MacBook Pro DVD drive going bad?

[Elrich]

I have a MacBook Pro (13 in) (bought in January 2014) with a built-in DVD drive that is having problems lately. This IS my DVD player -- I don't have one for my TV (or a TV, for that matter). The problem is that when I put in a disc, it has trouble reading it and spits it out. At first it would generally recognize it the second time I put it in, but just now it took about 5 or 6 tries before it finally read the disc.

In the past I had a similar issue that was just a matter of the lens being dirty -- a can of air sprayed in there fixed the problem. But now, that isn't working, either.

Is the drive simply dying? Do I have any recourse besides simply replacing it?

 

[honestone]

What exact MacBook Pro model do you have?

Also, does this happen no matter whether you insert a blank DVD, a "full" one (like a commercial one), a blank CD, or a "full" CD?

 

[Elrich]

Hi,
I'm not sure how to tell exactly what model this is. I looked at "About this Mac" and it just says "MacBook Pro (13-inch, mid-2012)". I'm running OS 10.11.6.

I just now tried a blank DVD-R and a commercial music CD, and did NOT have the same problem with those. So I guess it's exclusively a problem with commercial DVDs.

 

[honestone]

How many commercial DVDs have you tried? Seems odd that one"class" of media would be an issue (I assume you have no issues with blank CDs).

 

[Elrich]

Five or six different ones at least. Although I just tried a different one and it read fine. And then I tried yet another one, and the problem DID occur. So maybe not ALL commercial DVDs, but most...

 

[Elrich]

Another thing that's happened is that a DVD is playing and then it "skips over damaged area". This has happened on three different discs in the past 2 or 3 weeks, on discs that have barely even been played before.

 

[Elrich]

I just talked to Apple Support. They think that something is making the laser light too weak so that it can't find the start point on the disc. (I didn't get a chance to mention that the problem didn't occur with the blank DVD or the music CD, but considering my numbers on both are success one out of one times, I'm not sure how meaningful that is.) Anyway, I'm going to have to take it to a support center, if I can manage to get an appointment!