SuperDrive on MacBook not working well

[jesusphreak]

I got a new MacBook the other day and the only problem I'm having with it is the SuperDrive is extremely sensitive.

With two different CDs that aren't very scratched iTunes has choked on importing them. One of them wouldn't even play on certain songs but for whatever reason iTunes did import that song.

I have on error correction when importing but even that isn't cutting it. My PC with its cheapo CD drive has no problems with these disks.

Is there anything I can do? Thanks

Oh, and one more thing...the Mac plays DVDs full-screen. Is there anyway to make the screen smaller (windowed)? Thanks again for the help.

 

[matticus008]

With two different CDs that aren't very scratched iTunes has choked on importing them. One of them wouldn't even play on certain songs but for whatever reason iTunes did import that song.

What kind of CD are they? Pressed or burned, how old, etc.? Different drives have different sensitivities to different disc types.

If your PC can read it, I'd import it on the PC and then transfer the files to your Mac, either via network or by burning a data CD, or at the very least cloning the disc.

Oh, and one more thing...the Mac plays DVDs full-screen. Is there anyway to make the screen smaller (windowed)? Thanks again for the help.

Command-F will exit full screen mode.

 

[mac4drew]

If your PC has no trouble with these same disks in their current state, it's likely that either you have a bad drive, or you just found some kind of obscure media that happens to be incompatible with the drive.

As the previous poster said it would be helpful to know if they are professionally pressed or if they're burned. If they're the same type of burned media, it's likely that that media is incompatible with your drive. If they're pressed, you should probably have your computer looked at.

I know my MBP was having trouble reading some DVD-Rs (that it burned!) that my old iBook's combo drive would read just fine, but I'm certain it's because it's cheap media (Staples brand) and I got what I paid for.

Post #100!

 

[jesusphreak]

They are just regular music CDs that I bought from the store.

I'm very disappointed because my MacBook works great and I'd hate for that to be a nagging issue.

I mean I can burn them via my PC and then convert them to the Mac but I shouldn't have to do that.

 

[lamina]

As much of a pain in the ass its going to be to part with your computer for a few days, I'd call Apple and have it serviced.

 

[jesusphreak]

On every CD it gets towards the middle of the disc and then the drive just keeps spinning. /frustrated

 

[otis123]

mabye you have a bad drive, theres always problems with 1st gen stuff, thats why i got a ibook

 

[matticus008]

mabye you have a bad drive, theres always problems with 1st gen stuff, thats why i got a ibook

It's not a first generation disc drive, so it's irrelevant what kind of computer or which revision it is. It just seems to be a broken or misaligned drive, which Apple will replace.

 

[jesusphreak]

It's not a first generation disc drive, so it's irrelevant what kind of computer or which revision it is. It just seems to be a broken or misaligned drive, which Apple will replace.

Alright so what steps do I need to take to get this fixed?

Take this up to an Apple store near me? Will they give me a completely new laptop or just replace the drive? Any clue how long this process will take?

Thanks

 

[matticus008]

Alright so what steps do I need to take to get this fixed?

Take this up to an Apple store near me? Will they give me a completely new laptop or just replace the drive? Any clue how long this process will take?

Thanks

They'll almost certainly replace the drive. Just bring it in with one of the discs that's not working. Turnaround time varies depending on the repair, available staff, etc. but shouldn't be more than a few days.

 

[jesusphreak]

They'll almost certainly replace the drive. Just bring it in with one of the discs that's not working. Turnaround time varies depending on the repair, available staff, etc. but shouldn't be more than a few days.

This mighty sound rather vain, but are they careful with stuff? I'd hate for my brand new laptop to get scratched up.

 

[jesusphreak]

Odd.

I closed all applications and then changed the import size to 128k AAC (it was Apple Lossless). One of the CDs I was having problems on ripped perfectly with no issues.

Is there some possibility that with the 512 MB RAM I am running out of memory or something?

 

[matticus008]

Odd.

I closed all applications and then changed the import size to 128k AAC (it was Apple Lossless). One of the CDs I was having problems on ripped perfectly with no issues.

Is there some possibility that with the 512 MB RAM I am running out of memory or something?

Possibly. I should have asked earlier what your import settings were--Apple Lossless will fail if it can't sustain the transfer as it encodes. You'll probably want to upgrade at least to 1GB, generally speaking. If your other discs import with only iTunes running, I guess you've found the culprit.

 

[jesusphreak]

Eh, put in a new CD and it won't rip any of the songs at all (it hadn't had problems on the first part of this CD earlier).

I just don't get what the problem is. Guess I'll just have to take it in, which I really don't want to do. Maybe the last rip did something with the RAM. I'm gonna restart and see what happens.

 

[Heb1228]

Odd.

I closed all applications and then changed the import size to 128k AAC (it was Apple Lossless). One of the CDs I was having problems on ripped perfectly with no issues.

Is there some possibility that with the 512 MB RAM I am running out of memory or something?

Never heard of anything like it. Hopefully it'll start acting normal. RAM shouldn't have anything to do with it, but 512 is on the low end. You should upgrade than when you get some extra $$$. It'll run much smoother.

 

[Heb1228]

Apple Lossless will fail if it can't sustain the transfer as it encodes.

I've never heard of this... if the conversion is digital, I'd have though it wouldn't matter what the transfer speed. You have an article on this or anything?

Even if its true, the MacBook should have no problems sustaining that rate. It sounds like the drive to me if the problems continue.

 

[jesusphreak]

Blah, the next CD is back to screwing up. Its like the drive is off a bit or a little dirty.

 

[matticus008]

I've never heard of this... if the conversion is digital, I'd have though it wouldn't matter what the transfer speed. You have an article on this or anything?

Even if its true, the MacBook should have no problems sustaining that rate. It sounds like the drive to me if the problems continue.

Sorry, not the optical drive transfer speed, the RAM transfer speed. Apple Lossless is a heavy-resource converter, and if it runs out of available memory, it fails with an error. It shouldn't happen with 512MB, but there's a remote possibility. As I said earlier, it's probably a misaligned or damaged drive...but the RAM thing is puzzling and apparently a contributing factor, or possibly simply a coincidence based on the fact that his CDs are back to acting up.

 

[Heb1228]

Sorry, not the optical drive transfer speed, the RAM transfer speed. Apple Lossless is a heavy-resource converter, and if it runs out of available memory, it fails with an error. It shouldn't happen with 512MB, but there's a remote possibility. As I said earlier, it's probably a misaligned or damaged drive...but the RAM thing is puzzling and apparently a contributing factor, or possibly simply a coincidence based on the fact that his CDs are back to acting up.

Well I just ripped a CD with Apple Lossless on my G3 iMac 450 without any problems... with error correction on and the songs playing as they import.

I don't think I'm buying the "transfer speed" theory unless you've got some documentation.

 

[matticus008]

Well I just ripped a CD with Apple Lossless on my G3 iMac 450 without any problems... with error correction on and the songs playing as they import.

I don't think I'm buying the "transfer speed" theory unless you've got some documentation.

If the program runs out of memory, it can't move data into the encoder, which crashes the encoder. I'm not saying that's what happened; I'm saying that it's like any other application and it will fail when it runs out of available RAM.

 

[Heb1228]

I'm saying that it's like any other application and it will fail when it runs out of available RAM.

This isn't OS9. I really don't know what you're talking about. I don't have apps crash on me (especially not iTunes) because I run out of RAM. Thats what swapfiles and memory management are for.

 

[matticus008]

This isn't OS9. I really don't know what you're talking about. I don't have apps crash on me (especially not iTunes) because I run out of RAM. Thats what swapfiles and memory management are for.

Exactly because it isn't OS 9, you don't see overall instability as a result. But encoders of any kind are extremely sensitive to available RAM and I/O transfers and will create files with hiccups or data corruption if the transfer stutters. They're designed to adjust to variances in speeds, but there are limits to that flexibility. How many times has Final Cut screwed up because it couldn't keep the transfer rate? You've seen beach balls and system hangs, I imagine. Swap files and memory management aren't a magical band-aid, and this should be obvious even to people who only play back video or audio files, let alone the much more resource-intensive task of creating them.

 

[Heb1228]

I've seen beach-balling, but it doesn't affect the quality of the final output. Slower processor/RAM/HDD/transfer rate/etc. only affect the encoding time, not the quality of the final product.

 

[matticus008]

I've seen beach-balling, but it doesn't affect the quality of the final output. Slower processor/RAM/HDD/transfer rate/etc. only affect the encoding time, not the quality of the final product.

That's not true. What do you think causes dropped frames?

 

[jesusphreak]

Anyway, I'm just wiping the HD and reinstalling the OS and hoping it has some result. If not I'll call Apple support tommorrow and if that doesn't fix anything I'll take it in.

Thanks for the help...if anyone else has had this problem or has any suggestions, please speak up!