Macbook pro cannot burn DVD

Because they handle two kinds of media, combination drives essentially have two optical pickup assemblies in one package. CDs and DVDs both look the same, but they need different laser light wavelengths to read and write them. It's not uncommon for a drive to go bad the way you're describing, where one kind of disc begins not working while the other kind is unaffected.

An optical assembly is two parts: the laser to generate the light for reading and writing, and a sensor to pick up the light that is reflected for reading. Over time the laser power drops, and there's not enough light for the disc to be read reliably or, as in your case, to even detect the disc. Since you say you've burned numerous CDs, you've put more wear on the CD side, so it's probably just worn out.

There are internal adjustments to tweak the laser power and information is out on the Web about how to squeeze a little more life out of the drive. But the cost of a new combo drive is so low now that there's no reason not to simply replace one when it fails. TigerDirect is one company I buy lots of parts from, and they have two drives that are just $20: this one if your current drive is a SATA type (narrow data cable), or this one if your old drive is an IDE drive (a wide 40-pin data cable). I'm just using those for examples, since there are many other sources.

Another option is to get an external USB burner, and then you'd have a drive you could use on different computers if you wanted, and you wouldn't have to go through the effort of replacing an internal drive (although it's not difficult).

the laser for buring dvd's is out or goiing out you need a new optical drive

Unreadable disc errors or open tray errors are commonly fixed by pot calibration or laser assembly replacement. Pot calibration is the cheaper of the two, and if it fails and burns out the laser, well, replacing the laser would be the next step anyway.

You shouldn't calibrate the pot without an ohms reader simply because you can burn out the laser, but you CAN wing it. I'd advise doing some searching on DVD Drive pot calibration for the Xbox 360, simply because I don't know which drive you have so I can't help identify anything for you.

I will say you have to disassemble it down until you see the motherboard, take out the DVD drive, open it up, and then calibrate the pot with a very small screwdriver. The location of the pot depends on your drive. If this fails, then buy a new laser assembly and replace it in the drive.

p.s. pot calibration is fancy terminology. There are basically 2 "screws" inside the drive, 1 pot is the DVD/games, and the other is CD. You'll want to very slightly tweak the DVD/games pot until it works, testing with each tweak. You barely need to adjust this "screw" for a significant change to happen. Also, always test with a DVD and then a game. It will read a DVD before a game.

Go click on the apple logo at the top left of the screen. Then click on About this mac. Then click on More info. Then click on Disc Burning.

It will tell you what DVDs the optical drive will burn. If no info shows up, then you got a bad connection or need to clean the optical drive laser lens or your optical drive is about dead so you may have to buy a new optical drive.

The Super Drive needs to be replaced. This error cannot be fixed with software.
If it's still under warranty simply take to an Apple Store, Apple Authorized Service Provider, or contact Apple at 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273) or contact an Apple Expert at http://www.apple.com/support/expert/
-=/ Daft Tech /=-

Yes no store bought brand is setup to be great quality. You will have to find either archive quality discs so that they have high compatibility and quality ratings or just by small amounts of brands till you find one that will work for you.
Cheers
Al

Sometimes the laser diode for burning the cd and the dvd are seperate, and the one that burns the dvd is no good. It takes more lasing power to burn dvds than cds, and if it is a single diode, then maybe it has weakend, and can omly burn cds. Either way it is a bad diode, The whole laser assemble needs to be replace because it is hard to buy just the laser diode, and even if you buy one, you would not be able to align them properly, and they are very difficult to replace individually, I tried that once by taking a diode from another dvd burner, it did not work.

what software are u using, try titanium toaster or Burn X.

Try burning at a slower speed and try +r if using - R or visa versa on the dvd disks. My better half burns all the disks here and this is what she reccomends.

It may be a dual laser type burner and the dvd laser has faulted, you can try using a cd/dvd cleaner to clean the laser. Otherwise try:- Go to my computer>properties>hardware>device manager and look down the list for your cd/dvd drives and click the '+' sign then highlight your dvd drive and right click to delete. Restart the pc and windows will find the drive again automatically and install the drivers