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Jerome · 03:56 PM

Hello all, I have a Dual 2.5 GHz G5 with OS X 10.3.9 and one day, I just couldn't burn DVDs no more. I can still burn CDs but no DVDs using the Finder, Toast 7 or Disk Utility... I get errors of some sort (finder error -50 when using Toast).

Now, I had the drive changed under warranty and the new one still doesn't work so it's not a dirty drive... I really need to find a way because I just spent a lot of cash restoring a dead HD with the last 8-9 months of work (and I did ose some precious data). I need to back things up and my Firewire drive is getting full quickly...

Apple's discussion site has about 2364 posts/replies about the issue and no one seems to have found an answer to the problem.

So: anybody has a cure for cancer or some ideas? I haven't had much luck with G5s. First one had one of the processors die, reseller gave me a loaner but with only 512 MB of ram so it was barely usable. The replacement worked fine for a while but then this DVD problem, then the HD died... I'll bring my old G4 from home, it's much more reliable although much slower...

G5s ROCK · Mar 21, 2006, 11:40 PM

If you had the drive switched under warranty, I don't know why Apple wouldn't have tested for this.

Can't you just take it back and ask them?

Have you tried a fresh install on a separate drive or partion just to see if it is a software issue?

Otherwise it is either a bad ATA cable or controller. In my G5 the cable is glued to the drive.

Jerome · Mar 22, 2006, 07:24 AM

Since both drives can burn CDs just fine, I don't think it's a bad cable... Must be software.

Books · Mar 22, 2006, 03:16 PM

Maybe you need to reinstall OS X...or maybe an update killed it.

Jerome · Mar 22, 2006, 03:18 PM

I thought about that. It's the only thing I didn't try anyway so... Now where are those restore disks?

mountainash · Mar 26, 2006, 06:57 AM

Do you have enough free hard drive space? You need Gigs to burn a DVD. Also, are you using the same kind of DVDs? Some DVDs will not work.

Jerome · Mar 27, 2006, 03:33 PM

I have over 80 gigs left on my startup HD, should be more than enough.

Stpaul · May 8, 2006, 05:15 AM

did you solve the problem with the G5 suddenly refusing to burn or read dvd's. 'cause I'm having the same problems with my G5

Jerome · May 8, 2006, 08:35 AM

Nope. But I have to try different blank DVDs. I have some Maxwell DVD+R that don't work on a co-worker's drive either so I will try with some DVD-R and other brands...

xe0 · May 10, 2006, 04:30 AM

Im currently having the same problem with my Dual 1.8 G5.
After testing the drive on another system, the drive was still problematic. therefore in my case a hardware related problem.

My solution: Time for a new DVD drive. They are cheap and the new models are quite fast compared to the default G5 DVD-RW drive.

Jerome · May 10, 2006, 09:12 AM

I did change the drive and still no go... Gotta find some time to test though.

sell4less · May 18, 2006, 09:19 AM

I'm an IT guy for my company, and I'm experiencing the exact same thing on G5s less than a year old with toast 6.1.1. All the hardware is the original stuff from Apple. If anyone finds a fix, please let me know.
Thanks,
Greg.