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Clayj's Excellent Snow Leopard Upgrade Adventure

Understood. For us slower people it is unknown that data is accessed in two different ways when reading and installing. Either way, you're right in that it should not have to be done. A work around to use an install DVD is silly in any respect.
 
soulman901 said:
Not sure how you would even get a good image off the disc to begin with. It's a shame the disc is bad but I would take it back to Apple for a trade in. You may just be one of the few percents that get a bad disc and it happens for everyone, including Apple. I'll go home and try mine.
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Already took the bad disc in. Got ANOTHER bad disc. I should be buying lottery tickets with that kind of luck. The biggest problems are (1) the waste of my personal time and (2) having to schlep back and forth to the mall over a problem that should not be happening.

And if the failure rate is, as you say, a "few percents", that's about 2.999% too high.
 
jessica. said:
Understood. For us slower people it is unknown that data is accessed in two different ways when reading and installing. Either way, you're right in that it should not have to be done. A work around to use an install DVD is silly in any respect.
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Agreed. It's like buying a TV and then finding out you can only watch channels 2, 3, and 7, and then deciding that that's OK. When I buy something new, I expect it to work perfectly or it goes back -- that means no dead or stuck pixels and no having to do workarounds. :)
 
clayj said:
Except I don't have Toast, and the DVD has acted badly on every machine so far.

One thing I have noticed is smudges on my DVD, despite the fact that I have not at any point touched the surface of it. I have to wonder if Apple is using trained monkeys to stuff the DVDs into the glassine sleeves -- and why it is that their installer is so damned picky that a smudge on the DVD will cause it to fail.

At any rate, the installer is now going on my MBA. Only time will tell if it will actually succeed or fail yet again.
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The smudges are more then likely not the problem. Also Apple does not manufacture the discs. That said, there is a 1/10 chance that a person even touched you DVD. Everything is automated these days. People who burn DVDs for their Xbox know that you want a slower burn speed, otherwise the data on the disc will be corrupted. That could be the issue here, or something similar. If you just do not have any luck and have to go back to the Apple store. I would bring the macbook and the mini in with you. Run through the install with the genius. If the new disc works great, if not then your there with them, they can see the issue, and help get it running correctly.
 
synth3tik said:
Also Apple does not manufacture the discs.
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Irrelevant. If it's got Apple's logo on it, it's Apple's responsibility.

Anyway, I appear to have gotten my particular Snow Leopard DVD working correctly. All I did between it not working and it working was to clean it -- so the smudges I saw earlier are the logical cause of the issues I was having. If you have a Snow Leopard DVD, make sure it is ULTRA-clean before you try to install from it.
 
clayj said:
No. Turns out I didn't need to. For those who might consider this option, what exactly do you suggest?
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A $5 laser lens cleaner at any store. It's just a CD with a little brush glued on it. Add a drop or two of the solution provided.

Instruction on the package.
 
clayj said:
And if the failure rate is, as you say, a "few percents", that's about 2.999% too high.
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It is impossible to expect ANY manufacturing to have that low of a defect rate. You have to achieve a balance between having too many defects and spending too much on QA.
 
w0ngbr4d said:
It is impossible to expect ANY manufacturing to have that low of a defect rate. You have to achieve a balance between having too many defects and spending too much on QA.
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It's those damned Dual-layered disks. I can't burn 'em either without a few coasters. :D
 
clayj said:
Irrelevant. If it's got Apple's logo on it, it's Apple's responsibility.
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Completely agree with you on this.

clayj said:
Anyway, I appear to have gotten my particular Snow Leopard DVD working correctly. All I did between it not working and it working was to clean it -- so the smudges I saw earlier are the logical cause of the issues I was having. If you have a Snow Leopard DVD, make sure it is ULTRA-clean before you try to install from it.
Click to expand...
Disc reading varies from Optical Drive to Optical Drive. Fingerprints, smudges, and scratches affect readability. I've found that my iMac SuperDrive is very sensitive. Sometimes it won't even play a store bought DVD. However, when I pop it into my PM933, the same DVD is played with no issues.

Glad you got things working.
 
soulman901 said:
Did you get the reference?
:p
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69, dudes!

5511201_std.jpg
 
sushi said:
Disc reading varies from Optical Drive to Optical Drive. Fingerprints, smudges, and scratches affect readability. I've found that my iMac SuperDrive is very sensitive. Sometimes it won't even play a store bought DVD. However, when I pop it into my PM933, the same DVD is played with no issues.
Click to expand...

I've found that "proper" desktop drives are significantly more reliable than laptop ones.
 
Ah, Clay, your story sounds much like mine! This afternoon I returned home from the Apple store, all excited and eager to install SL on three machines. I figured the MBA (rev A, SSD drive) would be a cinch since it doesn't have a lot of junk on it. Got everything set up: external SuperDrive, MBA.....and had no luck. Error messages, failures to load...... Grrr! I then took a stab at installing the thing on the 17" MBP, and after about 4 tries gave up and went back to the Apple store, since I assumed it was a bad disk. Swapped discs. Once home again, after several tries I actually managed to achieve installing SL on the 17" MBP. Back to the MBA....still no luck, even though I've carefully wiped the darned disk clean each and every time. I"m giving up for the night. I think Apple hurried these discs out, probably very cheap production, and this is why people are having problems.

I will give it a few more tries with the SuperDrive and if that doesn't work will be heading back to the Apple store, MBA, SuperDrive and disk in hand and let THEM try!

After that, then I'll wrestle with the Mac Pro.....

This is extremely frustrating!
 
It is DEFINITELY a smudge issue. I have just spent the last little while fiddling with this again and even though I wipe the disc absolutely clean, there is definitely a problem with either the disc or the SuperDrive or both. I ran another disc through, one which was new and which had never been used, just to see what would happen and although there was a faint smudge/smear on it after going through the SuperDrive it wasn't as severe as on the Apple SL disc.
Each time I run the Apple disc through the smear reappears. Tomorrow I'll pick up some stuff to try and clean the internals of the SuperDrive, see if that makes a difference.


ETA: A good night's sleep for me and the MBA, plus yet another thorough cleaning with rubbing alcohol did the trick. Installing an absolutely smudge-free, smear-free disc on a cool, freshly-booted computer made the difference. I am now typing on the MBA, with SL purring under the hood.....
 
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