Here is the GOOD (but these are useless as explained under the "Bad"):
- I have a Tiger 10.4 boot DVD for a repair ==>but see below
- I also have a Disk Warrior disk (never used)
Here is the BAD:
- My built-in optical drive [Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-105] is -- I now discover - defunct and DEAD - it does not run the Tiger Boot DVD (in pristine shape).
- I bought an external SuperDrive (unopened) but I believe no boot from USB 1 is possible in PowerPC so a SuperDrive with USB 1 is useless.
Questions:
1.) Is there any way to boot from some external source (optical drive is DEAD) to run Disk Utility and/or Disk Warrior? -- I see none in this case! (gulp).
2.) More importantly (and this is my fundamental concern): Do the three Disk Utility hard drive issues constitute any direct threat to the integrity of my files?
I have almost everything backed up to duplicate thumb drives over these many months as standard practice.
Are these Disk Utility errors fully isolated to hard drive directory-keeping...or do these directory damage errors pose the possibility of mangling or harming my files or their metadata (filesize, etc.).
Put another way, when files are backed-up from a hard drive under the Disk Utility reports above, do they remain unharmed and undamaged by the situations reported by Disk Utility?
Thanks,
Bill

Jeff and Michael,
Thank you both for your generous and thoughtful input.
Michael: As I slept on it overnight, the exact same idea occurred to me of trying a Target Mode to the iMac from my Lion MacbookPro (I have it but stupidly have yet to use it much!).
I did buy a Firewire 800 (MBP) to Firewire 400 (iMac) adapter cable a few months ago!
CONCERN: Would there be potential compatibility issues or risks in running Lion 10.7's Disk Utility against the hard drive of the old OSX 10.4 iMac in Target Disk Mode?
==> Assuming an "it's ok" answer to the Target Disk question, would the majority of users agree that the Target Disk Mode would be more prudent than running:
fsck -fy in Single User Mode
I have never done fsck -fy before especially because I was under the impression there were issues with Journaled drived but from what I have read today...it looks ok to do)
Jeff: Can't thank you enough for the reference to the OTW DVD drive. I might first invest $10 in one of those DVD lens cleaner disks that I've read about. It's probably not the issue or else why would the drive read commercial Music cds perfectly well!
Thanks,
Bilil

HT1151 i have a new apple external dvd drive, and i can't get it to work with my iMac?

I have a new apple dvd drive, I was told it will work with my imac, but when i plug it in ...nothing... iv been for update... still nothing. How can i get it to work???

If it is this drive, note that it is for MBA's and Mini's only:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC684ZM/A
Ciao.

Windows Vista Home + iTunes = no DVD drives

I am a long time iTunes user, and have been having an issue with iTunes for the last little while. When I install iTunes (I'm on Windows Vista 32 bit, by the way), after the required restart, my DVD drives' icons disappear (I have 2 of them). I can see the DVD drives in the Device Manager, and they say they cannot start. The only I think I've had these problems since about iTunes 7.0, but I don't burn CDs that often, so I've really not felt too bad about it, except that my wife would like to do so. I've done the registry change where you remove the upper and lower filters, which corrects the drive issue, but then presents the seemingly inevitable Registry issue dialog box, without the option to burn CDs. Here are the steps I've done thus far to try to get my computer and iTunes to play nicely:
1. Tried reenabling the UpperFilter for GearAspiWDM as described here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305422
2. Tried downloading new GEAR drivers from their website.
3. Tried uninstalling Quicktime, and then installing it separately.
4. Uninstalled my other music service software (SonicStage), and then reinstalling iTunes.
5. Completely uninstalled iTunes, and then reinstalled it (a couple of iTunes versions ago).
6. Tried uninstalling the non-functioning DVD drives in the device manager, and then scanning for hardware changes. When the UpperFilter was still present, this part failed. It passed after I removed the UpperFilter registry entry.
Please help!
Edit: Here's my most recent diagnostic info (with Drives, without UpperFilters).
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Edition (Build 6000)
MICRO-STAR INC. MS-6728
iTunes 7.6.0.29
QuickTime 7.4
CD Driver 2.0.6.1
CD Driver DLL 2.0.6.2
Apple Mobile Device 1.1.3.26
iTunes Serial Number 20D6EAF059AB94B4
Current user is not an administrator.
The current local date and time is 2008-01-15 18:41:21.
iTunes is not running in safe mode.
Video Display Information
ATI Technologies Inc., Radeon X1600/X1650 Series
ATI Technologies Inc., Radeon X1600/1650 Series Secondary
** External Plug-ins Information **
Plug-in Name: Last.fm iTunes plugin
Plug-in Loaded: Yes
Plug-in Version: 0.0.13
Plug-in File Version: 2.0.13.0
Plug-in Path: C:\Program Files\iTunes\Plug-ins\itw_scrobbler.dll
** CD/DVD Drive Tests **
Failed loading CD / DVD drives, error -43. Try doing a repair install on iTunes from the "Add or Remove Programs" control panel.

Update:
I tried what the diagnostic told me to do, and repaired the installation. I was able to burn a CD in iTunes, but after I restarted, the drives have disappeared again! Here's the diagnostic info now:
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Edition (Build 6000)
MICRO-STAR INC. MS-6728
iTunes 7.6.0.29
QuickTime 7.4
CD Driver 2.0.6.1
CD Driver DLL 2.0.6.2
Apple Mobile Device 1.1.3.26
iTunes Serial Number 20D6EAF059AB94B4
Current user is not an administrator.
The current local date and time is 2008-01-15 19:09:32.
iTunes is not running in safe mode.
Video Display Information
ATI Technologies Inc., Radeon X1600/X1650 Series
ATI Technologies Inc., Radeon X1600/1650 Series Secondary
** External Plug-ins Information **
Plug-in Name: Last.fm iTunes plugin
Plug-in Loaded: Yes
Plug-in Version: 0.0.13
Plug-in File Version: 2.0.13.0
Plug-in Path: C:\Program Files\iTunes\Plug-ins\itw_scrobbler.dll
No drives showed up to be tested.

My DVD drive is no longer recognized.

For the past few months my dvd drive would not open when I used the eject disk function. A few times I went into the startup menu and ejected the disk manually. Now the dvd drive is not even recognized by the computer. This dvd drive is the original and my G5 is at least 5-6 years old. Should I replace the dvd drive or is this a software issue?

Hi birdman1999, and a warm welcome to the forums!
It is very likely it is gone, I've not had an Optical in the last 8 years that lasted that long myself.
Does it not show up even in Disk Utility or System Profiler?
Does it boot off the Install Disc if inserted and holding the c key at bootup?
Here's some options for replacement...
http://eshop.macsales.com/staticpages/Framework.cfm?page=superdrive/sdl_powermacg5.html

DVD Drive on Refurbed 1.3 Gig G4

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