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jzz30 · May 4, 2003, 12:48 AM

Hi All,

I bought a 15" powerbook 400mhz second hand, at first it worked fine loading cd's and dvd's (i reinstalled os x 10.2 via dvd)

the problem is, it only reads 1/10 cd's, that is, every 10th or so time i put a cd in it will read it, other times it will struggle then spit it out

this is obvious signs that the laser is weak, but the strange thing is, it reads all dvd's flawlessly!

the operating system is 10.2.5

thanks for any help in advance,

jim

AssassyN · May 4, 2003, 12:54 AM

First off, welcome to the MacNN forums!

That does seem like quite a strange problem...are you sure you've tried enough different CD's (even music CDs?) to be sure that the problem is truly existant and it's not just bad CDs you're inserting?

By chance, is it still under an extended AppleCare plan? If so, give AppleCare a call, and they should accept a return of it and replace the drive if it's truly having those issues. If not, did you notice those problems before the 10.2.5 update? It may be worth your while to completely re-install 10.2 just to see if that would save you some time & money from sending it off.

If it's still occuring, my only other known option to tell ya is that you'd hafta pay Apple to repair/replace your drive, which shouldn't run you over ~$300, but that's still quite a bit of cash to toss out. Best of luck with it, and let us know what turns out.

jzz30 · May 4, 2003, 01:24 AM

music cd's also do not work

the laptop is 2nd hand, therefor i doubt any applecare still applies

jzz30 · May 4, 2003, 01:29 AM

by the way

all cd's are not burned and are legit

such as office:mac

to ad some spice, burned dvd's work also..

adamberti · May 4, 2003, 01:33 AM

Hi there Jim,

I had similar problems in a Biege G3, sporadic reading of CD's, they would just spin up and down and stall the machine a bit. Unfourtunatly it was no longer under Apple warranty, but we had a 3 year plan at ComputerCity. I called them up, went through the painful process of some guy trying to tell me what to do to test it, and then finally they sent someone to my house to install a new one!! Talk about service. That chain of computer stores no long exists unfourtunatly or I would be shopping there all the time. They would price match even educational discounts! Anyways back to the topic, it was strictly a CD drive, so I don't know why you can read DVD's and not CD's, but from what you have said, I think you are looking at a bad drive that needs replacing and it is not software related.

But like AssassyN says, I would try a fresh system install to determine its not software before spending your hard earned cash. The other thing to do is to boot in OS 9 if you can and see if it acts in the same way. This was great for me in troubleshooting firewire and airport problems.

jzz30 · May 4, 2003, 03:09 AM

i will try this along with inside virtual PC

israces · May 4, 2003, 04:31 AM

I am the original owner of a Ti400 and I have had the same problem off and on since I got it. In fact, I'm having it right now with an installer disc while I type this.

g3blueboy · May 4, 2003, 06:19 AM

My Titanium PB G4 @ 500 will not accept any CD type disks anymore either. This has been the case for about a month now. DVD disks still work just fine. I did manage to find a few posts from when these models were first introduced that discussed a particular hardware/firmware error, in which the drive is "stuck" and cannot change from DVD laser beam mode to CD laser beam mode. That is about all the info I could find on my particular model of drive. The problem also exists in OS 9, helping to confirm a hardware/firmware issue.

To remedy this, I am going to send the book off to upgrade to a Superdrive from MCEtech. About $450. I don't believe there is any other option to fix it.