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Strange issue when adding 2nd DVD drive to Mac Pro 5,1

H

H0M3R

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2007
34
0
I have tried adding two different DVD drives to my Mac Pro and both of them have the same anomaly. This only happens in OS X, not when I boot into Windows 7 x64. This is in the bottom bay. I still have the original superdrive in the top bay.

1. The computer will not go to sleep automatically. I can however make it go to sleep from the menu.

2. The drive appears to make a periodic noise. It doesn't sound like its trying to spin up but instead like it might be trying to move the head to the inside/outside.

3. Putting a disc in the drive causes all the above problems to go away.

The ASUS drive made a really loud noise when it was doing this. The LG drive is barely audible.

This only happens in OS X. When I boot into Windows 7, it works fine, so it is a problem with OS X. This computer has the single 3.33 GHz hex core processor with 6 GB of RAM.

Has any one seen this before?
 
Yes... happens with my LG Blu-Ray drive.

Seems to be just like a quirk with some drives that are not made with OS X in mind. If a disc isn't in the drive, it'll seemingly check if a disc is in there yet - which is what I think is the moving laser head is doing - every now and then.
 
I had assumed that this was a symptom of Blu drives so it's nice to know that it affects normal DVD ROM drives as well.
 
I can confirm that this has happened to my 2009 MP as well. It was so annoying, that I removed the drive from the MP and used an external drive.
 
Well I am glad its not just my computer that has this problem. My 2006 Mac Pro didn't exhibit this behavior but those drives were IDE and not SATA. I hope that a future update to OS X will fix it in the future.

Thanks for everyones input.
 
The real question, is there a DVD and/or a Blu drive out there that does NOT do this with a recent MP?
 
The LG 10x Super Multi Blue OEM - Mac Pro Edition burner I installed in my 2009 Mac Pro doesn't do this. I bought this drive from OWC months ago when it was $150 or so, and I've loved it. The first day I installed it, it seemed to seek for a disc every few minutes or so, but after shutting it down, and restarting it the next day, it never did it again.

I've burned many Blu-ray movies with it that play perfectly on a Blu-ray player. I've set my Mac to sleep, and it slept for eight minutes without waking. I would have let it go longer, but I got bored. I also set it to burn data via Finder, and it seemed to be willing to allow it, but I didn't click the Burn button when it asked if I was sure, because those BD-R discs are pretty expensive, and I've not wasted any yet with bad burns or anything.

I'd say this is the one you want for a Mac Pro. It does everything right.
 
wonderspark said:
The LG 10x Super Multi Blue OEM - Mac Pro Edition burner I installed in my 2009 Mac Pro doesn't do this. I bought this drive from OWC months ago when it was $150 or so, and I've loved it. The first day I installed it, it seemed to seek for a disc every few minutes or so, but after shutting it down, and restarting it the next day, it never did it again.

I've burned many Blu-ray movies with it that play perfectly on a Blu-ray player. I've set my Mac to sleep, and it slept for eight minutes without waking. I would have let it go longer, but I got bored. I also set it to burn data via Finder, and it seemed to be willing to allow it, but I didn't click the Burn button when it asked if I was sure, because those BD-R discs are pretty expensive, and I've not wasted any yet with bad burns or anything.

I'd say this is the one you want for a Mac Pro. It does everything right.
Click to expand...

Have you done any Blu-ray ripping? The normal version of this drive (non KMP) is riplocked, so it will only do 2x for pressed media. This makes ripping painfully slow. The PC world simply flashes this with a modified firmware, speeding rips by a great deal.

Of course I'm afraid what loading the modified firmware on this drive might do to the MP specific problems that it seems to avoid.
 
No, I don't own any Blu-ray movies, so I can't test that. I don't even have a Blu-ray player. I have to test my burns on my friend's player, and since he just got that new Panasonic 50" 3D-HDTV, I can tell you my burns look amazing and perfect. I only bought this Mac for editing a feature film shot on HD, and that's all I've burned to Blu-ray so far. In fact, he only has one Blu-ray movie himself... Avatar 3D, and that's because it came with the TV (along with some 3D glasses) from BestBuy.
 
I keep hoping that updates to OS X will fix this, but it's still doing it after 10.6.8. :( Anyone know if its been fixed in Lion?
 
Last edited:
Based on the following thread, I bought an LG WH12LS30 from Newegg.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1154328/

I blame/credit Durex. :)

Anyway, it does not periodically wake during sleep nor does it periodically make drive noises when there is no disc in the drive.

I have a MP2010 base model running Snow Leopard, so I don't think Lion is required for a fix.

Some drives seem to have these problems and some don't. I think some have even reported problems with the exact model drive I have, so maybe there is a difference in drive firmware or some other issue. If someone can tell me how to determine my drive firmware version, I'd be happy to report it.
 
ActionableMango said:
Based on the following thread, I bought an LG WH12LS30 from Newegg.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1154328/

I blame/credit Durex. :)

Anyway, it does not periodically wake during sleep nor does it periodically make drive noises when there is no disc in the drive.

I have a MP2010 base model running Snow Leopard, so I don't think Lion is required for a fix.

Some drives seem to have these problems and some don't. I think some have even reported problems with the exact model drive I have, so maybe there is a difference in drive firmware or some other issue. If someone can tell me how to determine my drive firmware version, I'd be happy to report it.
Click to expand...

You can see your drive's firmware version here: open System Profiler --> select Serial ATA --> select your BluRay drive.
The f/w version is displayed in the data that shows up below.
 
brentsg said:
Have you done any Blu-ray ripping? The normal version of this drive (non KMP) is riplocked, so it will only do 2x for pressed media. This makes ripping painfully slow. The PC world simply flashes this with a modified firmware, speeding rips by a great deal.

Of course I'm afraid what loading the modified firmware on this drive might do to the MP specific problems that it seems to avoid.
Click to expand...
Wow, forgot about this thread, but since it's been subjected to necromancy...
I have now ripped a commercial Blu-ray on my LG drive. It was that movie about a Speech that the King made. :) So, very recent movie. In fact, it was from that company that sends you Flix from the Net. Har-har...

Anyway, yes... rips with no problems using MakeMKV.
 
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