Computer (Mac) help needed. Not IT savvy enough to solve this alone.

[galain]

I have a 2013 Macbook Air running Mavericks. Until last week I was using a LiteOn external cd/dvd drive. I like to burn podcasts to listen to in the car. All was good when it suddenly 'stopped' working. By 'stopped', I mean the disk would spin and then stop, then spin and then stop - continuously. The drive didn't appear on my desktop but I could eject it using disk utility.

I tried it on my wife's iMac (Yosemite) - exactly the same thing happened so I figured it must have been the cd/dvd player and bought a new one which arrived yesterday - a Superdrive clone.

Exactly the same thing is happening. On both machines. Disk goes in, spins a bit, stops, spins, stops...

It kind of feels like a usb power issue but it's strange it should suddenly appear a week ago and be present on both our computers. Other usb devices are working with no problem. The new drive is only usb powered - there's no external power ource.

Apart from my OS I keep things updated. I'm too busy with work to try and update the OS just yet in case it doesn't go smoothly, but I can't see this being an issue.

I've been looking around but haven't found a decent solution yet. Has anyone experienced this and/or can anyone point me in the right direction or give me some insight?

Many thanks

 

[snvplayer]

Are you by any chance re-writing the same CD (rewritable) or brand new CD each time?

Or, does the drive connect to the usb hub or directly to the mac?

It doesn't sound like a problem with mac since both computers respond the same. If it was USB connection problem, I'd imagine the drive would stop working at all rather than continue to spin and stop.

 

[galain]

junbumkin - thanks for jumping on!

It really has me puzzled. The drive connects directly to the usb port on the macs. On my wife's, I even disconnected everything from the other ports to see if that made a difference. If it was just happening with one device I'd think it's the device (well - i did - that's why I bought a new one). The fact that the same thing is happening with a new piece of hardware on both computers has me completely baffled.

Always using a new cd....

 

[movdqa]

There are USB cables with dual ports if the device might require more power than your computer will put out in one port. I have a few of these for external drive enclosures where the power requirements for the drive aren't known by the manufacturer of the enclosure.

My car setup is that I get podcasts on my iPhone which connects to my car stereo over Bluetooth. So I just hit a button on the steering wheel and it switches from the radio to the iPhone which plays podcasts or music. It will also do phone calls interrupting whatever is playing. Our state just got a law requiring hands-free devices for phone use in cars. Another approach would be to use something like an iPod Nano or iPod Touch with output to your Aux In port if you don't have Bluetooth in your car. The advantage of the iPod Touch is that it can fetch podcasts by itself (don't have to hook it up to a PC) on a regular schedule so that they're there when you want them. I use an old iPod Touch or a new iPod Nano for listening to podcasts when running or in the gym.

Apple dumped optical drives years ago because the alternatives are so much better.

If you don't have an Aux In and don't have Bluetooth, you could get an FM transmitter to hook up to an iPhone, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, iPad or iPad Mini. I have one of these too that I used in a previous car that didn't have Bluetooth or Aux In. You can also do all of this stuff with Android devices except the part about automatically downloading podcasts.

 

[snvplayer]

junbumkin - thanks for jumping on!

It really has me puzzled. The drive connects directly to the usb port on the macs. On my wife's, I even disconnected everything from the other ports to see if that made a difference. If it was just happening with one device I'd think it's the device (well - i did - that's why I bought a new one). The fact that the same thing is happening with a new piece of hardware on both computers has me completely baffled.

Always using a new cd....

Hm..I have had unstable usb connections on the mac, but it would usually end in full disconnection.

If I were you, I would pick up a drive from more respectable company from local store just in case the new one is lemon. (you can always return them..)

You can use this as an excuse to buy an Ipod. : ) More versatile, easier to download music, podcast. No need to buy or dispose CDs : )

 

[Dags]

Does it read a disk that you know is good (works somewhere else) and has content on it?

 

[movdqa]

VMS was written by Digital Equipment Corporation (acquired by Compaq which later was acquired by Hewlett-Packard). David Cutler was a VP at DEC working on VMS and was hired away to work at Microsoft to make Windows a modern operating system (the previous versions of Windows on the consumer side were not). He took along a good amount of his development team to Microsoft.

I believe that Xerox' contributions to Windows and the old Apple Lisa which was the precursor to the Mac line were the UI; not the operating system. Some people think that the UI is the operating system but it is not anywhere near the whole thing. Some think that the UI and OS are separate. Some think that the OS is the UI + OS. It isn't clear to me whether Apple or Microsoft bought the software and used the source code to build their UIs (somewhat unlikely given that Macs were based on Motorola chips and Windows was based on x86), or just licensed the look and feel - if they indeed did license Xerox' stuff. I hadn't heard that. Do you have a source for your historical information?

 

[movdqa]

I did a little digging (I didn't recall Microsoft or Apple paying Xerox) and found that at least Apple didn't pay Xerox anything. Apple hired some of Xerox' PARC employees and Xerox later sued over copyright infringement of "look and feel". This lawsuit demonstrates that no source code was sold. I don't recall Microsoft paying Xerox anything to Xerox either. Looking at the history of the GUI on Wikipedia, I found that there were other GUIs that ran over DOS, Digital Research's in particular. I think that Microsoft actually had several GUIs to copy (Apple, DRI, others) that were more advanced than what PARC produced.

You can invent something and license the technology to other parties. Patent trolls generally do not implement anything with their patents - they just sue companies that infringe on them. Patents are somewhat different from copyright. I do not know what the outcome of the Xerox suit was but Apple sued Microsoft over Microsoft copying Apple's look and feel and I think that they came to a big-dollar settlement on that one.

 

[esgee48]

Getting back on topic -
(1) Check the USB port by plugging a flash drive in. If you can see the flash drive and its data, it is working.
(2) Plug in an external HD if you have one. If you can see this, the port is alive and powering the drive.
(3) Plug in your external optical drive. Place a CD with data inn it. This is where you say it fails. Can you MOUNT the drive? Since you use Disk Utility to eject, you should be able to mount. If the system says the drive is already there, then your auto run features of the OS are off kilter.

 

[movdqa]

I am sure Xerox people wrote their own source code for their OS. Their OS was unique at the time because it displayed information "graphically" using icons, pictures, etc..

Google "dos" and you can see what non-graphical user interface look like..

Apple took this concept, implemented, and commercialized it, which Xerox didn't do....Microsoft later did the same with Windows

However, operating systems of Xerox, Apple, and Microsoft all have their own source codes for their operating system....

In other words, operating systems can have different source codes..

Yup.

You can see pieces of Microsoft's operating system as well in the RTL source code that they ship with their professional development tools.

You can see Apple's code by disassembling their executables if you can read assembler.

 

[sureshs]

I invented a tennis string which never loses tension or feel and never needs to be replaced. But the military took it.

 

[movdqa]

It's to combat tennis terrorism.

 

[galain]

Well, it wasn't my intention to start such a passionate discussion, but I'm checking back in to say (I hope) all is now good.
I still have no explanation and I still haven't tried my wife's machine, but something seems to be working now. I tried a dvd first - no go. Then I tried an audio cd and it worked without issue. After this, I went back to the dvd and lo and behold, it started running too. So, flushed with success, I went back to my blank cd, stuck that in and sure enough, it burned this week's podcasts for me.

Let me say first, a very big thank you to all who chimed in to help me out. I do appreciate it. Like i said, I don't really know what's going on but I'm going to sit down and have a play with my old cd/dvd drive and my wife's computer later on and see if the same things happen.

As for the "Apple sucks" argument (well - that was the level to which I read the discussion that followed), I understand your point of view. I bought my first Macbook 7 years ago because it was going for a great price and I needed a new notebook. I bought my second 2 years ago because I had 5 years worth of documents I could only seem to access in good shape with another Mac - and even then it wasn't always successful, so yes, while I'm generally a contented idiot, I do sometimes take issue with the company.

but the immediate problem of suffering through miles of German broadcasting is, at least for now, behind me. Yay!

Thank you again guys for your time. Very grateful.

g

 

[movdqa]

Well, it wasn't my intention to start such a passionate discussion, but I'm checking back in to say (I hope) all is now good.
I still have no explanation and I still haven't tried my wife's machine, but something seems to be working now. I tried a dvd first - no go. Then I tried an audio cd and it worked without issue. After this, I went back to the dvd and lo and behold, it started running too. So, flushed with success, I went back to my blank cd, stuck that in and sure enough, it burned this week's podcasts for me.

Let me say first, a very big thank you to all who chimed in to help me out. I do appreciate it. Like i said, I don't really know what's going on but I'm going to sit down and have a play with my old cd/dvd drive and my wife's computer later on and see if the same things happen.

As for the "Apple sucks" argument (well - that was the level to which I read the discussion that followed), I understand your point of view. I bought my first Macbook 7 years ago because it was going for a great price and I needed a new notebook. I bought my second 2 years ago because I had 5 years worth of documents I could only seem to access in good shape with another Mac - and even then it wasn't always successful, so yes, while I'm generally a contented idiot, I do sometimes take issue with the company.

but the immediate problem of suffering through miles of German broadcasting is, at least for now, behind me. Yay!

Thank you again guys for your time. Very grateful.

g

Glad it worked out for you.

I'd still recommend something newer though. It would cost a few bucks but it would save you time and materials.

 

[snvplayer]

Well, it wasn't my intention to start such a passionate discussion, but I'm checking back in to say (I hope) all is now good.
I still have no explanation and I still haven't tried my wife's machine, but something seems to be working now. I tried a dvd first - no go. Then I tried an audio cd and it worked without issue. After this, I went back to the dvd and lo and behold, it started running too. So, flushed with success, I went back to my blank cd, stuck that in and sure enough, it burned this week's podcasts for me.

Let me say first, a very big thank you to all who chimed in to help me out. I do appreciate it. Like i said, I don't really know what's going on but I'm going to sit down and have a play with my old cd/dvd drive and my wife's computer later on and see if the same things happen.

As for the "Apple sucks" argument (well - that was the level to which I read the discussion that followed), I understand your point of view. I bought my first Macbook 7 years ago because it was going for a great price and I needed a new notebook. I bought my second 2 years ago because I had 5 years worth of documents I could only seem to access in good shape with another Mac - and even then it wasn't always successful, so yes, while I'm generally a contented idiot, I do sometimes take issue with the company.

but the immediate problem of suffering through miles of German broadcasting is, at least for now, behind me. Yay!

Thank you again guys for your time. Very grateful.

g

Glad to hear it worked out after all - sometimes it can be a little finicky- and you can enjoy the podcast.

If you burn CDs weekly, Ipod or using some other device might be a worthwhile investment.

 

[Bartelby]

No one would suggest that the internet is the product of one man or one company, but the role of the US Government was substantial.

It's a rather good example of how state investment can help to create new industries.

This shows a gross misunderstanding of data communications.

There's this little company called Cisco that would argue against your interpretation.

There were private corporate networks like the internet long before the public internet.

 

[galain]

Glad to hear it worked out after all - sometimes it can be a little finicky- and you can enjoy the podcast.

If you burn CDs weekly, Ipod or using some other device might be a worthwhile investment.

I agree with you. I don't have a bluetooth setup in the car though and I don't really care to take my eyes off the road to switch between programmes or ff past advertising. Next car will definitely have something like that or even a usb port. Thanks again for the help.

 

[movdqa]

I think that more and more car manufacturers will be installing Bluetooth systems as standard equipment, particularly since more and more states are adopting hands-free laws.

I bought the Camry LE (low-end) several years ago and it came with a full bluetooth package. It also has Aux In and 1 USB port. It has two Accessory ports so I could hook up a few more USB ports but I've heard that they can cause problems.

 

[Deleted member 688153]

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