External USB DVD drives on MBP's

Hi all

About a month ago my internal drive appeared to fail as they sometimes do by deciding to spit out whatever media I put in (a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846 if that helps). Assuming that the drive had had its day I bought myself a USB external to replace it, only to have exactly the same thing happen with that one as well (the external is a TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-L632D)

I tested the new external on my PC and also my 8 core intel mac tower at work and weirdly it works with no problem. (so I know the drive is both working and compatible with macs).

So now I am wondering if it could be a software/ firmware issue or just a random issue with macbooks and external drives?

Any ideas?

G

Macbook Pro 2.16 / Mac OS 10.5.8

Did it do this with multiple discs / and disc types (i.e. burned discs, commercially pressed, DVDs, CDs, etc)?

Yup.

Commercial DVD's / DVD-R's - also tried a lens cleaner and it even threw that out too

Basically both the external and the internal refuse to mount any discs, but the external reads anything and everything when plugged into anything thats not my macbook.

Tried all the usb ports, new usb cable to see if it was a weird mac port thing as well.

Both the External and the Internal are still recognized by disc utility as being there, its almost as if the Macbook has forgot how to use them - which is a little annoying

G

Have you tried doing a PRAM reset? This is done by turning the machine off. Turn it back on and immediately press and hold Command + Option + P + R. Continue holding until the system chime happens twice.

Tried that and still no change - also tried repairing disk permissions in disk utilities.

The USB ports in the macbook are also running an external HDD drive so thought there may be a conflict so I tried shutting down, plugging the DVD drive into the same cable and socket - but no to effect. (aghh!!)

I must admit I am at a bit of a loss, I know the drive works and I know it works with macs, just for some reason my Laptop seems to have lost the ability to mount DVD's/CD's

G

Another thought - try creating a new user account and log in and test.