[Macworld]

Post your comments for Cures for an uncooperative CD/DVD drive here

[gregspeck]

I purchased two DVD drives for my Mac Pro for about $45 total. Now I have no more problems. Got mine from OWC, www.macsales.com

[BoxOfSnoo]

I had this ejecting problem on my old 24" iMac. The drive was replaced *twice*. The working one had a different manufacturer (surprise, surprise) Apple just uses garbage optical drives sometimes.

[bgreinke]

You might wanna mention that while you can do this yourself with the help of iFixit, it's not a super easy task...more like a medium task. I just replaced the drive in my MacBook Pro, and it involved 17 tiny screws, 1 special screwdriver (T6), unplugging some delicate connectors, carefully scraping off one or two glued-on components, etc. It's way beyond just adding RAM. But it's also not at the nearly impossible level of replacing the hard drive in a G3 iBook.

Read all the iFixit instructions before starting, to make sure you're comfortable with this level of "surgery."

[MarkJReed5jau]

OWC makes a drive expansion kit if you want/need to use an external DVD drive. (the empty dvd drive space is used to add a second internal hard drive).

[timbck2]

You can get a replacement internal Superdrive for a lot less than $100 - I replaced the one in my MacBook Pro 13" (because it could no longer reliably burn a DVD, even after using compressed air to blow the dust out of it) a few months ago for around $49.

[cjygx]

I've not had the best experience with Apple's slot load drives, first on a Macbook 1st Gen, then on a 27" iMac Core i5. I have an external Lacie DVD drive that has a tray, which tends to be more consistent, but every so often some DVDs will not mount with that one either. As optical media is becoming less used, it's become less of an issue, but it's still an annoyance not to be able to count on the slot load drives.

[k88dad]

I've had optical drive problems with three consecutive iMacs. The time before failure varied greatly. Obviously, hie thee to an Apple store if the warranty still applies. Recommendations for iMac users...

1. Buy a DVD-cleaner disc. It comes in a standard plastic DVD case. It looks like a standard DVD, with a half-inch long brush attached to the business side. As long as the drive will spin, the brush will make contact with the lens. Very handy, and less than $20. Mine is a Maxell product.
2. Buy a drawer-load, external USB DVD burner from OWC for around $50. They call it the value line, and it is a Pioneer drive. Highly recommended. Drawer-load is worth a few extra bucks. It even has an on/off switch for those that rarely use an optical drive.

[dkettles]

Good article, had seen some of the tricks in various threads but this seems to sum them nicely...and yes replacing the drive is tricky (see Youtube), just pay attention to what your doing and you'll probably be OK.

[carnac]

If cleaning doesn't work - remove the drive, buy an external drive and buy a solid state drive to put in the empty optical drive bay. As stated by others, Mac Fixit has instructions for opening a MacBook and OWC has what you need for the SSD. I find that I don't really use the Superdrive in my MBP all that much, an external would be no problem.

[NikoNikorocksComxfn3]

I've never had these issues through years and years of Macs. Is this made up? :-P

[Matt1000]

NikoNikorocksComxfn3, on 12 April 2012 - 07:07 AM, said:

I've never had these issues through years and years of Macs. Is this made up? :-P

No. It just sounds like you have been lucky!

[rjdjr38]

Not all replacements are successful. My problem with DVD was diagnosed as permanent problem with the mother board. I very rarely used the drive so I haven't really missed it other than for an iWork upgrade.

[TimDangerPark]

I have had similar issues on my 2007 17" Macbook Pro (running Lion) that was until I reduced the "write- speed" in iTunes. Default was "maximum possible" on my drive so I reduced it to x20 and now was able to do 10 CD's in a row without issue. I will also add that I ran my DVD cleaner though a couple of times, but I have done this before and I still had disk write failures.