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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Commercial Movie DVD's wont play

Lokii - Jan 5, 2007 - 6:32 am

Hello,

I have a 17 inch Imac G4 800 Mhtz processor and for a few months now I have had a problem with my superdrive:

1: It won't mount commercial dvd's or dvd's I have burnt on the superdrive
2: It will mount cd's, burnt or commercial.

I have spoken to various people and they suggested that the laser for reading dvd's may have failed. I then went and bought a LaCie external dvd burner and discovered the following:

1: The DVD that contained the software for the LACIE would load and mount ok
2: On inserting a commercial dvd into the LaCie the dvd would not mount.
3: I then found that the software dvd would mount and was readable in the superdrive.

Obviously the dvd laser has not failed if it can read the software dvd, but why won't it read a commercial or burnt dvd?

Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and regards

Peter

Lokii - Jan 5, 2007 - 6:47 am

Hello, just thought I would add the message that is displayed:

"you have inserted a disk containing no volumes that Mac OS X can read. To continue with the disk inserted click Ignore."

TechSupport - Jan 8, 2007 - 6:50 am

TechSupport - Jan 18, 2007 - 7:40 am

Lokii - Jan 18, 2007 - 7:41 am

Hello again. It appears that the superdrive is ok. I can see the details on a DVD I insert in Disk Doctor and I can play DVD's via VLC. The problem appears to be that DVD's won't mount. What can I do to get os x to mount the dvd's?

Cheryl - Jan 20, 2007 - 5:59 pm

Peter,

I need to know what OS version you are running. Do you have iDVD and iMovie installed? (These would be in the Applications folder).

Did you ever play a DVD on this computer before?

Cheryl

Lokii - Jan 29, 2007 - 9:26 pm

Hello Cheryl,

Sorry haven't checked for a reply for a while, and I appreciate you looking at this problem for me.

I am running 10.2.28. I do have IDVD and IMovie installed and commercial dvd's did mount and play through DVD player. I think they seemed to stop mounting around the time I installed the last version of itunes that works with 10.2.28. Not sure what version of ITunes I have, but I noticed that dvd's wouldn't mount some time after I had upgraded itunes.

Thanks and regards

Peter

Cheryl - Jan 29, 2007 - 10:04 pm

Peter,

It could be that something got amuck during the iTunes update.

First go to Applications>Utilities and start up Disk Utility.
When that opens, click on the second icon in the side bar at the left.
Now click on Repair Permissions.

When that is done, quit Disk Utility and give a DVD a try out. If you still can't get it to mount, try this:

Go to Hard Drive>Library>Receipts
Now go to the view menu and select by list.
Delete the MacOSXUpd 10.x.xPPC.Pkg files. You may have several.

Now go to:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...bo_10_2_8.html

And download the combo update. Don't worry about double install as this installer is smart. When done downloading, install it. Follow the prompts and you will be asked to restart the computer when it is done.

Now go to Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities) and run it to Repair Permissions. When done quit it and give a DVD a try out.

Let me know how you do.

Cheryl

Lokii - Feb 1, 2007 - 12:56 am

Thanks Cheryl, will try this tonight.

Kind regards

Peter

Cheryl - Feb 1, 2007 - 11:12 pm

Keep me posted on how you do.

Cheryl

TechSupport - Feb 11, 2007 - 8:10 pm

Lokii - Feb 11, 2007 - 8:10 pm

Hello Cheryl,

Tried reinstalling 10.2.8 and the problem still occurs, however it seems to take a little longer for the message to appear. Any other thoughts on what I could do to fix this problem?

Thanks and regards

Peter

Cheryl - Feb 11, 2007 - 10:55 pm

Peter,

It could be that the optical drive is going bad. You will need to replace it.

You should be able to get a replacement at Other World Computing
http://www.otherworldcomputing.com/

Instructions to take apart the iMac are here:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/i...takeapart.html

Keep me posted on how you do.

Cheryl

Lokii - Feb 25, 2007 - 10:53 pm

Cheryl,

Thanks again for your help with this. I think I might have to think about upgrading to Leopard or Tiger, because when I connect a new external drive to my Mac, I get the same message with commercial or burnt movie DVD's. Data DVD's work fine in both the internal and an external drive. Also the drive will play movies via VLC. It's just that the OS won't mount the DVD's.

Is there any way you can roll back a version of ITunes, seeing this is the last major upgrade I did before the problem occured?

Thanks and regards

Peter

Cheryl - Feb 26, 2007 - 7:54 pm

Peter,

I have one more thing that I failed to have you check. Go to the Finder Menu and select Preferences. A window will open. Click on the General Icon at the top if it is not already.
Now make sure that under Show these items on the Desktop that CD,DVD and iPods has a check mark next to it as well as Hard Disks.

If there is no check mark, click on it and a check mark will appear.
Now give a DVD a test run. Does it show up?

I would need to know what version of iTunes you now have in order to give you the correct link to download the previous version. To find out what version you have, go to the Applications folder and click once on the iTunes icon.
Now go to the File menu and select GetInfo. The window that opens will give you the version it is.

I am thinking that you may need to do a reinstall of the OS as the DVD files that allow you to read and see them are within the OS. Doing an Archive install will not touch any of your programs or your home folder. It will install a fresh copy of the OS.

Start up from your Mac OS X Install disk (10.2).
Before clicking on the installer screen, go to the Installer menu and select Disk Utility.
Click on the second hard drive icon in the side bar, then click on Repair Disk.
Watch the activity screen. If it does any repairs - you will need to click on the Repair Disk button a second time after the first pass is done. The object is to make sure it finds all the problems and repairs them. You may need to hit that button a third or fourth time to get no references to repairs made.

Now click on Repair Permissions. When done, quit Disk Utility.

Select your language. The Welcome to the Mac OS X Installer window appears.
Click Continue. The Important Information window appears.
After reading or printing the information, click Continue. The Software License Agreement window appears.
After reading or printing the information, click Continue.
An agreement sheet appears. If you agree with the license agreement, click Agree. The Select a Destination window appears.
Click the volume that you wish to install to.
Click Options. The installation options sheet appears.
Select Archive and Install.
Select the volume which already has Mac OS X installed.
You should also select Preserve Users and Network Settings, to preserve network and Home directory settings.
Click OK.
Click Continue to begin the installation.

After restart, go to the Utilities folder and start up Disk Utility to repair permissions.

Now you need to trash the Previous System folder and do a re-install of Stuffit Expander. Once that is done, you now can update to 10.2.8 using the combo update.
Now give your DVD a test run.

Keep me posted.
Cheryl