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bpetruzzo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 22, 2005
102
0
I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro. It burns DVDs just fine, but I cannot burn a CD-R. When I insert a CD-R, it reads it for a few seconds, then spits it back out at me. If I'm trying to burn a data disc with Finder, the dialogue will just sit there saying something to the effect of 'waiting for writable media', or something like that. But when I insert the disc, again, it just spits it back out.

I've tried two different brands of writable disc and neither works. I've concluded there must be something else wrong. I don't burn discs often, but I'm pretty sure the last time I did successfully was before upgrading to Snow Leopard. I suppose it could have something to do with that.

Does anyone know what might be wrong?
 
It's very unlikely (but still possible) that the problem was triggered by Snow Leopard.

It sounds like there might be a physical problem with your SuperDrive. It's very possible for your computer to be able to write DVDs and not CDs (I believe they use two different lasers).

If you live near an Apple Store, you could take your computer in. They would:
  1. Reset your computer's SMC.
  2. Reset your computer's PRAM.
  3. Start up your computer from a "known good" operating system—a fresh install of Mac OS X on an external hard drive.

After all that, if they put a good CD in your computer and it still spit the disc out, they'd replace your SuperDrive. However, if your computer is out of warranty, Apple's charge to replace your SuperDrive is $310 plus tax!

There are a lot of other service providers who could do the repair more economically than Apple, still using genuine Apple parts. Do you live near a service provider? If not, mail-in repairs aren't a bad option.
 
No, I have Apple Care, so I'm good for a couple years (I bought it about 10 months ago).

I do have an Apple store pretty close by, but taking it in is a real hassle. In the interest of potentially saving time, how do I reset PRAM and SMC? If I can do that here, I can try on my own first. If it fixes it, I'll save myself a good chunk of time.
 
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