Problems mounting burned DVDs under Mac OS X (#2): Pioneer 106D SuperDrives particularly prone to problems; Solutions; more

Our initial coverage last week of an issue where various media -- primarily DVDs burned on other Macs, but also commercial DVDs in some cases -- fail to mount on a variety of Mac OS X systems has received tremendous response.

Most users reporting the problem indicate that the issue only happens on specific Mac OS X systems, mounting correctly on Mac OS 9 or Windows machines or even other Mac OS X systems and set-top DVD players.

MacFixIt reader Gary Nichols writes:

"I have had this problem for some time on my G5 and work around it by using my G4 that functions normally. The G5 burns DVD's just fine which play on other players and my G4 -- but will not mount on the G5 itself. This problem came about during the upgrade to Tiger.

"Have tried all of the suggested fixes in your current listing and still have the problem. Have cleaned the drive lenses many times as well, with no improvement. My local Apple repair service shop claims they have not heard of this happening to anyone else and have no ideas to try either."

Another reader adds:

"I just notice this problem today when I went to get old photos off a DVD I burned on 12/31/04. (I'm using Mac OS X 10.4.3 now on an flat-panel iMac 800). I couldn't get the disk to mount, but it mounted fine on other computers in the house."

It has also become clear that many systems begin exhibiting the problem after a period of normal functionality -- in some cases coinciding with an iterative Mac OS X release (as in the aforementioned reader's case) or another update.

Charles Maurer reports a case of the issue where one of two ostensibly identical machines exhibits the problem:

"We have also had some commercial DVDs fail to mount--and we have had Toasted DVDs deemed to be mounted by Disk Utility yet not visible in the Finder or in file-opening dialogs. We are running two similar G5 iMacs side-by-side. The problem has always been on one of them, never the other, and a number of times the problematic iMac has reported media errors when writing to a double-layer DVD. The other has also done this but rarely."

MacFixIt reader Mike Bartley writes:

"I have the same problem - no DVD of any kind - including commercial will mount - DVD player grinds away but no mount on desktop. CD's mount and play as normal. The computer is a mirror drive door Dual 1 GHz Power PC G4 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X version 10.4.3 - updated from Software update Was working normally 4 weeks ago - no DVD used until today - no joy."

As of yet, we cannot identify any machine-specific patterns for this issue, aside from (as detailed below) some strong associations with specific drive models.

Pioneer 106D SuperDrives particularly prone to problems A surprisingly high number of users report issues mounting media burned by built-in SuperDrives that make use of the Pioneer 106D mechanism.

One reader writes:

"I've been having this trouble for months and months (with a Pioneer 106D superdrive). Commercially pressed DVDs mount fine, as do blanks. If I burn data to the disc (using either Disk Utility or Toast) and instruct the burning software to mount the disc after completion, it will do so. However, as soon as the disc has been ejected post-burn, it will most likely fail to mount upon reinsertion.

"There is quite a big body of anecdotal evidence all pointing to the fact that a lot of Pioneer 106D drives just stop working at around the same time -- possibly due to a firmware upgrade or maybe they were ever designed to work for longer than a year or so -- and so far it does not look like Apple is ready to admit that there is any sort of problem at all."

Another reader, Gary Knowles, writes:

"Yes I 'm experiencing DVD's not mounting after burning with Toast or Popcorn using an internal DVR-106D. Like the one reader reports, DVD's do mount initially after burning but if you eject them and try to remount, the drive tries to read them and then just ejects them. They play fine on my home DVD player. At first I thought it was the media. Tried several brands no difference. Just got a DVR-110D external firewire burner and it mounts DVD's every time, even the ones the 106 can't. Reinserting the DVD in the 106 as many as 15-20 times will finally get it to mount. Commercial DVD's mount every time. Restarting with the DVD in the drive will almost always make it mount."

Yet another Pioneer 106D owner writes:

"I had this problem start upon moving to 10.4.3 a few weeks ago. I have an aftermarket superdrive (Pioneer DVR-106D). ANY burned optical content would be ejected. I used Patchburn on the drive, and everything was fine after that."

In order to check if you are using a Pioneer 106D drive, open System Profiler (located in Applications/Utilities) and click the "Disc Burning" tab (under Mac OS X 10.4.x). Your drive mechanisms manufacturer, model number, and other statistics will be displayed.

If you are experiencing an inability to mount discs with your Pioneer 106D drive, please drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Media brand/types Some users have success averting this problem by using certain types of media, though no clear leader has emerged and results can remain erratic even after temporarily experiencing success with one brand.

A reader writes:

"I have had more success with Sony brand disks -- they always seem to remount okay, and I'm sticking with them, but they are expensive. That said, simply buying quality media isn't necessarily the solution. I also tried Verbatim DVD-Rs, which are also a respected brand, and they regularly failed to mount. In fact, for a time I actually had better results with cheap PC Line discs (PC World's own brand), but at 1x speed they were just too slow, and also I don't feel like entrusting my precious work archives to media in that quality bracket."

In other cases, the type of media and burning method used can have an effect on whether or not resulting discs will mount.

For instance, one MacFixIt reader had success mounting DVD-R discs burned by his third-party external drive, but experienced significant issues when attempting to burn DVD RW or DVD R media.

Hardy writes:

"I have always had problems mounting DVD RW and DVD R disks on the internal (Matsushita) combo drive of my TI Powerbook G4 667 MHz. The were burned on an external Firewire drive (La-Cie) With Popcorn or Toast 6, where they mount without problems, even on plain insertion. I tried a DVD-R disk and than one mounted fine on the Combo drive."

Clearing caches Various data point to the possibility that many instances of this mounting issue are caused by problematic system caches. As such, if you are experiencing the problem, you may want to try performing a deep system cache clean with a utility like Cocktail (Tiger or Panther edition) or Tiger Cache Cleaner.

Restarting with the disc in the drive In some cases, restarting with the problematic disc inserted can result in a proper mount.

In some instances, simply logging out then back in is sufficient.

Repeatedly inserting discs sometimes works Some users report mild success with repeatedly ejecting then re-inserting the drive. One user writes:

"I have had some success with repeatedly reinserting and ejecting a disc until it 'takes' -- but that can take a dozen or more tries, and often doesn't work even then."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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