annoying CD stall / freeze

[aloha2ian]

Hello all!

I've had my 1.8 MacBook Pro for just about a week now (running Tiger 10.4). I am starting to import my music collection into iTunes 6.0.5. However I'm repeatedly running into a problem.

After I insert a CD and try to import it through iTunes, it imports about half a song then hangs up and stalls. At this point the drive starts to spin the CD quickly then slows down, then repeats this process until I force quit iTunes (which is frozen by this point.) What's worse, is I cannot even play the songs, because it does the same thing. The same problem occurs in QuickTime, so I know it's not just iTunes. I have tried the spin-down trick, which doesn't help.

I've scoured through countless articles on numerous message boards and though I've found many people hve the same problem (especially on the Apple discussion boards) I have yet to find a solution.

Maybe someone can help? Or should I just take it in and have them replace the drive?

TIA ,
Ian

 

[mad jew]

So this is occurring with lots of different CDs? If so, I'd probably take it in to get the drive replaced. However, if it's just happening with a few CDs and you've managed to get some discs ripping properly, then the discs that aren't working may have anti-piracy software installed that could be preventing iTunes from working. I doubt this though, because you manage to get half a song ripped before it fails.

Of course, a PMU reset might help by resetting some of the optical drive's firmware. It can't hurt. I think a talk to Apple is probably what's really going to help though.

 

[aloha2ian]

Hi Mad Jew,

Thanks for the response, but it's not anything to do with anti-piracy, because some work, and some don't. Some of the songs will import, and others will not. All in all, very very frustrating. Thanks for the help though.

-Ian

 

[mad jew]

Okay, so did you try the PMU reset?

 

[aloha2ian]

An update on faulty optical drive

Here's an update on the ongoing debacle of these faulty optical drives.

I am now onto my third replacement MacBook Pro. This is now a brand-new MacBook Pro 2.0 GHz with 512 MB.

After going into the Apple store with my CDs that have failed to import (or in some cases fail to even mount on the desktop) and tried to reproduce the same problem, I was amazed to find that nearly half the MacBooks and MacBook Pros I tried had the exact same problems.

Come on people! How are nearly half of the users not in an outrage about this? I now have proof that I'm not the only one with this problem. This should be a recall from Apple.

The advice given to me from the genius at the Apple store was; if the problem continues (which it clearly is) then give it a few months, and check back to see if Apple has issued another drive to replace the current.

Keep in mind this on a clean system that has been zeroed. (Three times.)

Anyway, here are the specs, for anyone who may have some theories:

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857:

Capacity: 710.51 MB
Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857
Revision: HAE4
Serial Number:
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk1
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported

Thanks for everyone's help