Mac Pro DVD drive issues

[cowm007]

Just recently my Mac Pro has started to give me trouble reading DVDs. The DVDs are fine as they read perfectly on my MacBook, but on the Mac Pro, they just spin up a bit in there and never load. Every once in a while, a DVD will load just fine, but for the most part I can't get DVDs to play. Any ideas what it could be?

Edit: I think I've noticed a pattern. CDs and single-layer DVDs load without a problem. It's the newer Dual-layer DVDs that just sit in there and fail to load. I remember hearing about a similar issue in Nintendo Wiis and that it was because the drive was probably dirty. Any tips on how to clean the drives and test that out?

 

[vansouza]

Considering your investment, why not call Apple Care, while you wait.

 

[cowm007]

Considering your investment, why not call Apple Care, while you wait.

I called them up after posting and they said I'd have to bring it into the store to have it checked out. I asked if they could just send me a replacement drive and I could send the problematic one back to them but they don't have a program like that for the optical drives.

I'd rather not drive 50 miles to my nearest store hauling my computer around when I can do trouble-shooting at home or even get a new optical-drive for $30 bucks and not be out of a computer at all.

Regular DVDs and CDs read just fine, so it's just movies that are giving me a problem. Considering it's the same laser mechanism that reads all media, I'm guessing it's having sensitivity issues with the touchier DL-DVD media. There's gotta be a way to clean the drive a bit or some other method to see if that solves the problem.

 

[pavel.stebl]

DVDs that won't load

I purchased my MBP at the end of 2007 and soon it would reject DVDs playable on other machines. I took it back to the store twice where they twice replaced the optical disc but the problem persisted. Now, they have replaced the machine but it still won't play some DVDs that would play perfectly fine on my neighbour's MBP and even standalone players. Why, oh why? Has there been a bad run of MBPs put out? Does anyone have similar experience?

 

[bilbo--baggins]

My Mac Pro is nearly 2 years old (with Apple Care). The DVD drive was replaced earlier this year because verification started failing after burning DVD discs (good quality discs that worked ok in other machines).

Since then I've discovered lots of purchased DVD discs it won't read - it spins then a few minutes later ejects them without them being mounted. A minority of discs do work ok. All discs that it rejects have been brand new without defects. The discs work fine in my MacBook Pro (1 year old). I'll have to get around to getting another replcement. SMC and PRAM resets didn't help.

 

[lostless]

If your warranty is up, you could always just buy any standard PC, off the shelf DVD drive. Upgrade to a bluray drive if you want. If been doing this in my old G3, G4 and I have one as a second drive in my mac pro. Never had an issue.