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TICKET ARCHIVE -> iMac G5 stopped reading blank DVDs

mikep480 - Feb 18, 2006 - 5:17 am

Hello again,

I have a wonderful little (well not so little) iMac G5 that has a great 16x superdrive built in. But, all of a sudden, it will no longer read blank DVD's (of any kind, +r, -r, any brand, anything). It will, however, read already burned DVDr's (of the same brand/type) and commercial DVDs, burned CDs blank CDs and commercial CDs.

I place a blank in the drive, and the drive will attempt to read it for quite some time, then spit it out without saying anything (when inserted in the finder.) When insterted with toast open, it will do the same thing but then say please

jvendryes - Feb 18, 2006 - 9:11 am

I am just adding your addendum to your original post -Jason:

Ack! I hope you get this update to my first question-

It will now suddenly read fuji DVD-r's but NOT a brand new package of Memorex that it previously burned 2 discs from. It now no longer will read the blank memorex's as it did last week. It will, however, read the already burned memorex's from the same spindle.So it's ok with that media if it's got data on it - but if it's blank, it does not recogize it as blank media and spits it out.

I checked the other blanks on the spindle carefully, no scratches, obvious imperfections...tried from the middle of the stack, bottom, and top, no dice. Looks like this iMac has suddenly gotten VERY picky.

Mike

atif.muhammad - Feb 18, 2006 - 9:48 am

Yes, this is very weird indeed. I personally can only think that this is a software issue. Have you installed any software over the past week that you think may have interfered with the possible workings of the Superdrive?

mikep480 - Feb 21, 2006 - 1:04 am

Well, to be honest, I've installed nothing. My only thought after beating my head against the wall is to buy a brand that I know is compatible, and stick to it. Unless I want to shell out $90 for a new slot load 16x superdrive, which I don't really feel like doing just yet. As long as I have this ticket open, and I'm not convinced that it's a bum drive since nothing I do software wise can seem to fix it, I have a new problem. Out of the blue tonight, I realized that I had no sound in my web browser (safari, newest version). I checked sound settings in system controls...all fine there. Able to hear alert sounds, DVD's, games...just not web. So I tried Firefox, same problem, no noise from anything. And I tried many sites which I KNOW don't all have audio problems right now. I've retarted...repaired permissions...checked for updates, of which there are none. Again, I've installed nothing, haven't changed settings for anything, system or otherwise. I'm baffled. Ever get this before? Hopefully, maybe this is an easy fix since my last one is certainly not. Thanks for your quick response, and sorry it took so long for me to answer - I work odd hours. Couple days on then couple off.

Mike

atif.muhammad - Feb 21, 2006 - 12:19 pm

It seems that something that you installed has corrupted your Mac OS X installation. I recommend backing up your important data and reinstalling the OS.

mikep480 - Feb 22, 2006 - 12:55 am

Thanks very much for your help. I did, however, figure out the issue with the sound. FYI (this might help you in the future with other people), for some strange reason, my audio output was set to 96 khz. This is much too high for most programs. I am not sure how it got changed, but that was the culprit. This setting is found under applications:utilities:audio MIDI setup and is under the Audio Output section. Resetting this to 44 khz fixed the problem.

Thanks again,

Mike