To Apple Computer, Inc.

 

This is a petition to get recognition for the fact that many PowerBooks and Mac Minis have a fault with the internal SuperDrives. Up until today, Apple does not fix this problem out of warranty or acknowledge that there might be a production fault in all recent aluminium PowerBooks and Mac Minis.

Some very unfortunate Apple customers have had their SuperDrive refuse to burn at over 2x. This issue is not media related, as there are multiple brands of DVD media that will refuse to be detected by the drive at its true rating. Apple has refused to acknowledge that this fault exists, and this leads us to believe that Apple does not know how to permanently fix this problem, or does not want to allocate the funds to do that.

To clarify, the fault is due to firmware problems with the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-835E drive. This issue is known to affect all the following products. Most of this information is taken from the Apple Discussion Forum, located at http://discussions.info.apple.com:

  • PowerBook G4, 12”, All Speeds
  • PowerBook G4, 15”, All Speeds
  • PowerBook G4, 17”, All Speeds
  • Mac mini G4, 1.42GHz (With SuperDrive)

The following are links to threads on the Apple Discussions Forums where users have left their comments:

As customers, we demand recognition of this fault and the assurance that our PowerBooks and Mac Minis will be repaired at no additional cost outside of warranty.

 

Sincerely,

The Undersigned


Update 08/08/2005 11:49pm (+10GMT)
Apple have now started to remove my posts from the Apple discussions pointing to this petition. I have now received 4 emails stating that my posts have been removed, and that "You reserve the right to not post on Apple Discussions". I guess they don't want people to know the truth.

Update 11/08/2005 05:07pm (+10GMT)
MacInTouch have linked to this site, and also verified the findings. Their page states: We have a month-old 12" Aluminum PowerBook G4 here with the Matshita UJ-835e drive, and it exhibits these same symptoms. It refused to burn 8x Maxell and 16x Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs at any faster than 2x, even though the same discs burned at 12x and 16x, respectively, in an external Pioneer DVR-109 drive. -MacInTouch How much more proof do Apple need?

Update 20/08/2005 04:23pm (+10GMT)
The Register has run a news item on this site. The number of sigs is now over 700, and I shall be calling Apple on Monday 22/8 to try and get a comment from them.

Update 23/08/2005 02:23am (+10GMT)
Nothing to report as yet. Have been dealing with multiple hardware failures which I have needed to put first. I have however decided to put my email exchange with Geoff Winder (Apple Australias Hardware Product Manager) online for people to see what I have been trying to get resolved, and the lack of response from Apple to date. The latest email I have sent can be found here. Oh, and the paperwork has arrived from Consumer Affairs Victoria however hopefully I won't need to fill them out.

Update 30/8/2005 05:36pm (+10GMT)
Still no word from Apple. No reply to email. Only getting voicemail when I try to call Geoff

Update 31/8/2005 06:27pm (+10GMT)
Geoff at Apple has responded! While it is brief, there is very little information, but it does raise hope that this issue has not been swept under the carpet and forgotten about. The reply can be found here. My reply to find more details can be found here.

Update 27/9/2005 11:33pm (+10GMT)
As expected, still no word from Apple. Nice to know what they really think of their customers. Some stats of interest though, in August, this site had 27,233 hits and 13,429 page views. Hopefully this has done something to highlight the crappy service that Apple does give to it's customers. I have sent another email trying to get some info, and have also completed my paperwork for Consumer Affairs Victoria.

Update 6/10/2005 05:02am (+10GMT)
Wow - Even though I haven't posted on the Apple Forums in quite some time, they're still finding my posts and removing them - one by one. This must be the 5th or 6th one of these I've had since I started this site, and as usual, this was a reply to someone else having the same issue that I've been getting Apple to try and fix since - well, around 5 months ago... Gotta love Apple PR.

Update 12/10/2005 07:12am (+10GMT)
More people are having this issue. Another post on the Apple Forums stating: "Hey, I'm having the same problem. Mine is a little different. I like Ridata DVD-R 8x. I just got my powerbook last month and was burning fine at 8x and then I ran out of media. I purchased another 100 stack of the EXACT same media and this stack will only burn at 2x. This really s**ks a fat one! The same discs burn fine in my PC." I'm still compiling the data for Consumer Affairs. It's now around the 200 page mark.

Update 02/11/2005 05:55 (+11GMT)
In this update, you may have noticed that it states "disc recording when creating and burning media". I just tried this out to hope that it fixed all these problems, but no such luck. I still get the only options of 1x and 2x burning on 4x DVD-R media.

Update 24/12/2005 07:10pm (+11 GMT)
Well, it seems that Apple have decided to replace my hardware. I've started the proceedings yesterday and will hopefully get some news in the new year as to what they are going to replace. At the moment, I'm looking to send in the 12" Powerbook for a replacement, then see what changes in the mac mini side of things. I'm not going to accept the same DVD drive - as we all know the problems with the UJ-835. Stay tuned for more details as they come to hand.

Update 06/01/2006 06:53pm (+11 GMT)
Apple have decided to take my powerbook in for testing. At the Applestore, the tech was given multiple tests to do on the drive to determine the fault. Apple sent 2 DVD discs down, and I provided 4 for the test. The results are as follows:
  • Ritek 8x DVD-R. Available Speeds: 1x, 2x. 26 mins to burn 4Gb.
  • Princo 4x DVD-R. Available Speeds: 1x, 2x. 29 mins to burn 4Gb
  • Yoshi 8x DVD+R. Available Speeds: 2x. 25 mins to burn 4Gb
  • Datacell 4x DVD-R. Available Speeds: 1x, 2x. 29 mins to burn 4Gb
  • Apple 8x DVD-R. Available Speeds: 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x. 12 mins to burn 4Gb
  • TDK 16x DVD-R. Available SPeeds: 1x, 2x. 29 mins to burn 4Gb
I believe that this test proves exactly what the problem is. Only 1 out of 6 discs actually worked anywhere near the correct speeds. Now to wait for Apples response.

Update 14/01/2006 12:23pm (+11 GMT)
I have compiled a letter for people to send into Apple. It is already addressed, and just requires printing and filling out your model of powerbook or mac mini, your serial number, drive type, and details for Apple to contact you back on. Hopefully this will help convince Apple that there is actually a problem!

Update 25/03/2006 22:32pm (+11 GMT)
I'm still waiting for Apple to plug their digit and get back to me. I have to admit, the guys in the AppleStore have been doing a great job - however they seem to just be getting stone-walled at Apple. In other news, it's now been 11 1/2 months since I first contacted Apple regarding issues with their SuperDrives. Lucky for me, as the original TAC case was lodged back then, the problem is still considered active - even if the warranty has expired. It's sad that with all the great things Apple have been doing lately, they still continue to have substandard service where it counts. 11 1/2 months for an open TAC case is just laughable. EDIT:It looks like the Macbook may also have similar issues.

Update 10/04/2006 10:43am (+10 GMT)
I got a call from Janine Beach (Executive Relations, Apple Asia/Pac) to state that Apple regards that the problem with the SuperDrives (as reported here) is a correctly functioning SuperDrive. Apple's official line is that there is no problem burning on 8x Apple media so the drive is fine - even if it fails to recognise any other brand or speed of media. This means you can ONLY use Apple media in the drive - as even 16x TDK discs do not work correctly. There was no notification of the fact that Apple SuperDrives would only burn as advertised on Apple media - and when I stressed this point, I was told by Janine that the drive works as it should, and Apple would not be doing anything about it. After telling Janine that this was unacceptable, I was basically stonewalled. For this reason, I am asking anyone who has experiance in lodging official complaints with the ACCC or starting class action law suits to contact me to discuss the best approach in making Apple accountable for thier faulty equipment.
I understand that Apple Australia employee email accounts are the first letter of their first name, then their last name @asia.apple.com - so Joe Smith would be jsmith@asia.apple.com if people want to contact someone within Apple about their SuperDrive issues as well.....

Update 21/04/2006 11:59pm (+10 GMT)
Looks like this issues is hitting the Apple Forums again. I wish they'd just fix this issue. Nothing like treating your customers with contempt. This exact reason is why I don't have a Macbook Pro sitting infront of me now. I will not support a company that treats it's customers like crap. I have also sent another email to Geoff Winder to try ans push this matter further within Apple. I hate to see it come to his, but legal action against Apple seems to be the only option that I am being left to follow.

Update 01/06/2006 12:26pm (+10 GMT)
Multiple people have contacted me regarding Apple releasing a firmware update for superdrives on the above mentioned machines. Here are the links to the Mac Daily News article and the official Apple page for the firmware update. If people are able to test this and get back to me with their experiances, I'll update this page accordingly.

Update 28/01/2007 02:47am (+11 GMT)
Well, it looks as though Apple won't do anything about this problem. What I can advise however are a number of brands that do work accordingly - and why. It seems that Apple only support media created by the CMC factory. Discs made by this factory (and banded as other labels) seem to work fine in the drive. CMC make the Verbatim and possibly LG, SHINTARO, TDK and some DATACELL discs. This means in theory, any of these discs that happen to come from the CMC factory should work find. Anything else, and you'll get 2x burns.

Signatures

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