iMac DVD drive deteriorating?

[cuzzin]

Hi all,

I've had my iMac for ~1yr now and i've started to notice the internal dvd/cd drive slip in performance when it comes to reading DVD's.

I just bought myself an external 750g harddrive and am in the process of transferring my DVD collection onto the "media hub".

Unfortunately i've only been able to transfer one as every time i copy the files off the DVD's, I get the ol' "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "..." could not be read or written" half way through copying.

Now normally it would be dirty discs, but These disks are relatively clean. Not dirt free, but definitely in good shape. I've tried copying the files on my brother's PC and everything works fine..

Burning DVD's and CD's seem fine though. It's only reading DVD discs that performance have dropped.

Is this a known issue with iMacs or the trayless internal drives? Is there any way I could clean or "fix" the drive?

Thnks for your time,
Ryan

 

[hughvane]

I've had my iMac for ~1yr now and i've started to notice the internal dvd/cd drive slip in performance when it comes to reading DVD's. Is this a known issue with iMacs or the trayless internal drives? Is there any way I could clean or "fix" the drive?

If it's the Matshita UJ-846 drive, there are several reports of its failure or deteriorating performance. Complainants had gone either for an external firewire optical drive or a Pioneer slim internal replacement drive. The Pioneer brand is very good.

However, you may simply have dirt on the laser lens, which can be cleaned with a cleaning disk. I'd try that first.

 

[cuzzin]

I just took a look and i've got a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06. So i'm running with you and assuming there is dirt on the lens.

But if this was the case, wouldn't this effect burning disc's as well?
I'm not too savvy when it comes to the technicals of cd-rom drives and am assuming the laser is used to write the data on discs as well as read..

I will look at purchasing a cleaning disc on the weekend.

Many Thanks.

 

[hughvane]

I just took a look and i've got a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06. So i'm running with you and assuming there is dirt on the lens.
But if this was the case, wouldn't this effect burning disc's as well?
I'm not too savvy when it comes to the technicals of cd-rom drives and am assuming the laser is used to write the data on discs as well as read.

That K06 is usually reliable, and yes, if the lens was dirty, it would probably affect burning. However, from what you say, the dvds have already been burned - right? The lens in the K06 may have been affected in some way. Like you, I'm no expert in the technical wotzits of lasers and how they deal with optical media. Trying a cleaning process makes sense, then see if the reading activity improves.

A second thought from left field - how many files at once are you trying to transfer to your external drive? If you're selecting a whole bunch of them from the dvd and then doing the drag-drop thing, maybe the Finder is struggling to cope with that.