Slooooowwww superdrive macbook pro...

Hey there,

Just wondering if anyone else had seen this same behaviour.
I just got a new macbook pro 2.4ghz, 4gb ram, 200gb hdd - I think its version 4.1 - and the "superdrive" is very slow reading DVD's under windows/bootcamp.

Probably took 3 hours to install Orange Box half life 2, teamfortress etc.
It takes 30-60 minutes to copy the contents of a DVD to hard drive.

Nero speedtest shows the drive never gets over about 2.3X transfer rate and I believe the drive is supposed to be 8X.
I have tested using a few different DVD's to make sure that wasn't the issue.

Drive is HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-S10N

I even flashed the firmware to another revision I found, but there was no change.

Anyone got any ideas or had a similar experience?
I can't really take it back to Apple as I am travelling so much.

cheers

Z

 

do you have the same problems in osX?

 

the superdrives have been very slow the past few years.

my CD MB 1.83 cdrw/dvdrom whoops the "READ SPEED" crap out of anything newer than it!

 

could have been a driver issue. flashing the firmware was likely a bad idea. hard to diagnose the problem now...

 

meh - it can be flashed straight back anyway.
The driver is just the built in one windows uses.
I have the latest bootcamp windows xp drivers installed as well.

cheers

z

 

30-60 min of copying a DVD to the hardrive isn't horrible. May be a bit on the slow side but not awful. Could also depend on what program you are using. And I have heard from other places that it has taken a long time to install games like Crysis on Vista via bootcamp... not sure what OS you are using though.

 

See the 3 posts/inquiries I made on here in the Apple forum.(just search by my name, I didn't copy the links). I had the same problem with slow transfer speeds. Some audio cd's would not get past 5.0x transfer speed, but once in a while it will go up to 21.0x (really fast). Very random and very annoying. Sometimes it's with the exact same cd. Apple can't
explain it either. I went to the Apple store locally and used my own cd's, and theirs ran over 12x every time. Not too sure what's going on, but I'm over it. I did the whole exchange thing, and the people were very helpful. Otherwise, the machine is great, and the support on here is great. By the way, does your system make a really awful clicking sound when you insert a cd?

 

Yes, it makes a very ugly clunking sound when you insert a CD.
Sort of makes it twice and is not what I would expect.
The DVD's I was using were Orange Box retail and WOW retail games so you would think out of 5 DVD's the media is really out of the question.

It's pretty much the only think I don't like about my MBP.
The drive is just rubbish at the moment.
Luckily I don't copy much from the drive, and as soon as I get my hands on the new 500GB hard drives that have come out that will be going in.
I will try hitting an apple store the next time I am in one place more than a week.

How long does the swap usually take?

cheers

Z

 

if the drive makes clunking noise that means you got a bad copy of disc. I believe it's 8x for read and 6x for burn. swapping drive took 1 day for my roomate, as long as they have it in stock.

 

Hmmmmm, I don't believe this to be true. I have had various, and random transfer rates with the EXACT same cd. I have even used brand new cd's to see if there is any difference. As I stated earlier, sometimes the speed reaches over 20x rate. Rarely, but sometimes.....
Usually it is around 6-to-9x,... BUT, when it DOES get up around 20x, you can REALLY hear the revolutions climb up FAST!!!!


Edit; Attn, OP,fyi here is my configuration.... HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N

 

Mine basically never gets up to speed.
Should really be called a silentdrive rather than a superdrive because at least it's completely silent

Z

 

I need to apologize that I didn't make it clear. it's 8x read speed for DVD, and for CD its 24x. that's why you reach over 20x rate sometimes. but those are maximum speeds, means you could have lower speeds sometimes.

 

yea and lets face it, its a laptop drive, they are slow anyways. not to mention its a slot-load, which are loud as crap at full speed.

apple, im sure, in the drivers or the firmware, has implemented a speed reduction.

google the HL-DT gs drive. itll pop up like mad