DVD-RW Problems

[jimjiminyjim]

My DVD-RW Sony AccuCORE Disks are not verifying.

Beyond that, my Pioneer DVR-105 Superdrive will not recognize the disks after a failed burn.

Disk Utility claims no disk has been inserted.

I Burned the disks at 1x.

I have been unable to find a firmware update that might solve the problem.
All the talk about firmware updates for high speed disks was not for the 105 anyway.

Having read the many forums on DVD-R's and -RW's, I 've found no answers.

Any suggestions out there?

 

[ammon]

Use verbatim instead. I've had some media that just doesn't work well at all.

For example, I Have some Memorex 16x DVDs that I can only burn at 2x in my 16x superdrive.

Verbatim is the only way to go.

 

[jimjiminyjim]

I guess maybe I'll try verbatim next time.
I'd still like to get these disks working though.

Here's the update:
The Sony disks that failed verification mount on my iBook though the files are corrupted.
They still do not mount on my eMac, with system profiler saying "no disk"
Other DVD-R disks (Fuji) mount on both... so... this is... just... weird!

 

[yenko]

My DVD-RW Sony AccuCORE Disks are not verifying.

Beyond that, my Pioneer DVR-105 Superdrive will not recognize the disks after a failed burn.

Disk Utility claims no disk has been inserted.

I Burned the disks at 1x.

I have been unable to find a firmware update that might solve the problem.
All the talk about firmware updates for high speed disks was not for the 105 anyway.

Having read the many forums on DVD-R's and -RW's, I 've found no answers.

Any suggestions out there?

Someone suggested this in Apple's forum:

Deleting the com.apple.dvd.plist file fixed my problem on my G5 Dual 1.8 PCI in the /user/library/preferences directory.

BTW, the problem did show up after updating to Java 1.4.2 recently.

Maybe this will help.

 

[jimjiminyjim]

Someone suggested this in Apple's forum <snip>

I had a look, and that file (com.apple.dvd.plist) is not in the user preference folder nor in the main preference folder. There is a com.apple.dvdPlayer.plist
I tried getting rid of it... but no luck. Thanks for the tip though.

I followed some other suggestions, like deleting other plist files:
com.apple.finder.plists
com.apple.cdhub.plists
com.apple.digihub.plists
com.apple.sidebarlists.plists

This did not work for me though apparently it worked for a few.
I tried creating a new user, but no luck there either.
I ran system optimizer, running daily, weekly, monthly tasks, and repaired permissions.
I tried a suggestion in the forum to delete /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache and /System/Library/Extensions.mkext, followed by a restart. After doing this, the disk spun fast enough to notice, made some more noises that sounded like hearty attempts at reading, but was still spit back out. No luck.
I tried resetting the NVRAM in open firmware. No luck. Bah!

The computer never gave me a message/error, just spit out the disk, every time. If there are any last suggestions, I'd appreciate them. Note: the disk still reads the unburned disks as useable, it's just the failed disks that are spit out, and I've tried a couple (from a five-pack) and both had the same problem.

Jim.

 

[yenko]

Starting to sound like an "AccuCORE" "Pioneer" combination problem.
Only 2 things common here, I think.

 

[jimjiminyjim]

Starting to sound like an "AccuCORE" "Pioneer" combination problem.
Only 2 things common here, I think.

I took your advice, bought some verbatim discs (which state compatability with "apple" drives), and they failed in exactly the same way. ~sigh~

I have found a forum dedicated to this kind of failure in apple discussions though, where I will post just to verify that all the rest of them aren't alone.

 

[yenko]

I took your advice, bought some verbatim discs (which state compatability with "apple" drives), and they failed in exactly the same way. ~sigh~

I have found a forum dedicated to this kind of failure in apple discussions though, where I will post just to verify that all the rest of them aren't alone.

Last resort, try this link.
SuperDrive Update

 

[jimjiminyjim]

Last resort, try this link.
SuperDrive Update

2nd Last resort: pull third-party RAM. Someone said they pulled it and their burns worked. I do recall hearing that the latest update for Tiger was extremely intolerant of bad RAM, and so, even though I ran a hardware test and passed, I pulled it. The first disc I burned worked... and I'm now doing a second disc.

This is admittedly a bit frustrating. The RAM meets all specs, and as I said, passed Apple's own test. Anyway, at least I can burn discs now, though it's taken me hours to figure this out.

edit: the firmware update applies to eMacs newer than mine (mine is an ATI graphics version, and does not have USB 2.0). Thanks for all your suggestions though!

 

[yenko]

2nd Last resort: pull third-party RAM. Someone said they pulled it and their burns worked. I do recall hearing that the latest update for Tiger was extremely intolerant of bad RAM, and so, even though I ran a hardware test and passed, I pulled it. The first disc I burned worked... and I'm now doing a second disc.

This is admittedly a bit frustrating. The RAM meets all specs, and as I said, passed Apple's own test. Anyway, at least I can burn discs now, though it's taken me hours to figure this out.

edit: the firmware update applies to eMacs newer than mine (mine is an ATI graphics version, and does not have USB 2.0). Thanks for all your suggestions though!

Did you mention you had installed third party RAM?
RAM probably causes more strange issues than anything else. Make sure it's from a reputable dealer with no hassle warranty.

Anyway, glad you nailed it.

Now go get some "Crucial RAM".
It's my choice in RAM based on experience.