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MATSHITA SuperDrive fits its name (and why I won't buy an Apple again)

J

jesusphreak

macrumors member
Original poster
May 24, 2006
66
0
Alright.

I bought my 2.0 MacBook the day they were announced. I got it and everything was perfect...except the SuperDrive.

I would start to import a CD, and quite a few of the tracks would get imported, then all of a sudden iTunes would stop importing, and the drive would start to spin over and over again.

Eventually the only thing I could do was to "Force Quit" iTunes. iTunes wouldn't quit immediately, however, and I'd have to wait for it to actually stop - the drive still spinning until it finally did. This happened several times with different CDs.

The kicker came when I put in my Matrix DVD. At a certain part of the movie, the movie would freeze up, the drive would start spinning, and again I'd have to "Force Quit" the program, this time iDVD. Only problem is...iDVD would NEVER quit (and I couldn't eject the DVD), and I'd be forced to reboot my computer.

Keep in mind that while these discs do have scratches my WINDOWS PC with its piece of junk CD drive has no problem with them. Same for the DVD.

So I figure something isn't right, but I try all kinds of techniques hoping that its a software issue. Nothing works. I schedule an appointment with the Mac Genius at my local store and take it in. He takes a look at it and decides that its not supposed to be doing that and they replace my MacBook with a brand new one.

So I get home, open up the MacBook, check system profiler and notice that it too has this MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857 drive. Pop in the DVD I was having problems and IT DOES THE SAME THING. Ditto for my CDs. That is two MacBooks that aren't working as they should.

I am extremely frustrated right now and I plan on taking my MacBook back and getting a refund. When you spend $1300 on an item IT BETTER WORK RIGHT - THE FIRST TIME.

This is unacceptable to pay a premium for a piece of hardware and for it to not work when "inferior" systems from Dell do. I love OS X and I loved my MacBook, but if Apple will not fix issues that have been around for over a year (after doing some Googling), then screw them.

Thank you Apple for wasting my time.

Edit: Note I am frustrated right now and I am probably being overly harsh. But it still is not acceptable regardless.
 
walk away..calm down..think logically

ok...yes, it does suck to pay huge change for something and have it not work right. BUT, if you're still under warranty...bring it in...they'll fix it. i would be surprised if the issue arose again.

it doesn't matter if it's dell, alienware, apple or any other company, stuff does happen occasionally.

all i know....is that when my superdrive died in my g5 dual 1.25 after 2 years, I called apple b/c i had applecare. 2 days...yes, 2 DAYS later, i had a brand new superdrive at my door.

so yes, it might be broke, but see how their service works. give them a chance.

os x is far superior than winxp so that alone, is reason enough to calm down and get it fixed :) well worth the wait.

hang in there.
keebler
 
Keebler said:
ok...yes, it does suck to pay huge change for something and have it not work right. BUT, if you're still under warranty...bring it in...they'll fix it. i would be surprised if the issue arose again.

it doesn't matter if it's dell, alienware, apple or any other company, stuff does happen occasionally.

all i know....is that when my superdrive died in my g5 dual 1.25 after 2 years, I called apple b/c i had applecare. 2 days...yes, 2 DAYS later, i had a brand new superdrive at my door.

so yes, it might be broke, but see how their service works. give them a chance.

os x is far superior than winxp so that alone, is reason enough to calm down and get it fixed :) well worth the wait.

hang in there.
keebler
Click to expand...

Like I said, I got a completely new MacBook. This is the second time this issue has happened.

I appreciated the service, but I still don't appreciate having to deal with this. The closest store is about a 30 minute drive from here and its kind of out of my way. I've been there two times already to "fix" this problem, and I'm gonna end up having to go again if I want to do anything about it.
 
Did you try media with no scratches? Maybe the SuperDrive is more sensitive to your flawed discs.
 
dferrara said:
Did you try media with no scratches? Maybe the SuperDrive is more sensitive to your flawed discs.
Click to expand...

Yes I tried media with no scratches, and yes it worked, but it is near impossible to have media with no scratches and as I said before, these CDs work in everything else I own, the Apple is literally the only thing they don't work in.

Even the genius said that the MacBook wasn't working as it should. I certainly shouldn't have to reboot when a DVD has a scratch or Force Quit when a CD does. Heck, my Windows PC at least lets me go to the next track, I don't have to shut iTunes down.
 
oh..i didn't get the 2.0

jesusphreak said:
Like I said, I got a completely new MacBook. This is the second time this issue has happened.

I appreciated the service, but I still don't appreciate having to deal with this. The closest store is about a 30 minute drive from here and its kind of out of my way. I've been there two times already to "fix" this problem, and I'm gonna end up having to go again if I want to do anything about it.
Click to expand...

sorry...i hadn't understood the 2.0. i don't own a macbook so i thought it was something related to that.

that would suck and i would be angry. i see that you tried other discs and they did work. i know my superdrive won't play some unknown blank dvds, but that's about it. maybe return it and hope for a 3rd charm. maybe you could have it declared DOA and have them ship you a new one to save you a drive?

good luck,
keebler
 
jesusphreak said:
Alright.

I bought my 2.0 MacBook the day they were announced. I got it and everything was perfect...except the SuperDrive.

I would start to import a CD, and quite a few of the tracks would get imported, then all of a sudden iTunes would stop importing, and the drive would start to spin over and over again.

Eventually the only thing I could do was to "Force Quit" iTunes. iTunes wouldn't quit immediately, however, and I'd have to wait for it to actually stop - the drive still spinning until it finally did. This happened several times with different CDs.

The kicker came when I put in my Matrix DVD. At a certain part of the movie, the movie would freeze up, the drive would start spinning, and again I'd have to "Force Quit" the program, this time iDVD. Only problem is...iDVD would NEVER quit (and I couldn't eject the DVD), and I'd be forced to reboot my computer.

Keep in mind that while these discs do have scratches my WINDOWS PC with its piece of junk CD drive has no problem with them. Same for the DVD.

So I figure something isn't right, but I try all kinds of techniques hoping that its a software issue. Nothing works. I schedule an appointment with the Mac Genius at my local store and take it in. He takes a look at it and decides that its not supposed to be doing that and they replace my MacBook with a brand new one.

So I get home, open up the MacBook, check system profiler and notice that it too has this MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857 drive. Pop in the DVD I was having problems and IT DOES THE SAME THING. Ditto for my CDs. That is two MacBooks that aren't working as they should.

I am extremely frustrated right now and I plan on taking my MacBook back and getting a refund. When you spend $1300 on an item IT BETTER WORK RIGHT - THE FIRST TIME.

This is unacceptable to pay a premium for a piece of hardware and for it to not work when "inferior" systems from Dell do. I love OS X and I loved my MacBook, but if Apple will not fix issues that have been around for over a year (after doing some Googling), then screw them.

Thank you Apple for wasting my time.

Edit: Note I am frustrated right now and I am probably being overly harsh. But it still is not acceptable regardless.
Click to expand...
Have you tried discussing this matter with someone a little higher up?

leadership@apple.com

Trust me, they listen. I've had two issues resolved after writing to this address.
 
Or take a couple of your discs to the store with you and try it in some other machines. Try their demos and see if they crash. Try the new one before you leave so you don't have to get home to find out.

If all that fails, then maybe your discs are just seriously scratched :confused:
 
munckee said:
Or take a couple of your discs to the store with you and try it in some other machines. Try their demos and see if they crash. Try the new one before you leave so you don't have to get home to find out.
Click to expand...

I really should have done that, I just didn't expect two computers in a row to give me problems.
 
Sutekidane said:
You should buy a dell, I'm sure your dvds will work on it.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure you are being sarcastic or not, but I really do believe they will. As I said before, none of the electronics in my house have problems with these CDs or DVDs. This particular drive model is just extremely sensitive, making it pretty much impossible to use because discs will get scratched up.
 
Why can't you just duplicate the CD or DVD onto a new piece of media? The slot-loading drives do tend to be more sensitive to scratches, fingerprints than regular tray-loading drives at least in my experience.
 
In all fairness, you can't really blame Apple if the problem is with the Panasonic drive. Having said that, I have the 846 and one of my DVDs won't get past the copyrights. I'm going to do a little more investigation first though before I jump to any conclusions (so far I've tried playing the DVD with VLC and ripping it with MTR and neither work).
 
I'm not being sarcastic at all. If matsushita drives are not to your liking, which is pretty much most of what apple uses, than get a computer that doesn't have one. Simple as that.
 
joshuawaire said:
Why can't you just duplicate the CD or DVD onto a new piece of media? The slot-loading drives do tend to be more sensitive to scratches, fingerprints than regular tray-loading drives at least in my experience.
Click to expand...

That's not a huge deal but its a huge pain. But if Apple only uses pretty much these particular drives there isn't a whole lot I can do besides something like that.
 
On the old G4 towers they used a "mixture" of Pioneer and Sony drives. I don't know about the MacBooks, but there might be another brand available there too.
 
Sutekidane said:
For slot loading, it's pretty much either pioneer or matsushita.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I'd like to try a Pioneer drive and see how my discs would work.
 
I'm glad you've calmed down a bit. I have problems with my iMac's drive with some CDs and DVDs that work fine on my PC, but I've had issues with some on my Dell laptop's drive as well. Sometimes what will work fine on 1 won't work on another. I use an external fw drive for most of my problem stuff. It's a Lite-On and reads almost anything, but it's also full size. Those laptop size drives, and especially the slot loading ones can be picky. Not a great solution, but I usually don't have the system crash either if there is a problem. I know you're frustrated, but take it to the Apple store and try a disk on one of their systems and go from there. Maybe there is an updated model of that drive or new firmware or a different drive they can use.
 
jesusphreak said:
Hmm, I'd like to try a Pioneer drive and see how my discs would work.
Click to expand...

I think the only macs with known pioneer drives are imacs. Mine has a pioneer drive, and it's been working pretty well. My MBP on the other hand has that new super slim matshushita drive, and it's very picky. I've thought about getting it replaced, but it really works fine for pretty much eveything but burnt dvds.

My past computer have all had regular sizes slot loading matshushita drives and I have not had any problems what so ever.
 
It's just how the drives are designed. If you have printed labels on the media, that will also spell trouble. Very sensitive.
 
My Powerbook's combo drive is super-picky too. It won't read any of the DVD's written by my old cheap DVD recorder, and sometimes hoses on real media too. When I rent DVD's it's pretty common for me to have to hold the powerbutton in after DVD player crashes.

I bought a new external DVD burner, and it's great. I don't even use my built in drive.
 
Oh great. On this new MacBook, the "t" key sticks and makes a very loud clicking sound when it comes up. Not only that, but the mouse pad is unresponsive.

After discovering the problems with my drive I pretty much just left it alone, but playing it with it a bit more there seem to be problems that didn't even exist with the old unit I had. Hopefully they'll go away with use. The "t" key doesn't do it all the time, but the trackpad is particularly bad, pretty hard to use even.

:(
 
Nermal said:
In all fairness, you can't really blame Apple if the problem is with the Panasonic drive.
Click to expand...

I understand where you're coming from with this, but don't you think Apple has an obligatory responsibility for their product working correctly?
Whether the culprit was software they themselves wrote, or an inferior part they chose to put in their product, ultimately the entire computer is their responsibility.
If the machines have a higher-than-accepted rate of failure, then Apple is liable for that. For the OP, he or she has clearly experienced a personal "higher-than-acceptable" rate of failure (0 for 2), though it remains to be seen whether on a larger scale that represents a statistical anomaly or a true problem of inferior DVD drives.

In the end, I feel your pain jesusphreak and wish you the best of luck in obtaining a Macbook that works properly.
Good luck!
 
Man this trackpad particularly is giving me problems. It basically feels unresponsive. I'll move my finger and sometimes it just "lags" and it just doesn't seem to pick up input.

Its strange, and the sticky "t" key and the trackpad weren't probelms on the other unit I had.

Edit: Oh this sucks ass. Apparently I have to put my finger flat onto the trackpad otherwise it won't pick up my input. Just bhe trushing it with the tip of my finger isn't working.

AND WTF...while typing this post, when the "t" sticks, the cursor bounces to somewhere else on the post. What is the deal? This MacBook seems to have a ton of issues.
 
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