PB G4 Combo Drive Writer intermittant failure

Hi-
Using Toast 6 (have successfully for some time now) my writen CD's (data) fail to verify, although they mount. The problem started last night, after an intensive burning session (6 disks in a row). This morning, after an all night shutdown, verification still fails.
After the first year of ownership, I had the drive replaced due to a writing problem. This one has worked fine for years. DVD's play fine. CD's boot, I have restarted, let the machine cool, reset PMU, restarted Toast.
I watch alot of Netflix DVD's on the road and am wondering if the lens might be dirty. I am due for a new machine, so I don't want to replace the drive just because it won't write. Currently it's the only wat I have to burn archival CD's
Any suggestions? TIA

Many people find the ifixit.com online repair guides worth looking at.
If the drive worked again after the cleaning (after it had stopped working before that), and if you're going to write off the drive anyway, you may want to try giving it a manual cleaning. I remember at least one person who posted that actually opening up the drive and doing a manual cleaning of the lense/s was the only thing that worked for him. Not for the faint of heart though.

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Welcome to Apple Discussions!
It is possible that the drive has been damaged, in which case if it can't read the correct track of an inserted disk, it will automatically eject it. The fact the drive pulls the disk in and spins it up at all suggests the drive is otherwise functional, thus tending to indicate the lens is at fault.
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If that doesn't help, try a lens cleaner. That has been known to help in these situations.
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I have an iBook G3 600MHZ 8mb vram (late 2001).
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Like altero said, you're not using Toast properly... Follow these directions:
Suggest you create a disc image from iDVD and then burn the DVD. In iDVD: File/Save as Disc Image...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=164927
This will isolate any encoding/burning issues you may encounter. Once the disc image is created, double-click the .img and burn the virtual disc that should appear on your desktop, using Toast to burn the DVD. Disk Utility to burn the .img file. Usually, you can select a burning speed in Disk Utility.
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Open Disk Utility (in Utilities folder in Applications folder), click on the virtual disc (maybe the .img) in the left-hand window. Click the Burn icon. A new window should drop down and your SuperDrive tray will open after clicking the Burn icon. Insert a recordable DVD. (Verbatim DVD-R preferred by me.) Click the Close button. Wait. Select a burn speed. If you hold your mouse cursor over the pop-up it says: "Select a slower speed to work around burn failures," so select 4x or slower for best results. Then click the Burn button.
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It might, except there are significant issues with fraud on eBay:
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Details of MBP Disc Drive:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857:
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Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

Is Sony CRX170E the original "Combo Drive" for MDD?

Hello all,
Last week I bought on eBay a used Power Mac G4 "Mirrored Drive Doors" 867 DP model, which arrived today. Unfortunately, the optical drive in the computer is apparently unable to recognize or read DVD discs, even though the specifications for this model indicate that the included optical drive is supposed to be a "Combo Drive" that reads DVDs as well as reading and writing CDs. I'm trying to determine whether the optical drive in this particular computer is original equipment, whether it is supposed to be able to read DVDs, whether it is malfunctioning, and whether I have reason to complain to the seller of the item.
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~ Justin

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*SONY CD-RW CRX170E:*
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Hi Steve,
No-one bothers with Combos these days as Superdrives (DVD burning) are quite cheap.
I replaced in my eMac a Combo, originally a Pioneer drive with a Pioneer Super DVD 109 8X DVD-R/RW drive from OWC. It works great.
The current model is a DVR - 115 D but is essentially the same and would suit your model.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/powermac/
Installing it was easy.
Remove the shell, and carefully disconnect the power wire.
Remove the screws that hold the optical drive, slide it out and install the new one.
No software drivers are needed.
regards roam

PB G4 Combo Drive Writer intermittant failure

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