DVD drive HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N won't accept discs

Macbook Pro 15 2007 model.

Mods, if this is in the worng place, feel free to move it to the right place.

I know this subject has come up before. But this seems different. Basically, the Drive was doing nothing. I hadn't needed to use it for a long time so I am unsure when this happened, or if it's in relation to any specific updates. But the other day I tried to load a disc into it and it did nothing. Didn't even make a sound like it was trying.
Anyway, after researching potential fixes and trying a few, I have the drive attempting to load a disc but still failing. That is, the drive spins awake when I come out of sleep mode, and when I try to load a disk in, it makes a noise and attempt to load the disc but ultimately fails to load it in.

I have Parallels desktop installed and Windows XP on that, as I needed a few windows programs. And in Windows/Parellels, I can select Device from a drop down on the top of the screen, and click CD/DVD, and strangely, there are 2 options available. Default CD/DVD and then HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N. I have checked it in windows device manager and it is listed as working properly.
In the OS X Operating system, when I check the Disk Utility and settings etc, it is listed and is a LOC1

AP09 is the firmware revision.

I am going to try to flash to A103 in windows from by downloading it from the Dell site, if I can, but I am not convinced that the drive will be found when attempting to do that.

Any advice is very welcome.

Just tried the firmware update. I downloaded the Dell A103 firmware update for HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N. When I tried to flash it in while logged into windows, I got this error message:

Updating Was Failed. Please Repeat That. (Error Data = F0 00 05 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00)

This is where I am now.

With more research comes more education! Apparently, I cannot flash EXE files using Parallels desktop. It has to be bootcamp! So now, if I download Bootcamp, will I have to install XP all over again, on bootcamp? Or can I simply copy the windows files and folders from parallesl over(cringes knowing it's likely to be wishful thinking).

It is going to be a whole lot of hassle getting this all back around if it doesn't fix the drive in the end!

Your machine is a 2007 model. Optical drives (especially slot loaders) don't live forever. It's very likely the drive is getting ready to fail or has already failed - regardless of what Windows says... A firmware load is probably not going to help at all. It's my opinion that you would be better off replacing the drive or buying an inexpensive external USB drive and use it instead.

chscag said:

Your machine is a 2007 model. Optical drives (especially slot loaders) don't live forever. It's very likely the drive is getting ready to fail or has already failed - regardless of what Windows says... A firmware load is probably not going to help at all. It's my opinion that you would be better off replacing the drive or buying an inexpensive external USB drive and use it instead.

Click to expand...

I own an external USB DVDRW drive. However, in all the laptops I've ever had, and there have been several, with optical drives, this is the only one that I have EVER had a problem with.
Worse still is that the fix Apple recommends needs to be flashed using windows. The mind boggles at that one. However, it gets worse, Parallels run windows is not good enough. It has to be bootcamp. Fair enough, I'll try to install bootcamp windows. I run the Bootcamp assistant, create a partition, find out then that I cannot run the installation from a USB drive! Where does it end? Finally I hook the external USB DVD drive up to the MAC to run setup via a Windows Disk. I ask Bootcamp to install windows, the Macbook restarts, and then instead of booting up, to run setup, it decides to show me a grey screen with an Apple logo on it. It has been like that now for 30 minutes. I notice the white light at the front of my machine isn't on, so I believe the machine to be in sleep mode, and I have absolutely no idea where to go from here?

I just want to get a possible fix for my DVD drive, that is all, and look at me no?

:-( What's going on? Anyone?

The Superdrives in the earlier MacBook Pro's die like flies. As they haven't been made for some time they are difficult to buy new, and used ones may have a short life. Your Superdrive has an IDE/ATA interface, current drives use SATA. If you need your Superdrive working, your likely only choice is to replace it yourself, or have Apple replace it.

I'll keep that in mind. Are you saying that when Apple told me to try the windows flashed update that they were wrong? Also, does anyone know why my machine is sleeping now and why it won't boot and is simply showing a grey screen with Apple logo?

Guys, I left the Macbook Pro on overnight to see if it would boot up out of the grey screen with the Applr Logo. It didn't. It's still stuck there? Anyone know what this means? And what I should do? At this stage, I'd even try to format and re-install the whole thing?