Any Mac gurus here? Big time SuperDrive issues!

bike21

So my out of warranty Macbook Pro's SuperDrive is apparently fried. I've scoured the internetz and tried all sorts of various fixes which I'll detail below. Just wanted to see if anyone else has any ideas before I give up. I'm thinking about ordering a replacement hard drive instead and sticking with an external CD/DVD drive since I don't use it on the road anyway. So if anyone can help fix this, it would be much appreciated before I go spend $$$.

Symptons:
- does not burn discs, isn't recognized at all (iTunes, Finder, System Profiler)
- spins up at start so I know it is still powered
- does not recognize any CD/DVDs at all
- does not eject said CD/DVDs and I am forced to do a manual eject

Solutions Tried:
- various resets including PRAM, SMC, etc
- Reinstalled OS X 10.6.7 combo update
- tried a laser lens cleaning disc

About the only thing I have left to try software-wise that I know of is full re-install of Leopard. However, since I likely can't boot from the disc it doesn't appear to be an option at the moment anyway. I'm assuming it is hardware relatted now, probably a dead drive, cable or logic board (hopefully not!)

Anyone else run into this at all? Help me before I go beserko!

mhandy

If you have access to an external HD that your machine can boot up from, try that and see if the optical drive works. if it does, it could be software. if it doesn't it is the drive itself.Depending on the model of your machine it's not that hard to repair yourself. ifixit.com is a site that has video take-aparts and they have apple parts for relatively good prices. powerbookmedic.com is another place to try.

aaronc

sounds very similar to the issue I had on my iMac drive a few years ago. Checked the apple support forums and ended up inserting a business card into the drive during startup to force eject the disc. I couldn't find any fixes and since I almost never use the drive just bought a cheap-o external that does the trick when I need it. With Lion being released through the app store, not sure I'll ever need a drive again at this point.

bike21

Thanks for the replies, I've done the business card trick to get the disc out funny how Apple doesn't recognize this as an actual problem. I decided to order a hard drive that will replace my SuperDrive and bought an external just to keep at home when I have the need for it.