LG Blu-ray writer BP50NB40 no longer works reliably in macOS on two different Macs.

[MacinMan]

Hey all, this is both a solution and question thread.

I've had an LG BP50NB40. for the last several years, that has worked flawlessly on my 5K 27", late 2015 iMac. It has worked flawlessly with the main connector of the usb Y plug connected to one of the Mac's USB 3.0 ports. At the beginning of this week, After reconnecting the drive and started ripping Blu-rays again, the drive started working as it normally did, Than started developing read errors on discs, and then eventually disappearing from the system as a whole, so the Mac no longer saw it had an optical drive, but the drive still had power and was able to spin up discs, they just never mounted.

I repeated these tests on my late 2013, 13" MBP with Big Sur, while the iMac has Monterey. Same behavior was observed on the MBP, the drive powered up, spun up discs, but they didn't mount, and it would also disappear from the system as a connected optical drive. I'm thinking the drive, basically just gave out after the years of use. I also tried different micro USB to USB A cables to make sure, it wasn't a cable issue, and same behavior. Are there any other options to try and save this drive as a backup, or is it gone?

Thinking it was a dead drive, I went ahead and ordered this drive from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/PIONEER-External-BDR-X13UBK-Reliability-PureRead/dp/B0C367V1QW/ for use with my iMac and it's worked perfectly without issues, so I'm pretty sure it was the drive, but just making sure.

As a side note, the pioneer seems like it's a much better drive, and value over the LG, but if the LG can be used as a backup would not want to give up on it. Thanks

 

[salamanderjuice]

Does the LG still read DVDs/CDs? I've had a couple Blu-ray drives develop issues reading Blu-rays but can still do the other two. If so maybe cleaning the Blu-ray laser will help but it might not tbh. I didn't have long term success when I tried.

 

[MacinMan]

Does the LG still read DVDs/CDs? I've had a couple Blu-ray drives develop issues reading Blu-rays but can still do the other two. If so maybe cleaning the Blu-ray laser will help but it might not tbh. I didn't have long term success when I tried.

I think the laser is working correctly as it spins up the disc(s), it just doesn't reliably talk to the computer as I mentioned the drive itself doesn't reliably stay connected to the OS as a device, but physically it keeps power. So I'm thinking maybe drive controller has failed (the part that the OS talks to)

 

[MacinMan]

Hey all, just coming back to close the topic. as far as my issue being resolved. The drive was dead, got a new drive and everylthing is fine. In fact I have two new drives now. A pioneer, and a new LG.