[iBook] Won't read music CDs

[Charles Pearce]

On Sep 19, 2007, at 11:25 AM, Darlene Hess wrote:

> I have a G4 14" iBook running system 10.4.10 with 512mb of RAM. It  
> is a couple of years old and has always worked flawlessly.
>
> Today, when I inserted a music CD that I have used many many times,  
> I get the message that the disk I "inserted was not readable by  
> this computer", however, I can put this disk in another iBook and  
> it is fine.
> I then tried a data disk and that worked.
> I then tried another music disk and got the same message.
> If I go to disk utility, I see the disk there, but it does not sure  
> up in iTunes.
> I repaired permissions and reset the PMU and neither made a  
> difference.
>
> Does anyone have an idea on what could be happening??

Have you tried cleaning the laser lens? There are special cleaning  
CDs that one can purchase, usually with a bottle of cleaning fluid.  
You might also try getting a can of pressurized air and blowing in  
there. It's amazing how much dust there is inside and how little it  
takes to bring an optical drive to its knees. If that doesn't work,  
then I suspect that the drive has gone bad.

Charles (charlesp at ksu.edu)