Damsel in distress - imac won't read CDs

[CityMunkey]

Can anyone help...

I have an imac with an internal Pioneer superdrive, details are:

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06:

Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06
Revision: Q609
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes

The machine will not read audio CDs, nor will it read (much to my annoyance) the installer discs for Leopard or OS X (which I am currently running, version 10.4.11). When you push the CD in, it makes a noise like it is trying to read it, and then spits the disc out. Every now and again it will read the Leopard CD, but when it restarts as art of the install, it spits out the disc when the grey screen appears.

It will read and play DVDs without any problems.

Apple support have been unable to sort it out on the 'phone (have tried restarting with alt+cmd + p+ r or whatever it is, and also restarted with a test account neither of which have resolved the problem.

Apple support have suggested I take it in to an Apple shop - but it seems that it is not a hardware problem as the drive reads DVDs and will sometimes read the install discs.

Any suggestions?? I read somewhere that some of the extensions required to run audio CDs might have been corrupted - could this be the problem?

PLEASE help - this is driving me insane!

 

[yoman]

Have you tried compressed air to dislodge any dust from the optical drive? Sometimes that helps weird optical drive behavior.

 

[CityMunkey]

No - it is reading DVDs so I assumed that it wasn't a physical problem? But will try this.. any other suggestions?

 

[orpheus1120]

Do you have Macfuse for NTFS installed? If you do, uninstall it and have a go again.

 

[AlexisV]

There are separate lasers for the DVD and CD. It's not unknown for one to fail and a drive only be able to read one type and the other not at all, or intermittently.

 

[Eraserhead]

^^ Except the Leopard disc is also a DVD. I think the drive isn't working properly and needs replacing.

You might find its cheaper to use an External CD/DVD drive if your Mac is out of warranty but taking it to an Apple Store is probably the best bet.

I suggest not going to the Regent Street one as it seems to generally be pretty slow...

 

[ewilson6]

Try a CD/DVD cleaner from walmart for $9.00 dollars, they work great.


-Eric

 

[CityMunkey]

Thanks guys... in the end it turns out the turnaround (by both Apple on Regent Street and another Reseller) was going to be a couple of weeks, and if I need to replace the superdrive the cost could be £200-300... so I bought an external drive for £100 and everything is working well.

Apart from the internal superdrive...

Perhaps I will take it in to Apple at some point, but the thought of being without it for so long horrified me - especially now I've got lots of new things to play with courtesy of Leopard. And also I HATE going to that Regent Street store, it is so full of tourists milling about and not buying anything.