05-15-2008, 08:31 AM

I dont know whether the issue is with the Operating system or the drive itself so i do not know where to post this.

I Recently installed Mac OS X Leopard on my one year old Imac. A week later i have found that my disk drive does not read cds or dvds regardless of whether they are blank or not. I do not know whether it happened today or just after i installed leopard as i have not used the drive until this point.

When a cd or dvd is inserted the disk drive grunts periodically 3 times then ejects the disk. I have checked under ATA in the contents of the computer and the computer recognises the disk drive is there.

The information on the drive is as follows:

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846:

Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846
Revision: FB2U
Serial Number:
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes


I have reset the PR, and repaired both my disk and permissions.
Software is 100%up to date according to software update.
My cd&dvd preferences are not set to ignore.


Is the problem with the hardware or the software? Any help would be greatly appreciated.



I have read that these drives often act up and is part of the reason why apple switched to pioneer superdrives, is it easier just to replace it? If so is it easy to install yourself?

05-15-2008, 06:43 PM

Sounds like time for a new optical drive. If the discs work in a different drive toss it.

Pioneer are the go and you do not state your machine specs. Easy to replace in G4's and early G5's. Cannot advise on laptops. Hardest part of replacement in a tower is undoing the power connection. They are tight.

Go to xlr8yourmac.com and look for how to's, with photos.

05-15-2008, 10:31 PM

Yeah, sounds like the typical complications of optical drive failure, replace it, had the same thing happen with one of my eMacs the combo drive went south, so I was able to drop in a LG drive that in this day in age would be considered a DL SuperDrive, all functions work under Leopard so I can't complain !