iMac Superdrive is Intermittent

geekneck · 12-03-2009, 01:56 PM

Hi all,

I have an early 2009 iMac running Snow Leopard with all updates applied. I am in the process of importing all of my music CDs into iTunes. About 50% of the time, it works just fine. I insert the CD, iTunes automatically recognizes the disc and starts importing the music; no problems. Other times, when I insert the CD, I get no love. The CD spins up, and I briefly see the CD icon on the desktop as well as in iTunes. Then it just goes away, poof! I don't see the icon anywhere including the Finder, so I have to eject the disk manually. I immediately reinsert it and the disk is recognized just fine.

I've tried restarting to no avail. There doesn't seem to be any pattern with the media type, as it happens on pressed CDs as well as CDRs.

I don't watch a huge numbers of DVDs, so the sample size may be too small, but I have never had this problem with a DVD.

Any ideas on how to solve this would be greatly appreciated!

geekneck · 12-03-2009, 01:58 PM

Here is the info on this drive from System Profiler:

Quote:


	OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S: Capacity: 398.4 MB (398,405,280 bytes) Model: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S Revision: 2AHG Native Command Queuing: No Removable Media: Yes Detachable Drive: No BSD Name: disk1 Power Off: No Async Notification: Yes Media Name: Audio CD Partition Map Type: Unknown S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported

trevor · 12-03-2009, 02:18 PM

Buy a CD drive cleaner from your preferred electronics or computer store. They are very inexpensive. Run it on your drive. Let us know if it fixes the problem.

Trevor

geekneck · 12-21-2009, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trevor


	Buy a CD drive cleaner from your preferred electronics or computer store. They are very inexpensive. Run it on your drive. Let us know if it fixes the problem. Trevor

I have not had a chance to get a drive cleaner; I try to stay away from stores this time of year :-) I hooked up a USB CD drive and I'm experiencing the same issue with it.

trevor · 12-22-2009, 02:51 PM

What messages appear in your logs when the CD 'disappears'? You can easily view your logs using the Console app, found in /Applications/Utilities.

If you create a brand new user on your computer, log out of your existing user and into the new one, does the problem also happen there?

Trevor

geekneck · 12-22-2009, 03:29 PM

Hi trevor,

Wow, so many logs! I didn't know about that utility, very handy!
I looked at quite a number of the log files and didn't see anything suspect. Just lots of these:

Quote:


	Dec 22 16:15:09 paul-waldos-imac UnmountAssistant[5843]: Volume unmounted successfully

I even see these when a disk is successfully mounted and imported by iTunes.

One other note of interest. After an unsuccessful mount, I opened up Disk Utility and saw that the drive knows there is an "Audio CD" in the drive and gives me the option to mount it (which I did). iTunes immediately displayed the Title and Track info, without having to fetch it from the Internet. Since this disk has never been inserted before, this leads me to believe that the first time I inserted the disk, it was mounted long enough for iTunes to get the disk ID and query the Internet DB.

geekneck · 12-22-2009, 03:35 PM

BTW, the "Super"Drive is a dog. The best I can do ripping an audio CD with it is about 6X (according to iTunes), while the el-cheapo USB external drive has done as fast as 40X! :-)

geekneck · 12-22-2009, 04:36 PM

Another data point: sometimes the drive doesn't recognize the disk type. I put in an audio CD and it says that it is a blank! I get this in the logs:

Quote:


	Dec 22 17:34:17 paul-waldos-imac diskarbitrationd[13]: unable to probe /dev/disk1 (status code 0xFFFFFFFC). Dec 22 17:34:47: --- last message repeated 3 times ---

trevor · 12-22-2009, 04:56 PM

Hmmmm, I'm still thinking that cleaning your drive would be a good idea, and certainly won't hurt.

Trevor

12-03-2009, 01:56 PM	#1
geekneck Prospect Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 42	iMac Superdrive is Intermittent Hi all, I have an early 2009 iMac running Snow Leopard with all updates applied. I am in the process of importing all of my music CDs into iTunes. About 50% of the time, it works just fine. I insert the CD, iTunes automatically recognizes the disc and starts importing the music; no problems. Other times, when I insert the CD, I get no love. The CD spins up, and I briefly see the CD icon on the desktop as well as in iTunes. Then it just goes away, poof! I don't see the icon anywhere including the Finder, so I have to eject the disk manually. I immediately reinsert it and the disk is recognized just fine. I've tried restarting to no avail. There doesn't seem to be any pattern with the media type, as it happens on pressed CDs as well as CDRs. I don't watch a huge numbers of DVDs, so the sample size may be too small, but I have never had this problem with a DVD. Any ideas on how to solve this would be greatly appreciated!

12-03-2009, 02:18 PM	#3
trevor Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Boulder, CO USA Posts: 19,550	Buy a CD drive cleaner from your preferred electronics or computer store. They are very inexpensive. Run it on your drive. Let us know if it fixes the problem. Trevor __________________ How to ask questions the smart way

12-22-2009, 02:51 PM	#5
trevor Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Boulder, CO USA Posts: 19,550	What messages appear in your logs when the CD 'disappears'? You can easily view your logs using the Console app, found in /Applications/Utilities. If you create a brand new user on your computer, log out of your existing user and into the new one, does the problem also happen there? Trevor __________________ How to ask questions the smart way

12-22-2009, 04:56 PM	#9
trevor Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Boulder, CO USA Posts: 19,550	Hmmmm, I'm still thinking that cleaning your drive would be a good idea, and certainly won't hurt. Trevor __________________ How to ask questions the smart way

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12-22-2009, 03:35 PM	#7
geekneck Prospect Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 42	BTW, the "Super"Drive is a dog. The best I can do ripping an audio CD with it is about 6X (according to iTunes), while the el-cheapo USB external drive has done as fast as 40X! :-)