iMac is seriously gouging my discs!

[gimmeiphone]

Every disc is guaranteed to be scratched to hell, this is my third imac and i just can not be done with the hassle of sending it back again, totally pissed off is there any way to remedy the slot drive myself without voiding warranty? i tried sticky tape on the sides but it doesnt work

[Fiddler70]

Hi!

I feel for you man! I did a concert a few weeks ago which was recorded on CD, so the CD was unique. Listened to in on my iMac and when it was ejected had a whole row of scratches on it.

Turns out that if the internal DVD drive is not aligned properly, it spits out CD's at an angle, causing them to scrape past the casing, causing the complex scratches that even the most advanced error correction cannot compensate for.

My solution has been to put some transparent tape around the casing on the side the CD touches. I started on the outside and folded the tape about 4mm into the slot. Now, even if I push the CD against the casing it will not scratch.

I cant believe how Apple sacrificed this essential attribute of the machine (NOT scratching CD's) for design's sake.

Solution 1... correct alignment of internal drive.

Solution 2... coating on the casing surrounding the CD drive slot.

Actually you would expect them to do both. For now my CD is busted. Anyone know of a good restoration fluid/method?

Thanks!

[jayducharme]

I had the same problem with a brand new MacBook Pro. It was my first encounter with a hungry drive in a Mac. In my case, I don't think the problem was with the disk rubbing as it came out of the slot. There was actually something physically broken in the drive, which was scraping against the disk as it spun. The store gave me a brand new computer, but I lost three disks in the process. Two of them were Apple software, and the store replaced those as well.

As for homemade disks, I'm afraid you're out of luck. The scratches, as you mentioned, are extensive and next to impossible to repair. Many stores sell kits that supposedly fix scratches. Some examples are here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cd+scratch+remover&x=0&y=0&sprefix=CD+scratch

I tried a couple and haven't found that they do any good. In fact, one actually made the problem worse.

[Fiddler70]

Thanks for the warning. Maybe leave it as it is. Some ticks... :-(

[Raima]

Use an external super drive if you can connect it via usb or something

[ouimetnick]

Use an external super drive if you can connect it via usb or something

Well what if the drive is not aligned with the enclosure? External won't help if I has te same issue. Also apple needs to make things that just work again. They sell outdated hardware, charge a premium, have very low production costs, and make a **** load of cash