Replacing a Superdrive - is there a better option?

I have a third-generation iMac that is about 18 months old. Suddenly (i.e. today) the DVD drive will not read data DVD disks that it wrote in the last 3 days. This is a problem because these DVDs were supposed to be my backup of some critical data.
I know that the write was successful because I read the data fine yesterday, AND I can read it fine using an external LaCie DVD drive.
The weird thing is that it is only data DVDs that the drive is not reading. I can read commercial and home made video DVDs with no problem!
The machine is out of warranty and if I have to replace it I doubt I would want another Matshita UJ-846. Is this not a good model, or did I just get a bad one? I'm pretty suspicious now because my the DVD drive on my wife's new iBook just died - after only 3 months!
Has anybody run into this problem reading data DVDs?
Can anyone recommend a better replacement for the Matshita?
Thanks,
Chet

srekdal,
Welcome to Apple Discussions!
It is better if you start your own topic thread here if you don't have solutions which work for the original poster:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=592
You'll get more focussed attention, and you won't confuse the original poster with responses that don't apply to them.
As the iMac G5 never came in dual 2 GHz model, and that's what your profile says you have, I've directed you to that forum. If in fact you have an iMac G5, post to this link:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=875
This article helps you identify iMacs:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301724
The PowerMac G5 is a tower which looks like this:
As for voiding the warranty, no one here can say, since no one here works for AppleCare. You'd best ask that question of AppleCare directly at 1-800-APLCARE.
Not all third party burners work with Apple software. Those you can add http://www.patchburn.de/ to will. http://www.macsales.com/ comes with that preinstalled.

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Hi,
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Message was edited by: Steve Mizen

Is there any better option than this slow query?

Hi all,
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Is There a Better Way to Work in the Marker List Window?

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Is there a better way to do this projection/aggregate query?

Hi,
Summary:
Can anyone offer advice on how best to use JDO to perform
projection/aggregate queries? Is there a better way of doing what is
described below?
Details:
The web application I'm developing includes a GUI for ad-hoc reports on
JDO's. Unlike 3rd party tools that go straight to the database we can
implement business rules that restrict access to objects (by adding extra
predicates) and provide extra calculated fields (by adding extra get methods
to our JDO's - no expression language yet). We're pleased with the results
so far.
Now I want to make it produce reports with aggregates and projections
without instantiating JDO instances. Here is an example of the sort of thing
I want it to be capable of doing:
Each asset has one associated t.description and zero or one associated
d.description.
For every distinct combination of t.description and d.description (skip
those for which there are no assets)
calculate some aggregates over all the assets with these values.
and here it is in SQL:
select t.description type, d.description description, count(*) count,
sum(a.purch_price) sumPurchPrice
from assets a
left outer join asset_descriptions d
on a.adesc_no = d.adesc_no,
asset_types t
where a.atype_no = t.atype_no
group by t.description, d.description
order by t.description, d.description
it takes <100ms to produce 5300 rows from 83000 assets.
The nearest I have managed with JDO is (pseodo code):
perform projection query to get t.description, d.description for every asset
loop on results
if this is first time we've had this combination of t.description,
d.description
perform aggregate query to get aggregates for this combination
The java code is below. It takes about 16000ms (with debug/trace logging
off, c.f. 100ms for SQL).
If the inner query is commented out it takes about 1600ms (so the inner
query is responsible for 9/10ths of the elapsed time).
Timings exclude startup overheads like PersistenceManagerFactory creation
and checking the meta data against the database (by looping 5 times and
averaging only the last 4) but include PersistenceManager creation (which
happens inside the loop).
It would be too big a job for us to directly generate SQL from our generic
ad-hoc report GUI, so that is not really an option.
KodoQuery q1 = (KodoQuery) pm.newQuery(Asset.class);
q1.setResult(
"assetType.description, assetDescription.description");
q1.setOrdering(
"assetType.description ascending,
assetDescription.description ascending");
KodoQuery q2 = (KodoQuery) pm.newQuery(Asset.class);
q2.setResult("count(purchPrice), sum(purchPrice)");
q2.declareParameters(
"String myAssetType, String myAssetDescription");
q2.setFilter(
"assetType.description == myAssetType &&
assetDescription.description == myAssetDescription");
q2.compile();
Collection results = (Collection) q1.execute();
Set distinct = new HashSet();
for (Iterator i = results.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
Object[] cols = (Object[]) i.next();
String assetType = (String) cols[0];
String assetDescription = (String) cols[1];
String type_description =
assetDescription != null
? assetType + "~" + assetDescription
: assetType;
if (distinct.add(type_description)) {
Object[] cols2 =
(Object[]) q2.execute(assetType,
assetDescription);
// System.out.println(
// "type "
// + assetType
// + ", description "
// + assetDescription
// + ", count "
// + cols2[0]
// + ", sum "
// + cols2[1]);
q2.closeAll();
q1.closeAll();

Neil,
It sounds like the problem that you're running into is that Kodo doesn't
yet support the JDO2 grouping constructs, so you're doing your own
grouping in the Java code. Is that accurate?
We do plan on adding direct grouping support to our aggregate/projection
capabilities in the near future, but as you've noticed, those
capabilities are not there yet.
-Patrick
Neil Bacon wrote:
Hi,
Summary:
Can anyone offer advice on how best to use JDO to perform
projection/aggregate queries? Is there a better way of doing what is
described below?
Details:
The web application I'm developing includes a GUI for ad-hoc reports on
JDO's. Unlike 3rd party tools that go straight to the database we can
implement business rules that restrict access to objects (by adding extra
predicates) and provide extra calculated fields (by adding extra get methods
to our JDO's - no expression language yet). We're pleased with the results
so far.
Now I want to make it produce reports with aggregates and projections
without instantiating JDO instances. Here is an example of the sort of thing
I want it to be capable of doing:
Each asset has one associated t.description and zero or one associated
d.description.
For every distinct combination of t.description and d.description (skip
those for which there are no assets)
calculate some aggregates over all the assets with these values.
and here it is in SQL:
select t.description type, d.description description, count(*) count,
sum(a.purch_price) sumPurchPrice
from assets a
left outer join asset_descriptions d
on a.adesc_no = d.adesc_no,
asset_types t
where a.atype_no = t.atype_no
group by t.description, d.description
order by t.description, d.description
it takes <100ms to produce 5300 rows from 83000 assets.
The nearest I have managed with JDO is (pseodo code):
perform projection query to get t.description, d.description for every asset
loop on results
if this is first time we've had this combination of t.description,
d.description
perform aggregate query to get aggregates for this combination
The java code is below. It takes about 16000ms (with debug/trace logging
off, c.f. 100ms for SQL).
If the inner query is commented out it takes about 1600ms (so the inner
query is responsible for 9/10ths of the elapsed time).
Timings exclude startup overheads like PersistenceManagerFactory creation
and checking the meta data against the database (by looping 5 times and
averaging only the last 4) but include PersistenceManager creation (which
happens inside the loop).
It would be too big a job for us to directly generate SQL from our generic
ad-hoc report GUI, so that is not really an option.
KodoQuery q1 = (KodoQuery) pm.newQuery(Asset.class);
q1.setResult(
"assetType.description, assetDescription.description");
q1.setOrdering(
"assetType.description ascending,
assetDescription.description ascending");
KodoQuery q2 = (KodoQuery) pm.newQuery(Asset.class);
q2.setResult("count(purchPrice), sum(purchPrice)");
q2.declareParameters(
"String myAssetType, String myAssetDescription");
q2.setFilter(
"assetType.description == myAssetType &&
assetDescription.description == myAssetDescription");
q2.compile();
Collection results = (Collection) q1.execute();
Set distinct = new HashSet();
for (Iterator i = results.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
Object[] cols = (Object[]) i.next();
String assetType = (String) cols[0];
String assetDescription = (String) cols[1];
String type_description =
assetDescription != null
? assetType + "~" + assetDescription
: assetType;
if (distinct.add(type_description)) {
Object[] cols2 =
(Object[]) q2.execute(assetType,
assetDescription);
// System.out.println(
// "type "
// + assetType
// + ", description "
// + assetDescription
// + ", count "
// + cols2[0]
// + ", sum "
// + cols2[1]);
q2.closeAll();
q1.closeAll();

How do I replace my superdrive in my late 2007 macbook pro 15 inch?

My macbook pro doesn't read or burn CD's, doesn't burn DVD's. It's a 5 year old computer and I'm sure it's time to replace the superdrive in it. Is there a step by step procedure in doing this that I can do myself? I went into an apple store and was told the optical drive needs to be replaced. I'm assuming superdrive and optical drive are the same thing?....

After you visit either PowerBookMedic.com or IFixIt.com to purchase a replacement that will surely surpass the original in terms of speed and reliability in burning, amble over to their DIY section where you will find either pictorial or video procedures.
Yes, superdrive == optical drive.

Replacing a Superdrive - is there a better option?

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