Burning Problems

JusMe

I've had this problem for quite a while, and with several different applications, so I'm wondering if maybe it's a hardware problem, and how to solve it if it is.

I've recently tried to burn a DVD using both Toast 8 & Toast 9, but I've had the message:
The drive reported an error:
Sense Key = HARDWARE ERROR
Sense Code = 0x03

And I end up with yet another frisbee.

Sometimes it happens shortly after I've begun a burn, and sometimes right near the end, but the result is always the same.

Another difficulty in diagnosis, is that this doesn't always happen, just often enough to be a real difficulty and annoyance and major bother in trying to create a disc.

Any way I can test the drive? the software? anything?

Biff

0X03 normally indicates a failure in logic of the hardware.

Get a new drive.

anon-e-mouse

or a topical cream

blueshead

I had that happen with a Lacie Firewire drive.. It was the chipset in the case.. not the drive ( Pioneer 107).. I moved the drive into an old Yosimite Tower and it's still working..

anon-e-mouse

did the same with a lacie drive, which is still going as in internal in a pc, i see a pattern here, was pioneer too,

flak

This (or a very similar error) happened with a DVD burner in an external enclosure that I repeatedly used to re-rip my CD collection (since it was much faster than my internal drive).

Tested the enclosure with a hard drive, it worked. Tested the burner in another known-good enclosure, it didn't work. Optical drive went into the trash.

Biff

Like I said, logic failure.

Any circuit board in between the logic board and the drive can cause this problem- a bridgeboard in a case or the drive itself. As there's not quite enough data here to assume what kind of drive (internal/external) you're using, and Apple machines have shipped with burners since 2002, it's a safe assumption it's an internal drive.

Labor != free.

Drives = cheap

Get a new drive. $40 or so. Skip the troubleshooting.

blueshead

I wake up everyday with Logic Failure...

zippie

i've had that problem with my macbook sometimes in toast, restarting the machine and also changing type of media helps!

but if you have a tower, just replace the drive.

JusMe

This is the MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846 built into my iMac, so getting a new drive isn't really an option there. And the problem seems to be erratic.

I created a couple of frisbees yesterday using Toast 8 & 9, but then later burned the DVD I wanted using Disc Utility.

Maybe for burning I should try using the MB?

flak

Is the iMac still under warranty?

If it is, it can't hurt to get the optical drive replaced anyway.

Biff

If it isn't under warranty, it's not a terribly hard repair unless it's the black-framed screen one.

What model iMac?

(as a reminder to everyone, if you've got some sort of tech issue, the initial post should include your model of machine iMac intel, iMac G5, as specific as you can get as well as the OS revision and the problem. Saves a lot of problems in the long run. A logical amount of more data is better than less)

blueshead

m

JusMe

No warranty now. I bought it back in May of '06.

Here's the model info from System Profiler:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz

If I had known it was a tech issue, I would have included whatever info was necessary, but I had no idea (and to be honest, still don't) what the problem is.

I keep up to date on the system, so I'm on OS 10.5.5

Biff

I'm still saying the drive needs to be replaced. There's no external bridgeboard in an external case in this situation to die instead of the drive, so the drive is going south.