[X4U] DVD burner Drive affected by high temps and humidity?

[Lee Licata]

Dear List,

While on holiday where temps were well above 80F most days and  
nights, and humidity normally above 70%, and sometimes even close to  
90%, I tried to use my DVD drive to burn a DVD-R. The DVD got stuck  
in side the 17" Powerbook G4 (running 10.4.7, all up to date.) Was  
using the system software to burn, not Toast, nor something else.

Sometimes the DVD would show up on the desktop, but when ejected,  
would come out just a little bit and then go back in. Usually, then,  
was not on the desktop.

If I launch Disk Utility, it would also not show up.

Hitting the eject key to the right of the F12 key numerous times  
would get it to pop out just a very little bit, but then go right in.  
Sometimes, it popped out just enough such that with my fingers, I can  
grab the disc and pull it out.

Later, tried again, same result.

Later, tried a CD-R with the same result. Took a half hour to get the  
CD out. With that CD came what looked like a piece of felt.

Got back home and took it to my local Mac authorized repair shop,  
described the problem, and asked him to replace the DVD drive.

You can guess the rest of the story. He could find NOTHING wrong. The  
drive worked fine.

He thought the high temps and the wet weather was the cause...

Operating specs by Apple indicate that the drive should have worked.  
(Well, the computer should work. Could NOT find actual specs for the  
drive.)

Anyone had this happen to them, or can confirm that high temps and  
humidity might make a DVD drive not work correctly??

Here is the drive's info:

MATSHITA DVD-R   UJ-825:
Firmware Revision:	DAM5
Interconnect:	ATAPI
Burn Support:	Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache:		2048 KB
Reads DVD:	Yes
CD-Write:	-R, -RW
DVD-Write:	-R, -RW, +R, +RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD:	Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD:	Yes
Write Strategies:	CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:	No

Lee