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New second optical drive problem in Mac Pro

belloq

belloq

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2009
6
0
First post here. New to mac after a 14 year hiatus. I recently installed a new pioneer BDR-205 blu-ray SATA drive as a second lower drive in my mac pro 2009 running SL and fully updated. The original upper drive is a model HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH41N. Pioneer and OWC both confirmed that the new drive would be plug and play. After proper installation, I confirmed that both drives could at least play a dvd. Checked cables and are fine.

But after using the computer for a while and then trying to open the new blu ray drive, the eject won't open it, rather eject only opens the upper first drive. The new drive shows in the system profiler but not the disk utility or anywhere else. When I click on the eject icon at top right of screen, that action hangs for a while. When it resolves itself, only the upper primary drive is able to eject. Clicking alt + eject on keyboard temporarily shows the eject symbol on screen but either does nothing or opens/closes the wrong upper drive. I reboot, use the computer for a few hours, try it again to check it but the same problem exists.

Boot up next day and both drives are working fine, play discs, eject separately, etc. But after being online for a couple of hours, I went to check on the system profiler if the second drive was still there, and the system profiler crashed when I clicked on the "disc burning" tab. I forced it to quit and reopened the system profiler, clicked on the disc burning tab. It again wasn't responding so I let it go for a while. Came back and saw that it showed only the upper drive in the burning tab. Both drives show up in SATA tab but probably not for long if the pattern is the same as yesterday. Lower drive again doesn't respond to eject. Alt + eject only opens upper drive. Clicking the eject icon on screen shows both drives but the lower one will not respond. This is the same pattern, so the problem is not going away.

FYI- I've researched other similar help threads everywhere and I don't see any options for "cable select," jumper options or the like with this new drive. Again, this optical drive is supposed to be plug and play.

Can't understand why the lower drive disappears and stops working seemingly just by using the computer for a few hours.

Any ideas?
 
Anyway what you need to do to eject the 2nd drive (and in fact what should be done by everyone anyway) is to add the EJECT menu !! To do this open your route drive - Open SYSTEM >-- LIBRARY >-- CORESERVICES >-- MENU EXTRAS then double click on "eject.menu". Once added this will add another icon in the top right corner of the screen. Click on this and you get the option to eject the DVD drive. If you have two drives it lists BOTH of them and you just select which one to eject.
Click to expand...

Linky

Hope that helps
 
Thanks for the link. I had read that thread earlier this week. However, I don't think the eject issue is the core problem. The eject on the desktop and keyboard works for the lower drive for a while after startup, but after using the computer/internet for a few hours, the functionality stops, lower drive disappears from system profiler, it won't eject, etc. Wierd, huh? Any other suggestions?
 
Update: I tried to isolate the problem a bit by testing a couple of scanarios. I had a feeling that using Safari was causing the problem, so I booted up and let the mac pro run for a few hours without using Safari. I also did not use any other applications. I confirmed that the drive was still listed in system profiler and would eject properly. Then I opened Safari, checked a couple of sites, then closed Safari. I checked the system profiler (disc burning) and disk utility, and both hung/spun for about five minutes. When it finally resolved, the lower drive was gone. (However the lower drive still showed in the SATA tab of system profiler.) And the lower drive could no longer eject. The problem was not temporary and seems to only correct itself when I reboot and don't use Safari. So it seems that Safari is causing the problem with the lower drive!?
 
I have had a similar issue with my second DVD drive. This is a Pioneer DVR-216 in a 2009 Mac Pro. I moved the OEM drive to the lower bay and installed the Pioneer at the top from day one as I thought it would be faster and quieter.

I will have a DVD in the drive idle for a while and when pressing the eject button I get the eject icon and the icon disappears from the desktop, the tray however does not come out. Sometimes I get a Finder dialogue as if inserting a blank DVD but the eject option doesn't work.

If you check disk utility at this point or another application like Toast to try and unmount the disc the drive no longer exists. The second OEM drive will remain visible.

The only solutions I have found is either a reboot (the symptom persists with a log out) or put the Mac to sleep and wake it up.

I read some seed notes online for 10.6.2 which suggested that this was a bug and was fixed but it has happened since I updated.
 
OK, I tried the possible workaround suggested by the link above. I turned the computer sleep to "never" in energy saver, shut down, booted, but it did not work. As soon as I opened Safari, and opened the system profiler, which hung for about 5 minutes, the lower drive disappeared in profiler and would not eject.

In fact a few hours later, other instabilities started happening. My keyboard and all attached mice/controllers just crashed. I needed to reboot. When I rebooted, it took a relatively long time- about 3 minutes- to shut down and restart, and when it finally restarted, the rotating timer symbol yielded a strike through circle, not the apple, for a few seconds. When it finally booted, the lower drive was gone from the beginning, even without opening Safari, and the eject icon from desktop is gone. But at least the keyboard and mouse works now. What the heck is happening?
 
This is not getting solved and I'm approaching 30 days post order, so I asked newegg for an exception to the return rule on this item (it was no refunds). Fortunately, they agreed to issue a RMA with a 15% restock fee. At least I get some cash back to try another drive, but will need to find a reseller with a more flexible exchange policy.
 
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