MBP Won't read Leopard DVD?!

mikey.f · Oct 26, 2007

OK I've had the same problem, and my solution came "from the heaven" (or hell?

)

This was the scenario:

I put the disc in the drive. It started spinning and doing the weird noises I never heard before. Yuck.

I ejected and tried again. Same result.

Then, my MBP kinda... slipped from the stand I have it on and that must have shaken the disc reader or something!! And suddenly, the common noise of reading a DVD started. And then, everything worked fine.

So, it might not be a solution for everyone, but try shaking or sliiiiightly smashing your notebook while it's trying to read it?? See if that helps

KingYaba · Oct 26, 2007

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E:

Firmware Revision: ZA0E
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

Worked perfectly.

iPoodOverZune · Oct 26, 2007

Leopard installation disc contains only Bootcamp!?

I checked the install disc on a PC. Why the heck it shows only BootCamp files. The drive is labeled as BootCamp and upon exploring it shows documentation folder (does not have any English doc folder), driver folder, autorun, Bootcamp installation pdf, a word file (saying that This disc is for bootcamp only installation on Intel systems) and SetUp. No mention of Leopard or any associated file or at least an installation pdf. What the heck? How is that possible. At least some mention should be there. I guess that could be the problem that the disc contain only bootcamp.

aaronw1986 · Oct 26, 2007

Masquerade said:
piratebay-it. you've a legal copy then you can torrent it. tomorrow replace the disk at store

lol. does not give you the excuse to torrent it.

thejadedmonkey · Oct 26, 2007

aaronw1986 said:
lol. does not give you the excuse to torrent it.

As I see it, you're allowed a legal copy for backup purposes.. and since you're not even cracking any DRM, there's no problems.. I'm no lawyer, but I don't see any problem with it. He owns a legal license to it.

BTW, This drive worked 50% of the time, more so when I push down on the top so it can grab the DVD better.

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GWA4080MA:

Firmware Revision: AE39
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

mbeckman · Oct 27, 2007

PowerMac G5 2GHz same problem (spits out Leopard DVD)

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D:

Firmware Revision: A707
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 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

aaronw1986 · Oct 27, 2007

thejadedmonkey said:
As I see it, you're allowed a legal copy for backup purposes.. and since you're not even cracking any DRM, there's no problems.. I'm no lawyer, but I don't see any problem with it. He owns a legal license to it.

An uploaded pre-release version is certainly not a "legal copy"....

hotshotharry · Oct 27, 2007

What if he did it after 6pm on friday night?

jhamerphoto · Oct 28, 2007

Well, after calling apple, they are going to mail me a new copy, taking 7-10 business days to arrive.
I doubt this will fix the problem, but they claim it will.
We'll see what happens.

phantomsd · Oct 29, 2007

I had the same problem with my MBP (2.16 C2D). It would just keep spitting out the DVD. Luckily I found this thread after googling the problem. Used target disk mode since my friend had her iMac here and now im installing as i type this!

Its a good thing this happened because now I know there is something up with my DVD drive. Reads CD-Rs fine but chokes on DVDs. Blah!!!

ensjesse · Oct 29, 2007

I don't think this relates directly to the issue however after 5 months after purchasing my MacBook i had to restore. The restore cd's had the same issue as above. It required a new main board to fix the problem, not sure why, Possbibly DRM Chip? But now the restore CD's boot fine.

Jesse

kerbliner · Oct 30, 2007

there's definitely something funny going on here.. Got Leopard on Friday (Volume License) and installed on a iMac.. fine, installed on another (new) iMac.. failed on validating install, tried in a G4 PowerBook.. just spat the disc out over and over again..

I'm going to try it on a G5 PowerMac and another new iMac tonight and see where i get to. This is using an original DVD, not a copy.

I did have an idea that you may be able to copy the disc to a partition on a removable hard drive, boot and install from that. Does anyone know if that'll work?

Matt

dacreativeguy · Oct 30, 2007

I've got a MBP SR 2.4 with a Matshita DVD-R UJ-857E that won't read the Leopard UTD DVD. Same behavior as others are describing - Tries to spin it up a few times then spits it out. It mounted it 1 or 2 times in 20 tries or so, but that isn't reliable enough to get through an install.

It mounts everything else just fine, including its install DVDs. Though I took the install DVD from another MBP SR machine and it spit it out.

I tried the UTD disc in a MBP SR 2.2 HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N and it works fine. Tried it in my G5 with a NEC and it worked fine too.

This seems like a sporadic Dual Layer issue with the Matshita drive, but is it my drive that is defective, the drive model is just not very good, or the actual install discs are of low quality and therefore have trouble with finicky drives?

dacreativeguy · Oct 30, 2007

kerbliner said:
there's definitely something funny going on here.. Got Leopard on Friday (Volume License) and installed on a iMac.. fine, installed on another (new) iMac.. failed on validating install, tried in a G4 PowerBook.. just spat the disc out over and over again..

I'm going to try it on a G5 PowerMac and another new iMac tonight and see where i get to. This is using an original DVD, not a copy.

I did have an idea that you may be able to copy the disc to a partition on a removable hard drive, boot and install from that. Does anyone know if that'll work?

Matt

You can definitely copy the dvd to a disk drive partition and boot from there via firewire. SuperDuper will do it easily. Otherwise, make a dmg of the DVD and then restore that image onto your hard drive partition.

mgs4410 · Nov 4, 2007

try this "fix"

This sounds absurd but is working for people on other forums. Insert the disc and hold your MacBook Pro upside down while it attempts to read it. If it works, hold it upside down again when it reboots to begin the installation. Just try it.

leubstop · Nov 5, 2007

Macbook pro flipped

Whod have thunk.. it works
my experience

Jack Dangers · Nov 5, 2007

I have the same problems with my Macbook.

Original Leopard DVD was spit out a couple of times. It was finally read and failed during mid-install. Decided to swap out disk at the Apple store and had the same problems. New disk, 1st time aborted install half way. 2nd attempt same thing. 3rd attempt finally installed leopard. Tried to install windows with Parallels- the drive didn't recognize my Windows XP install disk. Thinking my parallels was bad, tried bootcamp, same thing. Drive didn't recognize Windows disk. Windows disk is fine, I put it into my pc at work, loaded right up. Audio CDs seem to work fine on the Macbook, but some DVDs work while others don't.
SPoke with Apple care today, they're sending a box to ship the Macbook for repairs.

up to 10 days w/o laptop.

:apple:

how i Loathe thee right now

but I'm sure I'll get over it

kennylucius · Nov 8, 2007

DVD drive faulty?

I had similar problems which were solved by holding the MBP upside-down. My impression is that the DVD drives are, if not faulty, then a bit finicky about which DVDs they will accept. The Leopard disk seemed a bit thicker than the blanks I use. If I had blank dual-layer DVDs, I would have burned a duplicate and tried that.

If anyone out there has some DL DVDs known to work with your finicky MBP, please try burning a duplicate of the Leopard install disk and see if it works.

BTW, there is a similar discussion on Apple Support forum.

jhamerphoto · Nov 8, 2007

well with no sign of the second version of leopard apple promised me, my friend came over with her white macbook, and I just put it into target disk mode and used that to install. worked perfectly.
I guess us MBP users are just screwed
sweet? cause you know, they're such cheap machines.
unfortunately, just now, my firewire 800 port just gave out.
this is ridiculous.

John Musbach · Nov 8, 2007

jhamerphoto said:
I joined specifically to start this thread, possibly get some answers.

I bought OS X Leopard tonight and whenever I put it in the drive of my MBP, it just spits it back out.
15.4" 2.16ghz 2gb ram MBP, everything has worked perfectly except this.
it accepts the disc, sits there, clicks a bit and spits it back out after about 15 seconds. It doesn't even load on the desktop.
has this happened for anyone else?
I tried resetting it how they described in another forum and still nothing.

I even tried putting a DVD into it to see if my drive was shot, but it ran fine.

Thanks.

Find a mac that does read the dvd, use Disk Utility to make a image of the leopard install dvd and then reburn the dvd to a dvd+r dl and try the new dvd in the problem drive

John Musbach · Nov 8, 2007

KingYaba said:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E:

Firmware Revision: ZA0E
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

Worked perfectly.

My

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N:

Firmware Revision: BP08
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

worked perfectly as well

digger4mr · Nov 21, 2007

DMG Creation?

I created a DMG using Disk Utility in 10.4.10 on my MBP. Burned to disk. The MBP boots from it. HOwever it has failed twice now on install. Chokes on the "essential package." I don't have the exact error in front of me, but basically states that it can not validate the package.

Is there a special trick to creating the DMG? MBP is currently doing the "Checking Installation DVD" stage or I would give drive specs. Must...resist...clicking...Skip! Used HP DVD+R DL 2.4x media (Retail, gold finish on label side.) I might try restoring the DMG to a USB drive next if this DVD check/Install fails again.

digger4mr · Nov 21, 2007

Looks like it was the burn

Looks like it was the burn. I set a USB drive up with GUID partitioning, created a 10GB partition as the first partition, and restored the DMG to the partition. Booted from teh USB drive and installed just fine. Why are these Super Drives so flaky?

Now that I think about it, having a USB drive with Leopard install media on one partition and making the other 400GB+ partition as my Time Machine drive makes for a fairly simple recovery platform as well. Now if only my FW 800 drive was available.....

Stormyguy · Nov 21, 2007

Well my Powermac G5 Dual 2.7 will read the DVD but when I restart to commence the install proper - nothing, just a grey screen with the li'l apple logo and one whole load of disc reading noises and the fans just go NUTS - thought my apartment would take off at any moment lol !

Checked a normal movie DVD - all good - and threw the Leo DVD into my Powerbook G4 - read it fine and got to the next stage no problem (although that's on Panther so couldnt go any further).

Should I put the DVD in the PowerBook, connect with firewire and start in target mode and attempt to upgrade my G5 from there?? The drive on my G5 doesn't seem to like that disc much!

Danny

bmoddo · Dec 29, 2007

The upside/down of it all

Well, well... holding my MBP (very new one I might add) upside down just after inserting a 'troublesome' DVD that my iMac G5 (and my pre-leopard (Tiger) MBP) could read just fine works.

Now hold that thought.

Why should I be happy that I can now trick my laptop into reading a DVD that it was perfectly able to read before my "upgrade" to Leopard? Let me answer that for you. I'm not.

In fact, none of us who shelled out the rather handsome costs associated with these 'experiences' in the guise of laptops should be happy that we need to resort to this jerky gymnastics maneuver to get a DVD to run properly under Leopard, or should we call it 'LEPER"?

My MBP ran perfectly under Tiger. A true marvel. DVD's loaded, burned etc etc... plans made, dreams dreamed and now here I am reduced to tricking my laptop into working like it used to.

No. I'm not happy. Nor should I be. The alternative is down-grading to Tiger; which isn't a terrible thought.

I'm just not content to have to go out of my way to coax my tools to perform common tasks. I believe the word for tools that don't work is DEFECTIVE or perhaps DAMAGED. In either case I didn't pay this much money for the experience of learning to fool my hardware into working. I paid for a tool and it is apparently not functioning according to spec.

So, back it all up... downgrade and move on. I've got work to do that doesn't involve amusing my friends with stupid mac tricks.

b/.

MBP Won't read Leopard DVD?!

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