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Dal123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 23, 2008
903
0
England
I have a 17" powerbook that keeps ejecting cd/dvd's. Tries to read them then ejects them after about 10 seconds. The dvd drive itself is fine. Hardware tests indicate it is working fine and have had it checked by an apple specialist and he says it is fine. It must be software issues.
Ideally I would do a software restore but cannot put the discs in. What can I do about this? It must be a fairly simple solution. Any help greatly appreciated.
 

Ivan P

macrumors 68030
Jan 17, 2008
2,692
4
Home
I was just about to post a thread about a very similar problem - the only difference with me is that it's only limited to some DVDs. Any and all install discs I've used (OS X, iWork, VMWare Fusion, XP, AppleCare, etc) have worked fine, as have most commercial DVDs - there's just two out of the entire bunch that my brand new MBP would attempt to mount a few times and then spit out again...meanwhile my iMac plays them fine. It can't be a hardware problem if it's recognising other DVDs, I'd say it just has a problem with those two...Hmmm, anyway, sorry, I went off on a bit of a tangent, didn't I? :p

If you're unable to get the discs to work at all then I'd consider getting hold of an external superdrive (either by buying one or seeing if someone in the Apple Store will let you hook one up while you reinstall OS X), maybe that would work.
 

iLog.Genius

macrumors 601
Feb 24, 2009
4,903
451
Toronto, Ontario
Apple Hardware Test isn't the most accurate and reliable test. All it does is check to see if the hardware is working with power, doesn't check if it's functional. You probably have a faulty drive. If you think it's software, check in a new user and if that doesn't work, perform an archive and install.
 

Dal123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 23, 2008
903
0
England
Thanks for input

Cheers for advice, I do need to sort the drive out because I have software I need to install from dvd. I also take the computer with me to building sites and really not too practical to lug a third party dvd drive round.
I performed a test using tech tool pro and had the computer taken apart and checked by apple specialist. I didn't really understand archiving and install. I'm not an expert on computers (I just think I am lol:p)
 
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