[TheGreatButcher]

I got a black MacBook 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo in January. Great machine... except for the optical drive, the GSA-S10N. I first ran into problems a few months ago with writing to darker colored Memorex CDs. I figured maybe the drive was just sensitive to some weird variations and chose my media more accordingly.

But then I ran into problems reading DVDs that I burned from my G4 desktop's Pioneer drive. Yet every other machine, Playstation 3, the G4, my old Powerbook, and standalone DVD players could read the media just fine.

I ran into this problem again when trying to play some older burned DVDs. I tried something else recently; I tossed my Memorex media and got Verbatim DVD+Rs and got an external burner. I had Toast read from the external burner and had the GSA-S10N write to the DVD+Rs (which it recognized as blank media). After writing, the drive fails to recognize the DVD and after trying to spin it up for a minute, just ejects it.

This is 2008. Even a first generation 2003 laptop SuperDrive didn't do this. What should I do?

[ibook_steve]

You probably have a bad drive. It happens. Get it repaired as a warranty repair.

Steve

[TheGreatButcher]

After Googling the issue, I tried the "upside down trick" and the discs sometimes mount fine if I hold the MacBook upside down. They have no problems playing in the upright position either, the only trouble is the initial mount.

Problem is they should mount in the normal upright position. Anyone know why this would be?

[SamoanDude]

No, but it seems as of late Apple has had a a lot of trouble with their Superdrives. I have had to have them replaced in 2 of my machines under Apple Care.

[Full-Auto]

Yup, of the 3 Intel Mac's that I have, two have had Superdrive problems.