I have a G4 17" flat panel imac which recently has started refusing to recognise DVDs. It will think about them for awhile and then spit them out. I’ve tried both movie DVDs and application DVDs. The odd thing is that the CD functionality is still intact. It will read and burn both application and music CDs. Now of course if anyone has any helpful suggestions that would be great. But what I’m really curious about is how this is possible? I was under the impression that the DVD and CD functionality were essentially the same thing in the hardware. Are there two different lasers for reading the different media? Or is it likely to be just some weird software glitch?
Does this iMac have a “superdrive” in it, or a regular one? On powermacs/minis/imacs, when a drive begins becoming finicky about reading all dvd or cds (not just particular brands), there is probably a problem with the drive itself. There is a possibility that it’s a simple software glitch, but these glitches can be quite elusive. If you want to invest the time in trying to trackdown the problem then visit the apple messageboards and sift through the messages on the imac forums, this will give you an idea of the troubleshooting process. Having said that, since drives are inexpensive, your time may be better spent replacing the drive. Is your imac still under the applecare warranty? If it is no longer under warranty, apple can replace the drive for a fee, an indepedent store can do it, or you may be able to buy a suitable replacement and do the “operation” yourself. If doing it yourself is an option you are comfortable with, I’d highly recommend getting a drive from Mac Sales and reading the directions on their site. Keep in mind that there is a fairly small selection of drives that OS X supports. At any rate, good luck and happy burning.