CD Drive Tester

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Tee - 18 Feb 2005 03:31 GMT

Is there a way to test & diagnose the superdrive in my Mini? It just went
kaput, or so it seems. I've only had the computer for about 2 weeks and
haven't done any cd burning until today.

After about 7 cds it just ate two. The first was a burn from iTunes. The
drive started making noises like an airplane taking off then quit and gave
the error message that the buffer had been drained. Not knowing if it was a
bad cd or iTunes, I attempted with another blank cd from Toast. It started
writing (got to the 3rd song as happened in iTunes) and gave me an error
message about the cd drive being unable to complete the task.

Is there a program that can test the read/write of the drive to verify its
gone bad and needs replacing before I call Apple and have to ship the
computer back to them?

Signature

Tara

Reply to this Message

Jason Colburn - 18 Feb 2005 05:41 GMT

Can your computer read CDs still? If it can't then you can easily ship
it back. However, there's no test that I know of for burning CDs. If
you can actually hear problems then your Optical Drive is most likely
bad.
-Jason

P.S your not using cheap media are you. Mac burners are notorious for
only working with decent quality media.

> Is there a way to test & diagnose the superdrive in my Mini? It just
> went kaput, or so it seems. I've only had the computer for about 2
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> its gone bad and needs replacing before I call Apple and have to ship
> the computer back to them?

Reply to this Message

Tee - 21 Feb 2005 00:07 GMT

> Can your computer read CDs still?

Yes, it seems to read cds ok still although its noisier and seems to take a
second or two longer than it did before.

> If it can't then you can easily ship it back.

Since the Mac Mini is only 2-3 weeks old and the burning capability is part
of the "superdrive" I'd better be able to ship it back regardless. I just
hate to do it because it creates downtown for me.

> However, there's no test that I know of for burning CDs. If you can
> actually hear problems then your Optical Drive is most likely bad.

Thanks. I think the optical drive is partly bad if the writing capability
is gone from the superdrive. It may or may not follow that the reading
ability will go too. I'll have to call Apple and report it.

> P.S your not using cheap media are you. Mac burners are notorious for only
> working with decent quality media.

I was primarily using Sony music cds then switched to Nashua "Professional
Grade" music cds after I ran out of the former. It burned all the Sony &
one Nashua before it broke on the following Nashua.

Signature

Tara

Reply to this Message

Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / February 2005

CD Drive Tester