Super Drive problem

P

poppi


Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
407
Reaction score
12
Points
18
All of a sudden I am having a problem where I insert a disc into the super drive in preparation to burn it and after a short time it pops back out. It doesn't happen 100 % of the time (this morning i was successful in loading a disc and burning it )but it is virtually 100 %. This is a new problem. Any suggestions?

Thank you

poppi
 
Rod

Rod


Joined
Jun 12, 2011
Messages
9,712
Reaction score
1,900
Points
113
Location
Melbourne, Australia and Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
Your Mac's Specs
2021 M1 MacBook Pro 14" macOS 14.4.1, Mid 2010MacBook 13" iPhone 13 Pro max, iPad 6, Apple Watch SE.
Device and macOS please.
 
IWT

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,309
Reaction score
2,243
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4.1 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
poppi said:
All of a sudden I am having a problem where I insert a disc into the super drive in preparation to burn it and after a short time it pops back out. It doesn't happen 100 % of the time (this morning i was successful in loading a disc and burning it )but it is virtually 100 %. This is a new problem. Any suggestions?

Thank you

poppi
Click to expand...
Just to get the matter out of the way - you are putting the Disk in the right way up? By which I mean, the Silver side of the Super Drive should be uppermost and the Black side on the table.

Sounds crazy, but it's happened on these Forums a few times before.:)

Leaving that aside, and assuming Disk and Drive are the right way up, the Super Drive may be failing or its Cable connection may be suspect. Have you tried inserting the Cable into another port?

And BTW, I found it best to attach the cable directly to the Mac and not through a Hub, for instance.

Ian
 
OP
P

poppi


Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
407
Reaction score
12
Points
18
IWT said:
Just to get the matter out of the way - you are putting the Disk in the right way up? By which I mean, the Silver side of the Super Drive should be uppermost and the Black side on the table.

Sounds crazy, but it's happened on these Forums a few times before.:)

Leaving that aside, and assuming Disk and Drive are the right way up, the Super Drive may be failing or its Cable connection may be suspect. Have you tried inserting the Cable into another port?

And BTW, I found it best to attach the cable directly to the Mac and not through a Hub, for instance.

Ian
Click to expand...
Hi Ian. Perhaps my terminology is incorrect. My "Super Drive" is not an external drive but is built into my iMac (on the right side). I am inserting the DVDs with the silver side toward the back. I have tried 4.7 GB discs from two different manufacturers and both are failing.

Breaking news - I just tried a 700 mb disc and it worked. In fact the movie I burned yesterday was on a 700 mb disc. Is it possible the Mac is having trouble recognizing the larger capacity discs?

Yhank you

poppi
 
IWT

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,309
Reaction score
2,243
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4.1 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
Hi poppi,

Okay, no problem. It's not called "Super Drive". Super Drive is Apple's standalone device which connects to the Mac via USB.

Your internal CD/DVD drive has a capacity limit of around 700-800 MB. It cannot handle GB disks. It's a very long time since I used one of these, but I'm close to certain that this is the case:)

It's always a pleasure responding to your posts. Thank you.

Ian
 
pm-r

pm-r


Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,555
Reaction score
1,580
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
IWT said:
Okay, no problem. It's not called "Super Drive". Super Drive is Apple's standalone device which connects to the Mac via USB.
Click to expand...

Achem... Sorry Ian, but that is not quite a hundred percent correct.

An external CD/DVD SuperDrive
SuperDrive is the name of an optical disk drive made and marketed by Apple Inc. The name was initially what Apple called their floppy disk drive, and later the internal CD and DVD drive integrated with Apple computers.
Click to expand...
SuperDrive - Wikipedia

Apple also created a "Super Drive" but it was a different kind of optical disk reader. And of course Apple in order to keep everybody confused called their floppy disk drive a Super Drive as well as I recall.

I am wondering if the non-working properly discs the OP is using are from a brand new batch and are possibly mislabeled as to type. It's happened...



- Patrick
=======
 
IWT

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,309
Reaction score
2,243
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4.1 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
:oops::oops:

Thanks, Patrick. Been a long time since those days.

Ian
 
pm-r

pm-r


Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,555
Reaction score
1,580
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
IWT said:
Thanks, Patrick. Been a long time since those days.
Click to expand...

Easily done Ian, but gee, don't make my 2011 disc burning 27" iMac seem older than it is, as it might get upset and go into some sort of a fit.


- Patrick
=======
 
MacInWin

MacInWin


Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,523
Reaction score
3,885
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Casting back in my memory, are not the 700GB drives called CD-ROM, but the 4+GB drives are DVDs? And the reader in older iMacs cannot handle DVDs? Or has my memory failed again?
 
pm-r

pm-r


Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,555
Reaction score
1,580
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
MacInWin said:
Casting back in my memory, are not the 700GB drives called CD-ROM, but the 4+GB drives are DVDs?
Click to expand...

And then there was something about dual-layer or double-layer or something DVDs.
I would have to go a-Googling to find out... certainly something that has faded from my mind...



- Patrick
=======
 
krs

krs


Joined
Sep 16, 2008
Messages
3,555
Reaction score
610
Points
113
Location
Canada
Standard 4.7 inch CD - 700 MB
Single-layer DVD - 4.7 GB
Double-layer DVD - 8.5 GB

I still use all of those
 
pm-r

pm-r


Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,555
Reaction score
1,580
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
krs said:
I still use all of those
Click to expand...

It has been quite a while since I burned any disc, but even then I always had to check the specs on the side of the disc container as to the total amount each one could hold.

I think I still have some blank standard CD discs remaining in my cupboard that I was supposed to create some custom CD audio discs for my wife to use in her Nissan X-Trail mini-SUV's disc player. I think it could only use the single-sided CDs.

Maybe one day I will finally and eventually get around to it... ;)



- Patrick
=======
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top