MBP's most common Unfixable problem

[Erasmus]

I needed to burn DVDs for some reason back when I had a Santa Rosa MBP (2007, I think), and I kept getting a "Medium Write Error". I tried wrapping a credit card in a microfibre cloth and sticking it in the drive, but it didn't help. Burning at a slower speed also didn't help.

So I ended up firing up my dad's ancient G4 Powerbook, and using the DVD burner in that. Worked brilliantly.

I guess sometimes the old ways are best.

I have since given my old MBP to my parents, as everything else about the computer works perfectly, and they don't burn DVDs very often. It's now their main computer.

And BTW OP, assuming I understand your post correctly, when you say "HD", you actually mean optical disk drive, right? Not the computer's internal hard disk? ie. "ODD", not "HD". If this is true, my old MBP had this problem every now and again. I think I just had to keep trying, and eventually it would work. Or maybe a restart fixed it.

 

[old-wiz]

One can always replace the internal DVD or use an external DVD burner.

 

[Drharrington]

Optical drives. It where you upgrade with SSD.

 

[delphus]

I must say this is legit. My late 2009 mbp has the same problems I read here. First it won't record DVD +R only -R. Then for some odd reason I had to write a DVD for a friend and voiala, DVD drive can't write proper DVDs anymore. I burned 5 DVDs to get a single one ok. All from same branch and new. I also noticed that sometimes CDs and DVDs get stuck inside the drive and I found myself pressing so many times eject to get it off. Wasn't like that when new of course.

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Another problem I got is the sd reader. Nowadays it simple wont format eos canon sdhd. All writing options are greyed. I had to buy and external USB media reader to be able to fix it. Sad