Superdrive broken with pressed DVDs and CDs?

[Gizmotoy]

I have a late 2009 iMac 27", and today I noticed that I cannot get the drive to recognize any pressed (commercial) CDs or DVDs. If I insert blank recordable CDs or DVDs, it works fine.

Any idea what the issue could be? Dirty lens perhaps, or an actual broken drive?

I've repaired permissions, rebooted, cleared SMC and PRAM. I can't think of much else to do except take it in to Apple and be without it for a week while they fix it

 

[OldCorpse]

I have a late 2009 iMac 27", and today I noticed that I cannot get the drive to recognize any pressed (commercial) CDs or DVDs. If I insert blank recordable CDs or DVDs, it works fine.

Any idea what the issue could be? Dirty lens perhaps, or an actual broken drive?

I've repaired permissions, rebooted, cleared SMC and PRAM. I can't think of much else to do except take it in to Apple and be without it for a week while they fix it

I don't know about the distinction between the commercial and blank media, but I also have a late 2009 27" iMac, and recently it started not to ingest media - i.e., I'd insert the discs, but it wouldn't "grab" them to pull further. So I called AppleCare (I bought the extra 2 years, but as happens I still had a few days on my 1 year coverage). They set up to have the SuperDrive replaced. Before the repair guys managed to come out to my place, the drive suddenly started working again. Anyhow, they came in and I told them about how it's working now, but I don't want to have problems in the future. The guy said "better replace it anyway, since it's not like it'll get better". So he replaced the drive. That was a couple of weeks ago. So far so good.

I realize this is not exactly your issue, but I'd just go ahead and call Apple... SuperDrives do go bad

 

[Gizmotoy]

They sent somebody out to your house to replace it? That's pretty cool. How long did it take?

I thought the distinction was between pressed media (Hollywood DVDs, music CDs and such) and recordable media, but I found a burned DVD to test and it didn't work either. It looks like actually any blank media can be recognized/burned, but any media with data on it is rejected.

I put a disc in just now and the drive started making strange noises. It has to be toast.

 

[Ubuntu]

They sent somebody out to your house to replace it? That's pretty cool. How long did it take?

I thought the distinction was between pressed media (Hollywood DVDs, music CDs and such) and recordable media, but I found a burned DVD to test and it didn't work either. It looks like actually any blank media can be recognized/burned, but any media with data on it is rejected.

I put a disc in just now and the drive started making strange noises. It has to be toast.

Not sure where you are from but in the UK (and most likely the US too) they offer onsite repairs for iMacs under warranty. I know that in the UK (according to both a specialist and a genius I asked) the first year of inclusive warranty also includes onsite repair.