2twisty Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 I've got a 2.0GHz MacBook with the superdrive that I bought in early 2007. It came with Tiger and everything was fine. I installed Leopard back in November, and have done both updates and am now at 10.5.2. I don't use the SuperDrive much in my MacBook, so I don't know exactly when this started. I noticed about a week ago when I was trying to erase a CD-RW that Disk Utility said it could not be erased. I was able to erase it just fine in my Windows Box upstaris. So, last night, I go to reinstall Windows on my BootCamp partition and I can't read the Windows CD. I pop in a DVD and all is fine. It just accepts CDs, twiddles them for a second and then spits them out. So, for giggles, I installed Tiger onto the now blank partition I was going to use for Windows. When I booted Tiger, the drive WORKED! CDs, DVDs, CD-RW.. Everything. So I boot back to Leopard and it sees the drive and works. So I figure that the installer for Tiger did something to "fix" the drive. So I wipe the Tiger install and go to reboot so I can install Windows on the now blank partition. It won't boot the CD, or even show it when I hold OPTION. So I boot back to Leopard and it's doing the same {censored} again. It will read DVD media but not CDs. Because of the behavior in Tiger, I know the drive is fine. I'm going to reinstall Tiger on my partition tonight to see if that works. I may wind up having to go back to tiger! I've seen many posts about a firmware update patch, but that didn't work for me. I can only assume that there's something wrong with my install of Leopard, but I've reinstalled it once before. I guess I can try doing a fresh Leopard install on the alternate partition, too. If that works, then I guess my install is hosed. I'd rather not reinstall all my apps again! Any ideas? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quackit Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 If I'm not mistaken, are the Apple supplied Superdrives not Pioneer drives? At least, at one point I think they were. I have no idea if they still are or not. You could see if there is a firmware update for your drive. I had to do this a while back on one of my drives. (For enabling faster burn speeds.) Yes, you'll need to hook it up to a windows machine. I'd find out if you can even update it first, of course. To be honest, it sounds like the drive is just simply dying. I'd take it to a field somewhere and let it 'go'. [EDIT] Also.. drives are really cheap these days. I just bought a 20x SATA DVD burner for less than 40 bucks. Yeah.. external sucks for lappys, but it's an option. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-644258 Share on other sites More sharing options...
2twisty Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 Hmm. If the drive were dying, I would imagine that it would fail in Tiger AND Leopard in the same way. The drive in these MacBooks was a Matsu{censored}a drive UJ-857D. I'll do some more testing to see if I can determine definitively if it's Leopard causing it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-644434 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quackit Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Hmm. If the drive were dying, I would imagine that it would fail in Tiger AND Leopard in the same way. Yeah, if you only see it that way. After years of help-desk and troubleshooting I tend not to read only what people write/say No offense bro, it's just how I analyze things. Since it's Apple supplied hardware, I don't believe that it's the OS since there is not a barrage of users throwin down some complaints on the Apple discussion threads. (I didn't check extensively, maybe I missed something if you wanted to look more). My experience with drives that behave in this manner tells me that the drive is soon-to-be no-more. I've had a DVD drive die in this same way. It would read some CDs and then not. At first I thought that it was the crappy/old CDs, until one day (very soon after) it just stopped reading everything all together. Sure, the OS and the application that you use does make a difference, and it simply could be a software problem.. but if it's that I'd still bank more on a firmware issue. If there isn't a firmware update for the drive.. then my opinion is that the drive is nearly ka-poot, and cannot be saved (but can be abused till it completely dies). If it turns out to be an issue with Leopard then I'd be surprised, but not shocked. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-644455 Share on other sites More sharing options...
2twisty Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 Heh. I've got years of troubleshooting experience, too--and it suggests software to me. Interesting how the same info can lead to different diagnoses. I figured I'd ask if anyone else had experienced similar issues before I went whole-hog to test if this is a software issue or not. I'll find out in the next couple days if I can duplicate it. If it DOES turn out to be hardware, I'm gonna be hella mad at Apple. The machine is just barely (like 1 month or less) out of warranty. I guess I could call Apple to see if they'll do anything for me. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-644523 Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan6288 Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 I had a dvd rw and it lost the ability to read cds. I just burned windows to a dvd. Installed fine and still using it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-644746 Share on other sites More sharing options...
2twisty Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 So, would that burner work in one version of an OS but not another? Or was it completely toast no matter what you did? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-644749 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cubric Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 LOL I have the same problems but with DVDs instead. I couldnt read blank DVDs but reads DVD videos and reads CD-Rs. and yes it was after the update. Have you tried resetting the PRAMs? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-644767 Share on other sites More sharing options...
2twisty Posted February 28, 2008 Author Share Posted February 28, 2008 UPDATE: The drive is toast. I guess the fact that it started working in Tiger was a fluke. I was unable to recreate the behavior of having it work in tiger and not in leopard. So... I called Apple. I literally had about 5 hours left on my 1 year warranty. So, I'm going to send it in to have the drive replaced. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-647392 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cubric Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Damn. Mine must be as well then. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-647889 Share on other sites More sharing options...
exholt Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Oddly enough, the superdrive on my mother's MBP started to act wonky about a year after purchase in 2006. Fortunately, I purchased it for her with the Applecare extended warranty with my AMEX card which adds another year on top. The drive started to stop recognizing, much less burning CD-Rs...but was still burning DVDs swimmingly for another 6 months until verification failures and burn failures started occurring. Brought it in to one of the "Geniuses" at the Genius Bar and he found the drive was screwed up as well and had it send in for drive replacement. Since the notebook was repaired a week ago, the new drive has burned 10 DVDs and 3 CD-Rs without any mishaps. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-648014 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cubric Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 Surprisingly, there are members in a different forum experiencing these symptoms of optical drive failure. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-648380 Share on other sites More sharing options...
2twisty Posted February 29, 2008 Author Share Posted February 29, 2008 When I told the guy at Apple that I had researched my problem and found that it is not uncommon for these matsu{censored}a drives to fail, he seemed surprised. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-648838 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quackit Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 I literally had about 5 hours left on my 1 year warranty. So, I'm going to send it in to have the drive replaced. Huzzah! That's awesome. Good to hear that you got it worked out in time. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-648858 Share on other sites More sharing options...
2twisty Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 UPDATE: The box from Apple arrived on March 1. I packed up the laptop and DHL picked it upa t about 6PM on March 3rd. Fedex tried to deliver the completed laptop on March 5th! I wasn't there (since I wasn't expecting that fast a turnaround) and they tried again yesterday and I missed it again. So I went down to the Fedex office and picked it up. Not only did they replace my superdrive, but they put a whole new keyboard/trackpad unit on! (mine had a small piece cracked off of it in the lower right corner, and it had some "greasy" fingerprints in a few places.) I was FLOORED! I've ***NEVER*** received service like I experienced. I am so happy! This Macbook is the first Mac I have bought new. I don't think I'll be buying a PC for general use again. For servers and special use, I may build one and either run Windows on it or even OSX86. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/90296-leopard-broke-my-superdrive/#findComment-657777 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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