My MacBook Pro SuperDrive stopped reading and writing discs. Well, 1 out of 50 would work but most often I would get something like “Unable to calibrate laser power for selected media”. After few minutes of browsing, I figured there are two solutions:
1. Disassemble both MacBook and SuperDrive (oh, you wouldn’t want to do that) and clean it with q-tips. And then hope you’ll assemble it back.
2. Use compressed air can to blow the dust off the laser.
I didn’t have time to use the first approach (and yes – I didn’t want to take my chances), but I did not have a can of compressed air either..
I did have a straw, however.. So here’s the third option you should consider:
I N S T R U C T I O N S
0. Eject CD/DVD if there is one inside – device can’t read it anyway, right?
1. Put a straw into your mouth
2. Blow couple of times at your or your friends hand to make sure it’s not saliva you are blowing
3. See pictures in this article to figure out where the laser lens is located (it is marked red in the 7th picture)
4. Put a straw into SuperDrive (that is the hole where you put the optical media) and blow couple of times moving straw around the laser (no spitting!)
Done. For the first minute drive won’t ready any disks even if it did (it is a little dewy now), but then it should work like new.
DISCLAIMER: try this at your own risk. I’m not responsible for any damage you may make to your equipment. It worked fine for me but I haven’t tried this on my wife’s or my friend’s mac.
A side note: Actually cleaning the SuperDrive like described in the first “solution” I guess is the best way to go (taking it to a techie of course if you ain’t one yet), but if you need to read/write few disks just urgently (like I did) – this is pretty decent too.
11 comments ↓
This worked PERFECTLY for me. A few hard blows through a straw across the left side of the super drive slot fixed up my MacBook Pro’s ability to burn DVDs in no time.
Thanks very much for this post!
Thanks so much for this advice, it sorte my disc burning ejection problems as well.
Holy cow, it worked! Sweet. Thought my 2 1/2 year-old MBP’s Superdrive was going to buy the farm. Nothing like a free fix to brighten my day (after doing taxes, no less). Thanks!
thanks alot!
this saved my pocket
because my guarantee expired a month ago
and it worked
thanks again
Superb Method, it worked like a charm .. Great …..
save Time n Money n a Gr8 exp.
Superb Method.
Thanks for the tip. Used compressed air, and worked straight off. Thought it was cheap dvds from Jessops.
I just tried and it worked!thanks a lot and pls.keep up the great work…!
same over here in germany… just tried the straw method on my 3 year old mbp and it worked like a charm! thnx so much for sharing this great fix!!!
THANKS! That saved my money.
A better way to make sure you’re not spitting all over your drive is to put a piece of tissue or paper towel over the straw. where you’re blowing.
Worked fine for my MBP, too!
Before, I couldn’t burn DVDs anymore (always got error messages, e.g. ‘Error Code 0x8002006e’) but now, after a nice blow of compressed air my SuperDrive seems to be reborn.
Thanks!
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