[jgift]

I tried booting a PB 17" off a OSX 10.3.3 DVD Restore disk that I had used without problem on a second PB 12" of mine. I used Disk Utility to erase the drive and started the install. But when Checking Your Installation Disk came up it would freeze after a given percent. I zapped PRAM, reset Open Firmware, reset PMU, nothing fixed this. Finally used Carbon Copy Cloner to install an OSX version from the 12" to the 17" set up in FireWire mode and the PB 17" then booted normally. I then tried the DVD Restore disk again and did an Archive and Install and that worked fine and I had a fresh new OSX.

I loaded a DVD movie in the drive and it played fine. Even asked to set region on what is a slightly used machine.

I then tried doing an Erase and Install and when Checking Your Installation Disk came up it froze again as at first. I quickly exited and everything booted normally again.

I did a DVD Restore Hardware Volume test loop and all items checked out, motherboard, RAM, etc. I also did a bad sector scan and SMART check on the hard drive and it comes back ok. Does everything point to a bad SuperDrive or something else?

I want to know if I can fix this, or at least check or confirm if it is the SuperDrive. If not, what is it likely to be and therefore cost...

Thanks. Help appreciated.

[wunderkind]

More likely problem with the disk than with hardware.

1) Try using it on your 12" PB.

2) You tried several times, right? Does verification always fail at the same percentage?

3) Try copying the entire disk to hard drive. If it fails (at the same point), it is likely a problem with the disk - a scratch or another damage.

All of this happened to my first retail copy of Panther. Apple gave me a replacement after I ran the tests above.

[jgift]

Thanks for feedback!

More likely problem with the disk than with hardware.

I would hope so.

1) Try using it on your 12" PB.

The DVD Restore disk works without problem on the PB 12.

2) You tried several times, right? Does verification always fail at the same percentage?

No. Anything from 10 to 60.

3) Try copying the entire disk to hard drive. If it fails (at the same point), it is likely a problem with the disk - a scratch or another damage.

THis I can try, ok.

All of this happened to my first retail copy of Panther. Apple gave me a replacement after I ran the tests above.

My problem is I've tried 2 copies of 10.33 and one of which I just reinstalled Panther last week on my PB 12.

You got the Checking problem/crash?

[jgift]

PS.

I just noticed something though. After crashing yet again on Verification I rebooted into OSX and System Profiler ATA tab lost my DVD player settings. They were gone. I rebooted again and they were back and I could play DVD's again.

So, Verification is doing something to the drive when it checks so it shuts down and disappears from the OSX's view for a few reboots. Then all is ok.

SuperDrive problem??

The same DVD sails through Verification on my PB 12 to 100%.