External Blu Ray drive possible sleep issue

[brepmaster]

Hi

I bought an external Samsung Blu-Ray SE-506AB drive for my i5 mac mini - Lion. I noticed that on Mac machines running OS X (Snow Leopard upwards) the drive is recognised by the OS and DVD’s are read fine. The problem is when the drive is idol/disc not being accessed. The physical button on the drive does not work (it is as if there is no power to the drive). As soon as I access the disc from finder and browse files or play a movie for example, the drive comes to life and then the physical eject button works again. The only other way I can eject the disc is using the eject disc button in finder in the operating system or by unplugging the USB cables and plugging them back in again – this spins up the disc and the eject button works again

If I plug the drive into a Windows machine (running Windows 7), the physical eject button works regardless of whether the drive is idol or not. It works as expected

I have disabled all power saving options in OS X and the drive definitely has both USB's plugged in. It has the latest firmware - TS01
Do you have any suggestions of what the issue could be? I am leaning towards it being a power saving issue but want to see what you guys think

I have sent the above to Samsung also to see what they say but the drive definitely supports OS X

Thanks!

 

[EwanMcTeagle]

I have a kind of same thing with an external Asus DVD Drive. It's the same on both Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard. The physical eject button doesn't work at all - only the OSX ejection works. Go figure...

 

[SlyMac]

I've never had that problem on my macbook with lion. I use an external LG bluray drive. I have it plugged in a lot and it opens right up, even after a long period of no use. Mine has the 2 USB connection, but I only have one connected and never had a problem with read speeds (usually in the 4x-5x range when using makeMKV).

 

[brepmaster]

Thanks Guys

It must be the DVD drive (Returning it now).

What drives are you both using (Model No.) out of interest?

 

[kaielement]

I have a kind of same thing with an external Asus DVD Drive. It's the same on both Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard. The physical eject button doesn't work at all - only the OSX ejection works. Go figure...

I have this happen too, but my drive has an option to plug it into power with a second usb cord it came with. When I have both plugged in no problem. So I think its a power thing.

 

[brepmaster]

Yeah sounds like it could be. I do have both USB's plugged in however so dont have any other options. Unless not all mac mini USB ports are powered????

 

[brepmaster]

I think this may apply to me: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1350030/

........

 

[EwanMcTeagle]

I have this happen too, but my drive has an option to plug it into power with a second usb cord it came with. When I have both plugged in no problem. So I think its a power thing.

But I have it plugged in with 2 USB cables... so I really don't get it why it doesn't work "physically'. And to be honest it doesn't bother me that much anymore.