The Pesky Old Dual Layer DVD Burning Problem

[quatermass]

Hi. I have a 15" MacBook Pro that's two years old. Like many people, I've never been able to burn a dual layer DVD on this machine. I can burn them just fine with my old 450 MHz G4 tower with its 1 gig of RAM. But it seems to be too much for the 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo machine with 2 gigs of RAM.

This isn't a huge problem for me because, as I said, I can burn them on my old machine. However, I'd like it to work on my newer and more portable one. When I first discovered the problem, which was a while ago, I poked around the web and discovered many other people seemed to have the exact same problem. However, I never found a solution. All the threads just sort of stopped. Increasing RAM was suggested, replacing the optical drive was suggested, changing the media was suggested, but I never found someone who responded with a, "Thanks, that worked!"

The drive works flawlessly otherwise. No other problems with the computer. It's long out of warranty, and if replacing the drive will fix it, that's not an expensive fix. I'll do that someday. But I'm just curious as to why a much older and slower machine could do this task so easily while the newer and speedier one can't seem to do it at all?

 

[harryb2448]

Coz towers rock and are REAL machines. The optical drive in any laptop just has to be suspect because of size limitations. Go through the forums and note the njumber of optical drives failed in MB, MBP and iMacs.

 

[brianwmay]

I saw this thread and thought it worth mentioning again. In the nearly 3 years I've had my MBP, I've managed to burn exactly zero, nil, none, nada, zilch dual layer discs.

I've tried all sorts of media at all sorts of speeds. I have, however made a shed load of coasters - which of course I didn't need.

Sarcasm apart, does anyone know WHY Apple are incapable of achieving this on an otherwise brilliant machine?

It's been a real disappointment in that regard.

 

[harryb2448]

Well Apple do not make the optical drives, just purchase them under contract. Many MB seem to have cheaper drives whilst desktops seem to be Pioneer or LG, both top brands.

 

[Kevriano]

I have only had success with Imation DL+ Discs, and a specific one at that, but sometimes it depends on what you are trying to burn as well.

 

[Cambridge Paul]

Our local Mac laptop specialists (yepp we actually have one of those in Cambridge UK) advises against using the internal optical drive to burn anything and advocates a firewire (for those Macs that have firewire) drive for both disc burning and heavy duty disc reading (loading up an iTunes library from CD for example. If the external drive goes on the fritz is £25 ($35) for a new drive to go in the external housing, and the laptop is not affected. It seems heat build up is a big issue with the internal optical drive.
Cambridge paul