MBP Not reading certain CDs - weird problem!

[thomasp]

Hi,

We've just bought a brand new 2GHz MacBook Pro with an extra 512Mb RAM installed (by Apple). After dutifully downloading about 400Mb of updates, including upgrading it to OSX 10.4.7 and downloading a firmware update (everything went fine), we started to play around with it.

First disk I put in was a Futurama (Season 4) DVD - Apple DVD Player asked to confirm the region selection and said that "The region could only be changed 5 more times" - the disk played fine through both DVD player and Front Row.

Next, I ejected this and put a music CD in (Jools Holland: Swinging the Blues, Dancing the Ska), but the MBP just spat this out. Next, I tried the Office '04 Student Edition installer CD, and after about 3 mins of clicking and whirring, this got spat out too. Thinking we had a dead CD drive on our hands, I tried 3 more music CDs - all worked fine -opened up in iTunes and Front Row and played fine. I even tried the installer CD for Photoshop CS2 and this worked fine, so did the Mac OSX Installer DVD (only software DVD to hand...). A CD that was burnt on our G4 Tower also worked fine

I tried the two problem CDs in my G4 PowerBook (OSX 10.4.5), and they worked absolutely fine.


I've done the basic troubleshooting things - reboot, repair permissions, reboot again, create another user account to see if the problem still exists, and there's no change - the two CDs keep on getting rejected by the MBP.


What's going on here - is there an easy way to resolve this problem without taking the laptop on a 3 hour round-trip drive back to the Apple store? Everything else about it's fine - there is a slight whine but nothing at all to moan about (only noticable when actually listening for it). Are there any prefs files I can trash?


The MBP has the SuperDrive, whereas the PB only has a DVD/CD-RW Combo drive.


Thanks for the help

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

I honestly don't know what to do about it, other than saying that ROM drives are weird. I have burned my share of cd's and some of them was unable to be read from certain devices, yet my drive read them fine. Some dvd's could only be read by my iBook and some couldn't. I think it's a combination of the quality of the media and the burning method. I guess the only thing do is to take it and the cds to the store, proving your point and getting a replacement drive.

 

[swano]

I have a weird thing with blank DVD's. They don't show up on the desktop at all. I can burn to them using iDVD and Toast easily but they don't show up anywhere untill I burn something to them. This is my first mac with a DVD burner(see below for model) so maybe this is normal for blank DVD's. Is it? Blank cd's show up fine....

 

[benthewraith]

Hi,

We've just bought a brand new 2GHz MacBook Pro with an extra 512Mb RAM installed (by Apple). After dutifully downloading about 400Mb of updates, including upgrading it to OSX 10.4.7 and downloading a firmware update (everything went fine), we started to play around with it.

First disk I put in was a Futurama (Season 4) DVD - Apple DVD Player asked to confirm the region selection and said that "The region could only be changed 5 more times" - the disk played fine through both DVD player and Front Row.

Next, I ejected this and put a music CD in (Jools Holland: Swinging the Blues, Dancing the Ska), but the MBP just spat this out. Next, I tried the Office '04 Student Edition installer CD, and after about 3 mins of clicking and whirring, this got spat out too. Thinking we had a dead CD drive on our hands, I tried 3 more music CDs - all worked fine -opened up in iTunes and Front Row and played fine. I even tried the installer CD for Photoshop CS2 and this worked fine, so did the Mac OSX Installer DVD (only software DVD to hand...). A CD that was burnt on our G4 Tower also worked fine

I tried the two problem CDs in my G4 PowerBook (OSX 10.4.5), and they worked absolutely fine.


I've done the basic troubleshooting things - reboot, repair permissions, reboot again, create another user account to see if the problem still exists, and there's no change - the two CDs keep on getting rejected by the MBP.


What's going on here - is there an easy way to resolve this problem without taking the laptop on a 3 hour round-trip drive back to the Apple store? Everything else about it's fine - there is a slight whine but nothing at all to moan about (only noticable when actually listening for it). Are there any prefs files I can trash?


The MBP has the SuperDrive, whereas the PB only has a DVD/CD-RW Combo drive.


Thanks for the help

Just a word of advice, those cds may have spyware on them that won't install onto OSX, or at least onto any Intel Mac.

 

[Nermal]

Just a word of advice, those cds may have spyware on them that won't install onto OSX, or at least onto any Intel Mac.

While it's possible that the music CD might have a copy-protection system, the Office CD should be fine.

 

[thomasp]

While it's possible that the music CD might have a copy-protection system, the Office CD should be fine.

Surely if the music CD had copy protection, my PowerBook wouldn't play it - the PB is running OSX 10.4.5