MacNN reader Ryan Mulligan notes problems with some iBook burning mechanisms, which do not burn at the rated speed of 16x. The issue has been confirmed by various tech support representatives (and is ), but Apple has yet to formally acknowledge the problem or address the issue in either of the recent system updates (Mac OS X 10.2.3/Mac OS X 10.2.4 or via firmware patch). The problem was first noted almost four months ago (in November 2002).

[Michael Del Rossi] "I have a new 800MHz 12" iBook CDR, which wont burn at maximum speed. Some of the Philips 40x cds only burn at 4x not the rated 16x. However on an external fw cd burner the exact same piece of media will burn at 16X. though some of the disks do burn at 16x. its intermitent."

[Ryan Mulligan] "Apple is ignoring the issue of the combo drive only burning at 4x instead of 16x, and refuse to acknowledge that these machines have a defect. Please help a switcher who is starting to rethink that decision. See [Web page] for more information."

[Julian Einwag] "I can confirm that the trick to make it burn at full speed is to start burning immediately after inserting a blank disc. If you wait until the drive has spun down again, it will only record at 4x speed, although the console says something different. You can check the real recording speed by using the Unix-tool cdrecord. By the way, the problem exists under Linux, too!"

[Tim Haigh] "I have 12" 800 ibook with the Toshiba combo.. Toast always gives 16x as an option but when you time the burn it is only burning at 4x. Having spoken to AppleCare UK this afternoon I was advised to wait for a software/firmware update."

by MacNN Staff