Super Drive Not Functioning. Hardware? Software?

CDs will not open. When I try a DVD I get a message that says: Supported Disc Not Available. I first noticed a problem when my DiskWarrior startup disc would not open for a rebuild. I tried the Tiger Install DVD to access the disk utility but nothing happened there either. Nothing mounts. This is distressing since the nearest Apple Store is about 50 miles away. Any ideas anybody? Any other information that might be required to hopefully clear this up I will gladly furnish. Thanks. Jack

I have been having an intermittent problem with my super drive on an iMac G4 (1 GHz, 10.5.8, Pioneer DVR 105). Several months ago, it would not recognize a music CD (Next to Normal). I thought it was a problem with the disk, but I had the same difficulty with a replacement. Those disks worked in two other Macs in the house as well as regular CD and DVD players. Now, it won't read my new copy of Turbo Tax 2009. The drive just whirrs and chugs for 30-45 seconds then ejects the disk. Everything else plays fine (especially DVDs). What's really strange is that I went back to my TurboTax disk from last year (which installed fine then), and it wouldn't read that either. I have repaired permissions, zapped the PRAM (but not reset the PMU), and had the computer shut down dozens of times between tries. It seems something is causing just these disks not to be read correctly. I haven't tried a cleaner, but it seems like this is solely a problem in the drive itself. Any other suggestions?

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    super drive not working

    Hello bikeros,
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    If you're having issues with the optical drive on your Mac, then please follow the troubleshooting found in the article below.
    Get help with the slot-loading SuperDrive on your Mac computer - Apple Support
    Take care,
    Alex H.

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    Hi
    Thats very strange.
    For me your description sounds like hardware malfunction but I cannot believe that this could happen after using the drive only two times.
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    The mentioned CD/DVD manufacturers are unknown to most peoples but these are ONLY manufacturers and not vendors like i.e TDK.
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    <Subject Edited by Host>

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