Optical Drive Dead?

Loud noises when mounting (and for no particular reason), also sometimes refuses to burn discs. Dead?

Try these suggestions. If they don't work call apple service.
trouble shooting slot load
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88275-en
Mort

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Optical Drive dead - what external CD/DVD will work?

My three year old white 13" Macbook has a dead optical drive after I dropped it last month. Which external drive will work, especially if I want to do a full restore from the external drive?
Thanks much!
Zake

Hi ZDarton,
I'm a big fan of LaCie, I have several of their external HDs and I've used their external optical drives before for CD replication. Their prices are pretty fair, their build quality is very good and my experiences with their customer service department is always solid. Here's some options from their product line:
Desktop "grade" - http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10014
Portable "grade" - http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10037

Is the optical drive port on my logicboard dead?

Hi all,
I'm running OS X 10.8.5 on a MacBook Pro 15" early-2011 with 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 and 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7. Apple states it only supports up to 8GB but I've been running 16GB for a few years and it works much better!
Additionally I replaced the optical drive many years ago with an OptiBay and a 1TB SSD, and use the main hard drive bay for a 2TB SATA. I would swap them (since the main drive bay has faster speeds) but the 2TB SATA is too thick to fit into the place of the optical bay. This has been working great and every year or so I upgrade a drive. I've been using this configuration for probably a year now and one day the SATA (in the location of the optical bay) stopped working.
I connected the SATA via USB and it works, so it's not the SATA drive. I replaced the OptiBay (which converts the optical port cable to SATA) and that did not resolve it. I then replaced the actual cable as well, and still no go. I tried putting the SSD in the optical bay and no go. Obviously the only thing left is the physical port on the logic board.
Has anyone ran into this? Any thoughts on resolving or what the problem is? I'm very comfortable working with the laptop and have even did SMD (hot air reflowing) of the GPU in the past on this.
ps, One thing that has been strange in the past is that at one point, the same port would *not* work with some drives but would work with others. I replaced the cable that connects from the logic board to the optical drive (or optibay in my configuration) and this resolved it, but the oddity was that it was only certain drives.
Thanks!
-samy

Your HDD or the internal connection cable may have failed. If you have a HDD enclosure, take the internal HHD out and install it into the enclosure. Use the original install disk and see if you can install the OS. If not, the HDD is probably dead and will have to be replaced. If it will accept the OS, then the internal cable is faulty and will have to be replaced.
Ciao.

Mac mini dead, system disc stuck in optical drive

My mini has died:
less than two years old, light comes on but there's no chime and no sound of the optical drive engaging or self-testing or whatever it is usually doing at boot-up.
I have tried everything I know of:
• re-setting PMU
• re-seating the ram
• replacing the hard drive
• using a different mini power supply
• swearing at it
If I remove the ram and power on it hoots so it can at least tell if ram is present....
At first it chimed/light on but (intermittently) nothing more would happen - no sound from optical drive. When it did boot (1 in 3 attempts approximately) it would run without any malfunctions and diagnosis software couldn't find anything wrong.
Progressively less successful start-ups, then start-ups without chime, now nothing.
The techies I have spoken to all say "logic" board is "highly illogical".
Last time it started I put in the OS Install/Hardware Test dvd to run the next time it would boot but its dead now.
Is there any way to manually eject a disc like with the paperclip hole in the larger style of drive?
I have the mini's case removed but I can't see one...
I'm very disappointed, all my previous macs have kept working for five years or more!

I've been using macs for more than 16 years, I've taken many apart to replace RAM, processors, PCI cards and hard disks. I'd like to think I know what I'm doing...
The problems predate my opening the mini up.
Today it booted up long enough to run the Hardware Test!
(still no chime)
No problems found!!
It restarted again, enabling me to install the OS on the re-formatted hard disk!!!
After that, I restarted (no option to eject the DVD disc) and it's dead again!!!!
Here in Australia I think "service" just means replacing the motherboard, which is more than the thing is worth...

Optical drive....dead or software issue? How can I tell?

I'm using a PowerMac G5 with OS 10.4.11. Recently I routinely went to put a DVD-R into the drive to copy some archived files for a client, and it froze. I restarted, drive wouldn't work or eject. I got the disc out using the "paperclip" hole on the drive, but now, the drive isn't even showing up in the System Profiler. When I go to ATA in the Hardware section it says "no information found." The eject button doesn't work on my keyboard either.
I've tried taking the drive out and cleaning it, and tried to use the Hardware Test that came on my G5 disc but it won't work. I also booted from a system disc on my backup external Firewire CD drive and ran Disk Utility/repair disk, and it did some repair but the darned Optical drive is still showing as "no information found."
I've since ordered a new drive and I'm waiting for it to arrive, but is there any way for me to tell if this is a software/OS X issue, or if it's a hardware one?

I just wanted to add that this just happened to me on my G5,I put in a store bought CD and noticed it did not show up on the desk,so I decided to eject and I would not. I tried the paper clip method and it opened it a bit but not enough. Then I discovered on reboot that the drive was not even a choice any more.I still tried to get the disc to eject and finally did,somehow,now I am afraid to insert anything in my Super drive,what is going on I wonder. The system did not even see the drive until I forced it open then everything looks fine. I find it too unusual we would both be having the same issues,I dunno.
Check that: I did insert my Leopard install disc and on the next reboot ran Disc Utility,everything worked fine there,eject and everything!

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
does not even know it has a cd/dvd drive anymore. The drive is spinning,
but the OS does not see a disk. Nothing in disk utility. Holding down
mouse button or eject key does nothing. Trying drutil seems to do nothing.
Choosing about this mac tells me there no Disc Burning device was found.
Arg.
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.
I'm thinking just buy an external cd/dvd drive/burner would be a good option for this machine. Any specific suggestions? Anything more I should try before I throw money at it?
The other issue is, I hate wasting battery spinning a disk the machine cannot seem to see. Do I have to open the machine up (or pay somebody to do it) to turn
off the defective internal drive?
Is there a reasonably priced internal (or external) drive that would be recognised by the system should I have to reload or update the OS at some point?
Thanks for your help.

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.
It's also possible that one of the cables to the optical drive has come undone and needs to be reseated.
On the other hand, I have been reading about optical drive problems on this forum for some time, and some people thing the internal optical drive is just not of the best possible quality. So investing in a good external optical drive may not be a bad strategy.
Good luck!

Just got back from the Apple Store...optical drive officially dead

I just got back from the Apple Store, which confirmed what I feared all along. I received my MBP C2D over the holidays and was worried when it had trouble booting up several times. After trying to burn a few cds (some would quit, others worked fine), and a few discs that refused to read or eject I visited the boards to find out that issues with the Matshita UJ 587 were widespread. At this point my computer does not even recognize the ATA or Disc Burning hardware or the OSX disc inside. The only positive to come out of this is the customer service offered by Apple. I took the computer to the genius bar and the computer refused to boot up after the tech installed an OSX disc (hence the stuck cd inside). They are giving me a new computer since this one is brand new, but unfortunately I will have to order it from Apple Care since it is a custom job. For all of you out there with early MBP C2D optical drives that are acting up I feel your pain. Get your computer into an Apple store before the problem gets worse, these optical drives are awful.
Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33 Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Thank you. After 2 hours on the phone with Apple Care this morning they finally confirmed what the Mac Genius told me last night. The computer was shipped back this afternoon and I'll post again if there's any trouble with the new unit, I think I just got a lemon with this one...too bad. This is my first Mac so I'm really trying hard to stay positive.

Gray Screen w/o Pinwheel and a dead optical drive-what to do?

This is a G4 iMac 700Mhz Flat-panel Running OS 10.4.9. The internal optical drive long ago gave up the ghost. I have been using an external LaCie optical drive which is firewire. The gray screen of death arrived this AM after software update the previous evening with Apple logo, but no pinwheel. Tried Reset PRAM (-); tried single user mode (-); tried booting from the firewire drive . Any suggestions? Hardware? Software? Time for a new machine?

Hurray!! Dodged another bullet. Hooked into the desktop HD using Firewire Target disk mode and was able to wash it with DIsk Warrior 3.03. Then I ran Disk Utility to repair any permissions and it booted right up. Thanks for the Help!!

Mid-2010 Mac Mini, dead optical drive: Are any slim Firewire DVD burners compatible?

The optical drive on my Mac Mini seems to have died prematurely, as the OEM drives are known to do. Estimated cost of replacing the internal component: $170. And it would be the exact same model Apple optical drive, not a more robust one.
Now very reluctantly thinking of adding yet another peripheral. USB ports are pretty well filled but I don't use the Firewire port for anything.
Trouble is, since Apple discontinued Firewire, the manufacturers of Mac-compatible optical drives aren't making Firewire models any more.
There are a few recent Firewire DVD burners from PC peripheral manufacturers, such as Acer, Aopen, Dell, Pioneer, Sony (Amazon reviews say it's restricted to burning Sony media) in a small "slim" form factor.
Anyone have information about their compatibility with Firewire 800 on mid-2010 Mac mini, Mac OS 10.10.1 Yosemite?

There are some steps involved which may translate to tedium,
as noted in the repair guide for the Mid 2010 Mini from iFixit.
•Mac Mini - Mid 2010 Repair Guide - iFixit:
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Mini_Mid_2010
At about Step 25, of an overall rated Difficult process, you can
see the Optical Drive, and likely be at a point to install replace-
ment, then reverse the process; paying heed to advice given.
•Mac Mini - Model A1347 - Optical Drive Replacement - iFixit:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Model+A1347+Optical+Drive+Replacement/3167
At least you can get into this computer. Be sure to have a spare
optical drive cable and other possible items that may get broken
in the process. Oh there also is a PRAM battery in this computer
that may or may not need replacement while it is open...
If at one point, if several parts were to be replaced at one time, a
visit to a service technician becomes very cost effective. Find one
that will install the parts you may get from third-party sources. If
you know someone at a college computer lab, they may be able
to perform the swap, test their work, and be done, in short order.
Or, chose to use an external inexpensive 'superdrive' equivalent.
I'd heard the LG brand was among some that work, and can also
be used to boot the computer from System DVD or utility discs...
It is a USB drive, can burn DVD/CD media, and is not costly.
The ability to swap out the defective optical drive, and replace it
with an SSD or second storage drive, may be a way to go; but
it also would be at least as tedious as optical drive replacement.
This may add value to the device, in a resale situation later.
That would use the 'drive doubler' idea referred to at macsales.
In the above main guide, is a primer on how to swap out the optical
drive and replace it with a second hard disk drive or solid state drive.
Similar to what the OWC site says, but they have a good kit, too.
Good luck & happy computing!

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

[SOLVED] Optical drive no longer detected

Edit:This is so stupid. I had it disabled in BIOS. I don't remember doing it. I apologize for the noise.
I don't know when this happened, but fairly recently. Maybe with linux-3.2 or kmod.
My optical drive is no longer detected. This is what I found in my old logs:
kernel.log.3:Dec 18 22:39:31 localhost kernel: [ 5.277389] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
kernel.log.3:Dec 18 22:39:31 localhost kernel: [ 5.277738] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
I no longe have any mention of sr0 anywhere and I can't eject the drive. It's completely dead while Arch is booted. It works fine when I'm in the BIOS configuration menu.
Am I missing a module or something like that?
Last edited by Lars Stokholm (2012-01-11 17:05:13)

i agree. in my case only detect CDemu drive
EDIT: restart my machine. now detect all optical drives
Last edited by sl1pkn07 (2012-01-11 03:19:57)

Optical drive picks and chooses when it will work

For some reason, the optical drive on our Mac has been acting weird for about 3 months. It will only read my husband's games (Civ IV and Command and Conquer). It won't read any of our kids' games, my CDs, or any of our backup CD-Roms. It also won't burn any CD-roms. I haven't checked recently, but a couple of weeks ago my 7 y.old was watching Harry Potter on it, so I guess the DVD function still works.
I'm assuming that we need a new drive. Space on my desk is at a premium, so I'd like to find something internal rather than external. I don't burn disks very often--usually just backup disks and photos a few times a year. We don't burn DVDs, at least not yet!
Is my hypothesis correct in that the drive is kaput? If so, what should I look for in a new drive? Are there any especially good drives? And is an internal drive a good choice (assuming that external drives come with more bells and whistles)?
I have installed memory upgrades several times over the years , so I'm pretty comfortable working inside a Mac. (Eeep, 1st Mac Love was in 1988 <--dating myself). Is this a job that I could do myself?
Any help is welcome!
Thank you--
Jane Healy
Machine information:
PowerMac G4 with dual 867 MHz processors, 1 MB L3 cache per processor, 1.75 GB DDR SDRAM and using OS 10.4.9.
Here's the info on the drive:
PHILIPS CDD5101:
Firmware Revision: A4.2
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 8192 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-Raw
Media: No
PowerMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Sure sounds dead to me. If it won't play or record at all, that's a very bad sign. The lens cleaning trick may work, but you should have noticed a lot of skipping before it got to the point you are at now if it was just the lens. But that's definitely what you want to do first, to be sure.
Installing an optical drive is not difficult. OWC has a great series of videos on how to do so at this link: http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/installation.cfm
Pioneer drives are very popular with Macs and for good reason. The current version is the 112, and has received generally good reviews (OWC carries the 112, although New Egg has a cheaper price. Both are bare drives - not retail versions, but you can just reuse the screws and cables you have). xlr8yourmac maintains a user database of people's experiences with different drives in different machines at this link:
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso
It's an excellent source of info. If you want to go with a retail package, it will cost more. Best Buy carries the 112, but Pioneer gives it a different number in the retail version (it's the 1810).The retail package will give you some windows software and screws and a cable. Now that I think of it, I don't know if your machine has a 40 or 80 wire cable; you'd need the latter to get full dvd burning speed from the drive. If you want to go external, I just got a Samsung 184 and it works beautifully, on sale at Best Buy but sale ends today. A combo drive like the Philips will only run about $10 cheaper than a dvd burner.
Look to spend about $40 for a bare drive, $65 for a boxed version, $80 to $100 for an external.
mac pro, dual 1.25 g4 Mac OS X (10.4.9) dell 9200, dell xps 400

EMac optical drive: Reads but ceased writing. I get "Sense key=MEDIUM ERROR, Sense Code=0x0C, WRITE ERROR. Drive is Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-127D.

eMac optical drive: reads fine but has ceased writing. One day it's working fine, burning DVDs, then after repeated attempts stops copying and gives the following error message: "Sense key=MEDIUM ERROR, Sense Code=0x0C, WRITE ERROR". Drive is Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-127D. Is this a software issue or is the drive half dead? Get the same result with either Popcorn or Toast 10.

Are you using Roxio Toast? That error seems to be discussed a lot in the Roxio forums. Scroll down this thread:
http://forums.support.roxio.com/topic/1686-the-drive-reported-an-error-sense-key medium-error-etc/
and you'll find a step-by-step troubleshooting scheme.

Will the optical drive from a 14" iBook G3 fit and work in a 12" iBook G3?(

The logic board in my 14" G3 finally died (after two replacements). I've got a 13" G3 that works great, but has the CD-ROM optical drive.
Will the combo drive from the dead 14" fit in the 13" (and, more importantly, will it work)? I'm not afraid of the disassembly - I've replaced iBook hard drives before, so I know the drill - but I don't want to start on the job, only to find that the drive won't fit or won't work.
I've read some posts online about master vs slave settings, HD jumpers, and so forth, but I don't think they're talking about a swap job like this.
Any help and advice is greatly appreciated.
Dick

Dick,
Here's the Apple part numbers for the 14" and 12" from the manuals:
14"
Optical Drive
CD-ROM 661-2667
CD-RW/DVD-ROM 661-2683
CD-ROM 661-1775
COMBO 661-1776
12"
Optical Drive Assembly w/Bezel
CD-ROM 661-1775 (Good)
Combo 661-1776 (Better)
So the numbers seem identical hard to tell from the info I have if the cables are the same but even if they aren't there are usually just adapters that screw into the back to adapt to different cables. Since you have both iBooks you'll have those adapters.
There also seem to be differences in the bracketing but you'll also have those so I'd give it a try.
Oh and also the bezels might be different.
Richard

Mac Pro won't power optical drive or internal hard drives?!?!?!?!

I'm in a strange predicament. I've acquired a used 2006 Mac Pro that I've gotten to power up just fine. I get the start up chime and the screen goes grey. The problem is that it will stay on that grey screen for 5 minutes or so until a flashing folder appears. It never loads the OS. So I've loaded the OS on an old Firewire external HDD and the computer will boot fine off of that. When using the external, I've noticed that System Profiler is not detecting my internal HDD or optical drive. I do not think they are receiving any power. They both show no signs of activity, functionally or audibly. I've tried reseting the SMC, zapping PRAM- even swapping power supplies. Nothing. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Hi Grant Bennet-Alder. The HDD and optical drive are both installed and all the cables are connected to both the logic board and the devices themselves. The reason I think they aren't receiving power is usually you can hear some activity from them. These seem completely dead but work fine in a different computer.

Optical Drive Dead?

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