Not picking up a CD on Macbook

[Headbanger]

Hi, I've been using CDRipper for many years on a MacBook, with few problems. I recently replaced my MacBook and re-licensed the DBPA suite. I'm using CDR Release 2025-04-17 (2) and macOS 15.6.1 (24G90), which I think is the latest. My CD drive is a Samsung Model SE-506, which I have been using OK for years.

Yesterday I bought 5 new CDs and successfully ripped 3 of them. The 4th (actually a double) just didn't appear in the CDR window (neither disc), Eventually, both ended up showing on my desktop at the same timer despite only having one drive! I gave up on them and loaded the 5th CD. This brought up the metadata and Album Art of CD4 (!) at which point I re-started my MacBook and successfully ripped the 5th disc without a problem. As before, neither disc of the 4th album is appearing correctly in CDR (nor on my desktop).

I'd be surprised if this was actually a problem with CDR but I suspect there's something about the CDs in this album, which is preventing my MacBook (hence CDR) from picking them up properly. Can anyone shed any light on what might be happening?

The Album in question is by Mercury Rev. It's a recent re-issue of their first album "Yerself Is Steam", the second disc being "Car Wash Hair". MINTCD104.

[Spoon]

Perhaps the USB drive does not have enough power, check what it is connected to and if needed try a powered USB hub.

[Headbanger]

Perhaps the USB drive does not have enough power, check what it is connected to and if needed try a powered USB hub.

Maybe, but it's never been a problem before and it wasn't a problem with the other 4 CDs. Is there a reason why a particular CD might require more power than others?

(I didn't mention that the CDs appear to play OK in the CD player in my audio system.)

[Headbanger]

OK, I tried a powered hub but it has made no difference.

I also tried to rip both CDs on my W10 PC, which has drives built in the case. It played both CDs OK and Media Player offered the rip option for both. (I don't have any DBPA apps on that PC.) When I clicked to rip them, it said it was unable to rip the first track of both CDs but continued to rip the second. I cancelled the rips before they completed.

It's looking suspiciously that there is some kind of copy protection on both CDs. Is that likely and is there anything I can do to overcome it?

Thanks,

[shayan]

Why the Discs Behave Strangely

1. Hybrid or malformed TOC – The reissue likely includes non-standard track layouts or hidden sessions. This confuses macOS, which may try to mount multiple “ghost” discs at once.
2. Metadata mismatches – Because CD Ripper identifies discs by their TOC, an ambiguous layout can trigger the wrong album info (e.g., Disc 4 metadata showing for Disc 5).
3. Drive/OS handling – Your Samsung SE-506 drive is reliable, but macOS optical drivers are strict. A malformed TOC may work fine in Windows but fail in macOS.

What You Can Try

1. Test the discs in another drive or a Windows PC with dBpoweramp.
2. Use XLD on macOS to see if it reads the audio session more reliably.
3. Use diskutil to unmount Finder’s data session so DBPA can lock onto the audio session.
4. Check for any drive firmware updates (rare for SE-506 but worth verifying).

Recommendation: For your discs, confirm by testing in XLD or on a Windows machine to isolate the TOC issue.
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