Macbook optical drive failure

[djchristie]

Hi folks,

unfortunately my 2 month old macbook optical drive seems to have died. It was working fine, watching a good quality movie DVD (shop bought, not warped) with no issues whilst on my desk. Shut it down, left it undisturbed, no knocks or anything, then started up the next day. DVD player comes up with an error message saying no optical drive available, system profiler doesn't register an optical drive either. No sound from the drive, completely dead. Will try PRAM and SMC resets later on. Has anyone got any suggestions of anything else to try? Is there anyway I can wire up my iMac to it and reinstall OS X or run disk utility on it from my iMac? I love the way apple suggest running the hardware test CD on their support pages - a little difficult in this case!

Thanks all for any feedback,

Darren

 

[Eidorian]

Call Apple or take it to an Apple Store and get it replaced.

 

[djchristie]

Call Apple or take it to an Apple Store and get it replaced.

I was hoping not to hear that (although clearly the most sensible option). Unfortunately, the Falkland Islands do not have an Apple Store/Retailer so it would have to be sent back to the UK - time consuming and expensive. I'd like to do this as a last resort, though it seems sure to be a hardware failure

 

[bijou]

Sending it back in the drop box is really your only resort for warranty repair, if you're not close to an Apple store.

 

[Not-a-cliche]

Well if you call Apple they could send you a postage paid box to send them the computer in, so you don't have to pay.

Apple is nice like that.

 

[deadpixels]

Is there anyway I can wire up my iMac to it and reinstall OS X or run disk utility on it from my iMac?

Firewire Target Disk Mode

 

[mosx]

Your optical drive definitely bit the dust.

For some reason, Apple loves to use low quality Matsushita drives that tend to live up to 4 of the last 5 letters of their name.

Getting a SuperDrive that will work for a reasonable amount of time (a few years) is really a matter of luck. Thankfully, my replacement MacBook (first went in for a bad SuperDrive, got all messed up by the repair center in Memphis, TN, ended up getting replaced) has what seems to be one of the few good SuperDrives. At this point only time will tell, but its performed good.

Your only real option, unfortunately, is to send it in for a warranty repair.

If there are no Apple stores in your area, try to find an "Apple Authorized Repair Center" and see if Apple will set it up so you can drop your system off with them and they can ship it out to Apple or have them repair it there.

You really should call AppleCare though.

 

[djchristie]

Thanks

Thanks everyone, helpful as ever (I love these forums!). Have tried everything I can think of to no avail, will call Apple later today. Such a shame, out of 6 Macs I've owned and the 16 I've bought for other people this is the first to have a problem. Not too bad I guess, but sad nonetheless. I wish there was a BTO option for better drives, but I guess that would almost be admitting the standard ones are rubbish!

Thanks again,

Darren

 

[rjphoto]

Mine too, sort of...

At least mine is an old 867 12" PB.

At first I thought it might be the new iTunes & QuickTime or the Security update installed yesterday.

It makes a noise like it is trying to read the disk, but then it kicks it out. Doesn't matter what kind of disk... CD or DVD - bought or burned.

Any suggestions?

Update - no luck on getting the original optical to work, but I pulled some parts out of the old G4 (in the sig) and put the 8x Pioneer DVD-R/RW in a firewire box and it's working great. So far I've only burned CDs because the HD is so full I don't have any space to prep for a DVD.

It's not portable but it will have to do for now.

 

[Ropie]

Hi,

My year-old Macbook Pro internal superdrive seems to play DVDs with virtually no problems but for some reason will only play maybe 1 in 15 music CDs; it either will not read them at all and spit them out or just spin them very slowly..slowly..getting slower until it stops, then I have to eject the disk myself.

Anyone have an idea why this happens and if there is a software or hardware fix I can do myself without having to resort to sending the machine off for repair for a month??

Thanks.