iBook has problems with CD's

M

mala

Registered
Hi,

my original 300 MHz iBook has problems reading CD's I burned on my Formac external CD RW connected to an iMac 450 DV. I can hear the CD drive struggling with the cd, and sometimes it succeeds but sometimes it also fails. As I wanted to use the iBook for watching some videoclips (mpg) it's quite useless if it works only off and on (the video stops for a while waiting for the cd drive to read the cd properly).
The iBook has no problems with other cd's than the ones I've burnt myself, and the cd's work fine on the iMac or the ThinkPad PC.
What's wring with the iBook cd drive? Too old? Dirty? Broken?

TIA

/mala
 
Had a similar problem with the CD drive in my old iMac. It could still play some CD ROMs, but would just make an unhappy sound when attempting to read home-brewed disks. Running a lens-cleaning CD would sometimes help a little but not always. Eventually had to replace the drive for an outrageous sum.

But if your player can still read disks, even if stutteringly, maybe you would have success just mounting the CDs and saving as disk images to play back. Of course 6 GB doesn't give you a whole lot of room, and this is no long term solution as it sounds like that iBook's CD drive is on its way out...

But try running a lens-cleaning disk, maybe with a touch of alcohol to dampen the tiny brush stip.

Hope this helps...
 
Also, it may help to try a different brand of CD-R -- there is a vast quality difference between certain brands of CD-R. Try a name-brand and not the generic kinds.

You may also find that burning CD-Rs at a slower speed (like 8x or 4x) helps older machines, like the clamshell iBook, read CD-Rs better.
 
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