[nathanaaron02]

Hey all,

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I'll put in most of my cds for transfering into iTunes, and it works just fine. BUT on occasion, I put one in, and it can not read the cd. It starts to spin up, then stops, does that for a bit, then spits it out. Random ones, none are copy right protected, etc. Stuff like an Enya cd here (no jokes about the PB having taste! ;-), a Tori Amos cd there, and a couple others. With no particular reason for spitting them out, they work fine on my other computer's drive (a PC.)

Has anyone else had this problem? it's not huge, but just annoying. if I want that particular cd on my iPod, I'll have to find another computer (when I get rid of my PC) to transfer it into iTunes, and then burn a disk to transfer to the PB. I've got about five or six cds it won't read right now, I just find it really odd? They aren't greatly scratched or anything, and like I said, the PC will read them just fine.

[rickolis]

do Madonna and Cher CDs work? LoL. seriously though, I'm having the same problem with a couple CDs. I instruct a group exercise class and I started importing the music CDs to the PB and 2 of them will not read; eventually after spinning up a few times it will just spit it back out. There are no scratches on the CDs and they work fine when I put them in my car or play them on a regular CD player. I'm thinking I'm going to have to go back to my PC to burn those CDs. I should probably check to see if my friend's PB does the same thing.

[Marcellus Wallace]

I had the same problem with my last iBook... but it was 2 years old... did not experience the problem again with my new iMac... but maybe this tip helps:

There is an option to tell iTunes not to play the CD while it is importing, so maybe it helps to uncheck it. Maybe it turns out that just trying to play the CD at the same time as the import causes this problem!

So, if you have this problem, go into iTunes Preferences and click on "Importing" at the top. Then clear the check mark from the box labeled "Play songs while importing" and try again. Hope this helps.

[Paul]

there is also an option in iTunes to "Use error correction when reading Audio CDs" that may also help. It is just below the play songs while importing option.

That should solve the problem.

Do the CDs mount on the desktop at all?

[rafdog5]

yeh, ive had the same problem. The weird thing is that I was able to import songs from the CD into iTunes on my old iMac, but now the same CD wont work on my new PowerBook. MYSTERIOUS

[gjas15]

what kind of optical drive do you guys have?

[nathanaaron02]

Yes, the Madonna and Cher cds burned just fine! (Mr. Exercise Class man!) ;-) Whatever optical drive is in the new Powerbook 17" is what I have.

I already have the "play music while importing" button clicked off, so that won't work. I might try the "error" button mentioned above. The cds don't mount, either. It's like the computer can't spin up enough to actually read the cd. It tries to spin, goes down, tries to spin up again, does this a few times (which becomes annoying LOL) and then just spits it out. You would think Apple might check into this, since it seems to happen to a certain extent, to many people? Ah well. What can ya' do?

[Marcellus Wallace]

If the cd's won't mount... that's shitty, a pity... have you tried: System Preferences: CD's/DVD's...'when you a place a music-cd open 'app':'... it's set to open iTunes by default... maybe if you set it to: 'Ignore'?

A very small maybe...

Most CD-ROM drives are high speed 32X, & 40X drives. These drives spin at such a high rate that it can cause problems reading some audio CD's??? Dunno...? How fast is your PC Cd-rom reading discs?

[nathanaaron02]

Oh man the PC CD drive is like three years or MORE old, it's as old as I've had the computer; so this Powerbook drive should blow it away. It's a weird one, I tell ya; but obviously I'm not the only one with this problem.

[curiousuburb]

If the PC and Mac are networked, you could copy the CD data to the PC in raw form (AIFF), then transfer the whole 700MB of AIFFs (perhaps .WAV, depending on the PC OS).

The potential benefit of doing it this way is that iTunes on the Mac should then be the one ripping the AIFFs to mp3 (rather than potentially requiring the PC to do it, in case you're not using iTunes on the PC and the rip/compress options aren't as high quality).

Not much difference via the network compared to burning another copy of the disc and schlepping it across via sneakernet, except you save a disc... (and potentially a generation if you're converting during the rip/burn)... and if the presumed error on the CD that prevents it being imported from the original is perfectly duplicated when you clone the CD, the copy CD might have exactly the same issue importing.

Not sure if that helps.

And IIRC, there are a few CDs that don't have one of the primary DRM mechanisms, but still have some form of copy protection (overburn, etc). Back in the days before modern DRM, there were a few 'prototype anti-piracy' technologies that were tried but didn't survive long. Might be the case that you've got some early copy-protection experiments that don't announce that they're restricted, but effectively demonstrate that they are at some level.

Apple's iTunes support folks might be interested to know if certain discs regularly cannot be imported. It is remotely possible that a list of known 'cranky' CDs exists and the few you've run across are widely known to have issues.

I've heard people complain about Enya CDs before... might be a documented case.

[rickolis]

Originally Posted by nathanaaron02 Yes, the Madonna and Cher cds burned just fine! (Mr. Exercise Class man!) ;-) Whatever optical drive is in the new Powerbook 17" is what I have. I already have the "play music while importing" button clicked off, so that won't work. I might try the "error" button mentioned above. The cds don't mount, either. It's like the computer can't spin up enough to actually read the cd. It tries to spin, goes down, tries to spin up again, does this a few times (which becomes annoying LOL) and then just spits it out. You would think Apple might check into this, since it seems to happen to a certain extent, to many people? Ah well. What can ya' do?

Can I borrow your Madonna and Cher CDs?

I also have the new PB, but 15" with the superdrive. Same problem, it doesn't even mount the CD, it can't read it or anything. These CDs I have are NEW, too! It is very frusterating because I want my music!

[gjas15]

Some CD drives are very picky about the cd's they read... in my experience the superdrives particularly bad at reading audio cds that have even one or two scratches (and sometimes even new ones) Thats one reason i opted for the combo drive in my pb and the other is that i have an 8x DVD+- burner (liteon) in my B&W G3 which hasnt failed to read a cd yet (even my starcraft cd that looks like someone took a scouring pad to it)

FYI the cd drive in my powerbook is a: Model: MATSHITA CD-RW CW-8123

[Bryson]

I've always found that the Superdrive in my powerbook reads absolutely everything...even the Darkness and Dido albums that are *supposed* to be copy-protected. Its a UJ-816

[nathanaaron02]

Rickolis, yes you can borrow my Madonna and Cher cds any time you want! :-)

[elvia]

Over the past week I have been burning 30 or 40 cd's per night onto my pb. So far I have three that will not mount or copy. they are
Jars of Clay Who we are instead
Ravel Bolero/Rapsodiee,
Kevin Max Stereotype Be
Go figure with such a diverse grouping

[intlplby]

some cd protection schemes involve intentionally including errors that confuse the computer and sometimes result in the disc not even ejecting..... technicaly they aren't really CDs since they don't follow the redbook standard...... try different optical drives .... some are better than others at understanding the discs......

I've got an iMac G5 1.6Ghz and it's got a MATSHITA CD-RW CW-8123 combo drive which spits out cd's, makes a hell of a noise, and is (i think) the cause of some recent kernel panics while ripping cd's to iTunes (now that's what i call copy protection!) Anyone know of a 'better' option for slotloading drives, or would i be better getting an external FW superdrive??

BTW, on the subject of copy protection, i've got 2 Jimmy Smith cd's (Blue Note records) which claim to be copy protected - and the are... on my windows box - on my mac they rip into iTunes just fine. Go figure.

[intlplby]

there is such variety in the drives out there that the copy protection schemes usually work on most but not all drives..... most discs that mess up in my powerbook i just toss in my external firewire DVD-RW drive and import with no problem

somestimes it is the other way around, i try the DVD-RW drive first and it doesnt work but my powerbook does work....

but between the two of them one of them is always able to rip the disc