Weird issue with Plextor PX-880SA SATA DVD writer in Mac Pro (Early 2008)

[michels]

Weird issue with Plextor PX-880SA SATA DVD writer in Mac Pro (Early 2008)

Hi,

I've replaced the PATA DVD Drive in my Mac Pro (Early 2008) with a SATA Plextor PX-880SA. I'm running OSX Snow Leopard with all recent updates.

Everything seems to work fine. The weird thing is that periodically and quite often the PX-880SA makes a noise. It's the same noise the drive makes when you insert a CD or DVD, most probably a seek.

Is this behaviour normal? E.g. does the Mac Pro or OSX periodically perform a seek?
If so, can I turn this off somehow?

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards.

Michel.

 

[OppositeLock]

I've had the same issue, and I've done a bunch of debugging. My original Apple/NEC/Sony/Optiarc drive failed, and I put in a generic PATA Plextor. Every few minutes it does the disk check. I also tried Asus, Lite-On and LG drives, and they all exhibit the same behavior. I tried it in three different Mac Pro's, two on Snow Leopard and one on Leopard, and the results are exactly the same, non-apple DVD drives do random disk checks every few minutes, Apple branded ones do not.

I've given up, I'm paying $250 for a craptastic Apple SuperDrive which costs 8x as much and doesn't work as well as an $40 plextor.

 

[lewdvig]

Guys, I am curious: have you ripped any movies with your plextors?

I'd like to know how much faster a new drive compared to my old stock SD.

It takes me 25-35 min to rip a 8 GB DVD. Compression is faster!

Could you download the trial of Ripit and 'Compress' a disc. Let me know what disc you rip and I'll try the same test.

http://www.thelittleappfactory.com/ripit/

 

[OppositeLock]

The Plextor is a little bit faster at ripping, but not much. It takes 15-20 minutes to rip a DVD, depending on size. The biggest difference is that the Plextor is MUCH better at handling scratched discs than the Apple POS.

 

[Einz]

My 2008 polls my Blu-ray drive too.

 

[lewdvig]

The Plextor is a little bit faster at ripping, but not much. It takes 15-20 minutes to rip a DVD, depending on size. The biggest difference is that the Plextor is MUCH better at handling scratched discs than the Apple POS.

Thanks man! I think I am going to go pick a new drive today. I still have about 30 films and 40 TV seasons to rip LOL.