MBP Optical Drive Speeds...

I have a MacBook Pro 2.33GHz (Core2) with a HL-DT-ST-DVDRW GWA4080MA (AE38). I've been noticing that this drive is pretty **** slow. Since I couldn't find benchmarking programs for Mac, I ran Nero CD/DVD speed tests in Windows XP (BootCamp).
CD Read = 8x
DVD Read = 1.1x
CD Burn (using different brand discs at 40x and 52x) = 8x (to start, but slowed down as it progressed)
I am an Apple fan, but for $2500, I should not have an optical drive that's only slightly faster than my iBook from 2001. What gives?

Interestingly enough, tried another 52x using Toast rather than the finder. It had me at 10x, eventually going to 11x, eventually jumping to 20x, and then flip-flopped from 20x to 21x for the remainder of the 700mb burn. Really. Is this normal? Am I seeing a normal 24x Superdrive (CD-R) at work here? My PowerMac G5's burner seems faster and it, too, is rated at 24x.
Pretty soon, I'll be racing my MBP against another MBP of the same model and see what's up.

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    haha! my native language?
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    Message was edited by: K515

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    Message was edited by: Bilbo Bowman

    It makes sense that the optical drive would be more efficient on a newer machine, but keep in mind also the little things: Did you run any other applications in the background during the transfer or use the computer while it was going on? Things like that that may not seem to matter actually can slow down the machine a significant amount.

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  • MBP optical drive enclosure kit?

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  • Adjusting Optical Drive Speed

    I've recently moved over from windows and am enjoying the mac experience. Every now and then though I come across things which I knew how do in windows but don't know how to achieve in OS X. One of those things was the ability in windows (through 3rd party apps) to manage the speed of the optical drive. This control of the optical drive allowed you to listen to audio cd's or watch dvds without the very distracting noise of an optical drive spinning at high speed.
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    Message was edited by: BGmail

  • It looks like my MBP optical drive is dead - arg!

    I have a Macbook Pro - circa 2006. This one does not have apple care.
    I've got a blank cdr stuck inside it. As near as I can tell the macbook
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    I don't burn things on this machine often, so it is not critical, but is nice to have. The geniuses I run into seem to know less than the people here. I guess I should give them a try, but I'm already afraid of what they'll estimate for repair.
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    It may be something of a long shot, but you might check to see that DVD player is still in your applications folder. Also, you could try verifying both permissions and the disk, and repair if necessary. I don't know if that will help, but it won't hurt anything. It may even be worth trying to reinstall the OS, just in case it has somehow gotten corrupted and is not recognizing the optical drive. It might be worth booting from your install disc and navigate to Disk Utility and see if you can see the optical drive then.
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