Superdrive vomiting...

[earnjam]

My superdrive on my MBP won't keep any discs down. Everytime I put one in, it spits it back out at me.

I've tried all kinds. DVD's, CD's, even the original OS discs for Leopard and the Tiger discs that came with the laptop won't work.

I'm getting no other error messages, just won't keep any discs in. I'm not positive, but I can't remember using the drive since I upgraded to Leopard a few months back, so it might be related to that. I thought about just wiping everything and starting over with a fresh OS install (I have all my stuff backed up), but it won't read the discs to allow me to do that...

Any thoughts or should I just take it in for repair? It still has another year under Applecare, but when I took my iPhone for repair it took 3 months and ended up costing me money (even though it was only 1 month old), so I'd rather not deal with that BS again if it's something I can fix myself.


EDIT: Sorry for the gross title, but I was just trying to make it eye-catching.

 

[e12a]

superdrive will need to be replaced.

 

[alphaod]

I thought about just wiping everything and starting over with a fresh OS install (I have all my stuff backed up), but it won't read the discs to allow me to do that...

Get an external drive HDD and partition a space bigger than 8GB.
Find a friend with a Mac.
Go to disk utility after plugging in your external HDD.
Put the Leopard disc in.
Select the partition you created and select restore.
Drag your new partition into the Destination box and drag the Leopard DVD into the Source box--Make sure you're dragging from the left side, not your desktop.
Select Erase Destination and select Restore.
Wait for it to finish and eject the drive.
Go to your computer when it's off and start it and hold the Option key.
In the boot menu select the Leopard Install DVD on your external drive.

 

[earnjam]

Get an external drive HDD and partition a space bigger than 8GB.
Find a friend with a Mac.
Go to disk utility after plugging in your external HDD.
Put the Leopard disc in.
Select the partition you created and select restore.
Drag your new partition into the Destination box and drag the Leopard DVD into the Source box--Make sure you're dragging from the left side, not your desktop.
Select Erase Destination and select Restore.
Wait for it to finish and eject the drive.
Go to your computer when it's off and start it and hold the Option key.
In the boot menu select the Leopard Install DVD on your external drive.

Thanks, I thought I could do something like that, but wasn't exactly sure how. I just got an iMac and I have a spare external HDD lying around somewhere, so I'll try it using those.

Appreciate the help.

 

[aviationalyours]

Why?

Good Resolution.

But you said you never use it (last time when updating leapord). SO just don't use it. It doesn't matter remember?

 

[earnjam]

But you said you never use it (last time when updating leapord). SO just don't use it. It doesn't matter remember?

Sorry, I guess I worded it wrong. I meant that I hadn't used it successfully. I tried several times to rip DVDs using Handbrake and import a few CD's to no avail...always spit it back out before I could even do anything.

If I didn't want an optical drive I'd just sell it and buy an Air.

 

[alphaod]

Thanks, I thought I could do something like that, but wasn't exactly sure how. I just got an iMac and I have a spare external HDD lying around somewhere, so I'll try it using those.

Appreciate the help.

I missed a step, though it's probably obvious; don't forget to plug in the drive before you turn it on.

I would keep an external drive handy with a fresh copy of Leopard installed on it. Like I have a external HDD with 4 partition: Leopard Install DVD, Freshly installed Leopard 10.5.2, Drive Genius 2, External storage space.

Installing from a hard drive takes about 15 minutes compared to installing from the DVD. So much faster if you have to reinstall on more than one computer. The external Leopard install is so if you're computer breaks for whatever reason, you can use the external to get your files, or if it's acting funny, check to see if the problem is related to internal OS X or your hardware. Drive Genius is just the same utility Apple uses to defrag, diagnose, etc. you drive--I have it because I thought my HDD was failing. Well the external storage is to use to store what you want.

Good luck.

 

[earnjam]

I missed a step, though it's probably obvious; don't forget to plug in the drive before you turn it on.

I would keep an external drive handy with a fresh copy of Leopard installed on it. Like I have a external HDD with 4 partition: Leopard Install DVD, Freshly installed Leopard 10.5.2, Drive Genius 2, External storage space.

Installing from a hard drive takes about 15 minutes compared to installing from the DVD. So much faster if you have to reinstall on more than one computer. The external Leopard install is so if you're computer breaks for whatever reason, you can use the external to get your files, or if it's acting funny, check to see if the problem is related to internal OS X or your hardware. Drive Genius is just the same utility Apple uses to defrag, diagnose, etc. you drive--I have it because I thought my HDD was failing. Well the external storage is to use to store what you want.

Good luck.

That's awesome! This sounds like a great idea...easy solution that will save headaches down the line. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to try it all out this weekend when I'll have some free time, so I'll update how it goes.