Superdrive not reading Data DVD's

[sphereboy]

I haven't found a solution. I do know that my DVDs are readable because I was able to extract data from them from another PowerMac. I'm not really sure what is going on. The only thing I can think of is that one of the updates messed with the firmware on the drive.

These are my specs:

SONY DVD RW DW-U21A:

Firmware Revision: AADB
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: No

 

[dune]

thanks for the reply!
but if it's really a firmware-update-problem, then millions of macusers should have the same problem...

 

[dune]

I used a lens-cleaner and now it seems to work!!

 

[sphereboy]

i'm gonna have to give that a try. i had seen some posts of people trying that without much success. Any type in particular that you used? recommend?

 

[dune]

I used a combination for CD/CD-rom/DVD. the name of the company is "hama"(http://www.hama.de). it's from germany and I don't know if you can buy it in the USA. but I'm shure it will work with every other lensCleaner too.
good luck!

 

[yojitani]

I finally called apple about this the other week and I thought I'd post the gist of the 'problem.' Basically, although my superdrive can write DVD+R's according to apple (or the rep I spoke to anyway), it is not designed to READ them. I followed this up with him (why would you make a drive that can't read the disks it writes??) and he had me pull out my receipt with the specs on it. Under optical drive it reads: "8x Super Drive (DVD-R/CD-RW)" the -R meaning it can only read -R media (he said). While feeling slightly silly after this conversation , I still don't understand what use a drive is that can't read the disks it writes . And also why it mounts them just after they have been burnt. Or why it mounted them with an earlier OS (10.3.can't remember).

At any rate, this seems to answer SOME people's problems with +R's. There are other, later drives that are also having trouble mounting all types of (data/DL) DVD's... hmm...

YOJ

 

[sphereboy]

yeah i always knew that i shouldn't use +R .. but none of my -Rs are working or sometimes even the CD-Rs either. I even used the lens cleaner as suggested above and nothing.

I resorted to buying myself an external case with an NEC DVD+R -R +/-RW with Dual Layer.. all for about 90$.

I'm done with the internal one. i can use it as a coffee cup holder.

 

[sphereboy]

anyone think that PatchBurn would fix this probleM?

 

[rickvanr]

Do you have the NEC still in an external case, or did you install it into your machine?

Patchburn will work great for the NEC drive.

 

[sphereboy]

Do you have the NEC still in an external case, or did you install it into your machine?

Patchburn will work great for the NEC drive.

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific on my entry.
I meant to ask if PatchBurn would fix my internal Sony drive which is having the problem of not reading any DVD's and sometimes even any CDs.

My external NEC drive is working perfect. I didn't even have to use Patchburn for the Finder to recognize it.

What I was thinking of doing was taking out the Sony drive and flashing the firmware using the PC in the closet. Maybe that will get the drive working again. Even though I got the new external, I can't stand the fact that I have a useless drive in my G5. It's kind of disappointing.