Superdrive Issue, it is a big one :(

  • Thread starter quickfingers100
  • Start date
Q

quickfingers100

Guest
Hey,
Here is my problem. I am on my second eMac, 1ghz, 256mb, 80gig hd, x4 superdrive. All was fine up until the other day.

The Problem:

I watched a DVD, all was fine. Quit the DVD app and messed around on my computer for 30 mins. Then decided to watch another film, placed in in the superdrive, DVD player loaded as normal but started to play the previous DVD I watched earlier that night as if from memory. Quit the app, tried again and the superdrive wouldn't read the DVD and the DVD app wouldn't open. It then spat out the DVD.

More problems: Here are the set of problems I have.

When I boot up the computer, the first DVD I play is fine. I can watch it from start to finish. All DVD-Rs, CD-Rs, Audio CDs, Retail DVDs can all be viewed/played/mounted and I can burn either format. Once I have used the DVD app once the Superdrive does not recognise anything except CDs, they are really slow though. I also cannot burn as it mentions buffer underrun problems. Also, I get a message saying I have inserted a disc with no volumes that macOSX can read.

Also, various apps like Safari and Mac Help no longer work.

Solutions I have tried:

1. Repair permissions
2. Ran Disc Warrior and Disc Utility.....everything was fine
3. Ran Apple Hardware test.....all came back good
4. Did a system resotre
5. Completely erased my Hard Disc and re-installed the system.

So, nothing actually worked and all diagnostics came back fine.

Reasons I don't think it is a hardware issue.......

Firstly, the superdrive works perfectly until the DVD player app is used. It can read and write, do everything, but only play on DVD. After that it becomes unresponsive. Secondly, I can boot up from a CD upon startup. This is fine and runs as normal. Thirdly, other apps are a bit screwed up too.

My main problem is that the CD I was watching first may have altered the firmware. I am 99% sure but could someone clarify this? The first DVD was a DVD-R Datawrite x4 speed, and the second was a retail Steve Vai concert DVD. At one point toast could not recognise the Superdrive, until I rebooted. The first DVD was a region 0 NTSC disc, but it played fine. I am in England therefore PAL is the norm. There is no region encoding on either disc so all of this should not be an issue.

My mac is back to it's normal state, nothing installed on it, just the system. If anyone has any idea because this is really strange and I figured if the drive was broken it wouldn't have these symptoms. Either not read at all, be a bit dodgy when reading and possibly have burning issues. The eMac has remained stationary for months. I am just really at the end of my thether as I feel I have tried everything!!!

Thanks people,
quickfingers100 :) :mad:
 
OP
Q

quickfingers100

Guest
Thanks dude for the link but my dvd drive is not region free therefore it wouldn't be a good idea. I don't know if the fimware has been changed or not. Cheers though :)
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MacBook 2.4Ghz Black 4GB;iPod Touch 8GB;iPod mini 4GB silver;Logitech MX1000;
to me it sounds like a drive problem, take it to apple service center.
 
Joined
May 7, 2004
Messages
344
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
delhi.india
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook 2.4Ghz Black 4GB;iPod Touch 8GB;iPod mini 4GB silver;Logitech MX1000;
quickfingers100 said:
Thanks dude for the link but my dvd drive is not region free therefore it wouldn't be a good idea. I don't know if the fimware has been changed or not. Cheers though :)

i have a zone free drive as i had a cdrom in my eMac and i had changed it myself to dvdrw
 

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