Greetings!
Hopefully someone can help me with this problem before I see what the terminal velocity of this notebook is by throwing it off the roof of my apartment complex.
Every since I purchased my Ti-book 1GHz (new) it has always been quirky when recording DVDs and CD-Roms (especially DVDs). Once recorded they will work fine when inserted once or twice, and then whenever inserted the drive spins and seeks for as much as 10 minutes before ejecting the media without ever mounting it.
I can pop the discs in my wife's HP and they come right up without any problems or delay.
It doesn't seem to matter wether I record them with Toast or with Apple's crappy burning software, the same thing always occurs.
Now, before someone starts chanting "hardware problem" let me add that this is my second superdrive in this system. I replaced the original drive a couple of years ago with a PIONEER DVR-K04L because it was faster than the original "superdrive" and because I was having this consistent problem.
So, now I'm on the second drive and I'm STILL having the same problem. Since this all began I've upgraded my OS, (10.4.8 currently), upgraded my Toast, but still I have this problem. I vary my media purchases (although lately I've been stuck with only Verbatim DVD-R 8x media), so I don't think that's the problem.
I'm hesitant to upgrade to a new Mac now. If this is a consistent problem with the new notebooks as well it may be time for me to leave the fold and start buying PCs (what a horrible thought - not because I'm sooooo devoted to Apple, but because I'd hate to have to purchase all my software all over again). Not being able to access my backed-up projects; however, is simply not an option.
It's difficult to check to see what the problem might be, because (as is the case with all Apple notebooks anymore) it's a slot-loading drive. If this was a tray loader I could try to force the disc to mount, etc....
Is there some essential firmware upgrade I'm missing? Is this drive not compatible with Toast (I do burn most of my discs with Toast)? Do Apple notebooks just bite? Help please!
Best,
WM