Madness and a Matshita CW-8571

[Munsey]

I have battling a slowly-worsening optical drive for the last four months now. I need some help now. The drive in question is a Matshita CW-8571. Originally the problem started that sometimes it wouldn't read some discs burned in OS 9, and then it stopped reading all discs burned in OS 9 as well as some DVDs. Now it will only read a few burned discs and only about half of my DVDs. Some discs will get spit out once but then read fine when I put it in a second or third time. When it doesn't want to cooperate, it usually just spits the disc out after about 20 seconds.

Also problems with burning. It gives me error messages when I try to burn files onto a CD normally, but will still usually burn just fine in iTunes.

Given this inconsistency, I'm not absolutely sure, but I'm thinking it has something to do with the firmware/drivers, rather than being a hardware issue. I'd reinstall the necessary stuff for the drive, but can't find it anywhere. Everyone, including the manufacturer seems to state that it is a PC-only drive. The only patches I can find are for making it region-free for DVDs.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Machine setup: Quicksilver G4 733 MHz, 512 ram, 40gb hd, Matshita CW-8571 combo drive.

[DeltaMac]

reports in xlr8yourmac.com occasionally show this particular drive to be sensitive to media quality. Have you tried major name brand media? There are no special drivers to install for this drive, it uses the CDRom drivers in 9 or X. Have you tried cleaning the drive (get a cleaning disk from BB or somewhere)? You report inconsistent burning success. I can't find any firmware updates that would not require a PC to do (may not help you anyway) Does the drive burn better from OS X?

[Munsey]

I wasn't aware of the sensitivity to media quality, but then in looking at what it reads and what it won't, this doesn't seem to be the cause. It's rejecting a bunch of good stuff, and still reads some discs that are absolute crap. Go figure. Still reads some discs that are beat up like you wouldn't believe, but for example still refuses to read a brand new Juno Reactor CD that I've tested in other computers and cd players that does just fine everywhere but here. Ah well, I'll figure it out eventually. Probably. Either that or I'll just replace the drive when I've got money and be done with this one once and for all. Thanks.

[Arden]

If it's not too much trouble, you might try reinstalling the OS you use most of the time. You may solve problems like corrupt files, bad drivers, etc. Use the Archive & Install option. If this doesn't work, go back to the original system, and replace the drive.