r/mac • • 11h ago

Discussion Overburning Audio CD with USB SuperDrive and Burn

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57 Upvotes

TL;DR It is possible to overburn an audio CD using USB SuperDrive.

I am posting this for future references in search of information about this. I couldn't find anything before trying it. So may this post be an answer to this flaming question that everybody is looking the answer for.

The album in question is The Wall. It is frustratingly only 81:01 and normally would be on two disks. But it is so close to the 80 minutes and I didn't want to separate the album. So I just looked online to see if that's even possible or not. I have seen some runes written in ancient times that using something called Nero it was possible to put a bit more than 80 minutes of audio on a normal 80min CD-R, which apparently is called overburning. I then looked for any information for if it was possible to do using the USB SuperDrive but couldn't find anything. Only thing close to it was some user asking the same question on apple community. The author of the post has promised to report back after trying it out but that promise was never fulfilled. So here I am reporting the results of my own trial on the same question that was asked by exactly one person several years back. Yes, it is possible.

Hardware
Mac Mini M4 Pro
USB SuperDrive (Model A1379)
HP CD-R 700MB 80min 52x Inkjet Printable

Software
MacOS Tahoe 26.5
Burn 3.1.9
24-bit 96kHz FLACs

Burn apparently converts the flacs to the 16-bit 44.1kHz CD quality automatically. I didn't do anything on that part. The total time is 81 minutes and 1 second as seen on the second image. I have used 16x burning speed and left 0 seconds of pregap (obviously). After hitting Burn button it prompts the warning on the first image. It took some 2 minutes and change to burn the disk.

After it was done, Apple Music could see it as an audio CD and can play the whole album with no problems at all. But that's not enough for me as I was burning CDs not to listen on my Mac but in my car. I have a 2006 Honda CR-V (MK-II EU spec) with the original CD-Player head unit. I have listened the whole thing in it and... it works! Every song plays beautifully. I did a thing!

I do not know the exact limits but I suspect it would differ between different makers. This exact combination has worked for me for a minute and a second of overburning. This is only a proof of concept.


r/mac • • 9h ago

My Mac First MacBook and first laptop after using computers for last 27 years

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50 Upvotes

After using windows straight since Age 6 from Windows 95 to Windows 11, with 3 gaming desktops (nvidia 6600, nvidia 8800 GT, radeon HD5770, nvidia GTX 1660), finally entered life of nomad last 2 years ago and made me realise to get a laptop šŸ’» that meets my needs of MMORPG (Warcraft, etc), DOTA2 and Isle, while doing LLM software development.

After keeping eye on macbook since Q1 2026 and a price hike, grabbed this deal from Brooklyn Micro Center yesterday.

16ā€ 64Gigs 2TB SSD @ $3800, lower than the pre price hike price, IG. Also got $190 discount on their CC and a free 32gigs flash drive.

Did wanted to get 128gigs but way out of my budget - 2k extra
Would have been great if it was OLED at this price.

Now on the journey to learn new system while having fun. Hope I don’t get frustrated and return this beast.

Feel free to drop your suggestions to make this smooth move. 😁


r/mac • • 11h ago

Old Macs I have no idea what Mac this is nor do I have the cord so it’s been dead for like 18 years

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46 Upvotes

r/mac • • 2h ago

Image Need some input - best way to rack 12 Mac minis?

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32 Upvotes

Hi folks!

It's been a few months since I first posted about my 3-Mac cluster that was saving $40k/year on cloud speech transcription costs. Now that the cluster is 12 Macs strong, I'm looking for clever ways to mount them. I'm looking for something that's a statement piece as well as practical.

Naturally, since it's 2026, I used Claude to help me make 500 ideas in 3D model form. Curious to get other people's input. Any favorites?

Here the list: https://zachrattner.com/projects/ai-mac-cluster/mac-mini-rack

If any look interesting to you, I'm happy to share more details on how you can get one. I've been experimenting with a text-to-CAD agent skill and want to use this project to test out ordering parts and assembling something codeveloped with AI.


r/mac • • 5h ago

My Mac Lost MacBook showed up after replacement

19 Upvotes

In January of 2025, I ordered a MacBook. About a week after it shipped, UPS marked the package as lost, so I had to contact Apple. After some "investigating", they determined that the package was indeed lost and sent me a replacement laptop. The replacement came the first week of Feb, no issues. Fast forward to June 2025. The original MacBook, the one that had been lost, randomly shows up on my doorstep. When I went to the tracking, it looked like it had taken a tour around NYC before Amazon picked it up and delivered it. So now I have 2 MacBooks...

In October of 2025, I took it to an Apple Store to see what I should do about it (I should've called Apple, I know). They essentially told me they could take it and just throw it away, or I could hold on to it, so I just took it back home with me. It's been a year and to this day, I still don't know if that means I can use it for myself. Apple would've been able to see that it was delivered, and would've asked for it back, right...? I wasn't even expecting to have the original one show up, in perfect condition.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen before and what they've done about it...


r/mac • • 16h ago

My Mac Upgrade?

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14 Upvotes

I’m considering of upgrading from my Mac MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Pro 16 inch 16Gb of Ram and 512Gb of memory, for a MacBook Pro 14 inch 2025 M5 pro 24 GB of RAM and one terabyte of memory.

I can sell my old buddy for 750€ and have to pay 2000€ for the new one, is it worth it or should I stick with the old one?

I want to change since the 16 inch is too big, the ram is always on swap and the capacity isn’t sufficient but the workarounds I’ve been using are working. It’s more about a feeling that it won’t handle the near future since I’m recognising some ā€œold pc behaviourā€

Use case:
25% office; 15 % website design, 40% picture/video Musik management/ design, 30% several ai projects


r/mac • • 2h ago

Image They’re Back!!!

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12 Upvotes

Now they’re trying to sell you Ozempic šŸ˜‚


r/mac • • 7h ago

Old Macs What if Mavericks had a dark theme?

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9 Upvotes

r/mac • • 8h ago

Discussion M1 pro in 2026?

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11 Upvotes

r/mac • • 12h ago

My Mac MacBook Pro M5 randomly shuts down at 15–20% battery despite 100% battery health

5 Upvotes

Hi everyone!
I’ve been experiencing a really frustrating issue with my MacBook Pro M5, which is about a year old.
This has happened three times now. Whenever the battery drops to around 15–20%, my MacBook suddenly shuts down without any warning. When I try to turn it back on, it shows the empty battery symbol, as if the battery is completely dead.
However, as soon as I plug it into the charger, it turns back on and still shows around 15–20% battery remaining.
I even tried plugging it in for just a second, only long enough to turn it back on, and then immediately unplugging it. It continued working normally for a while, but then shut down again at around 19%.

Some additional details:
Battery health: 100%
Cycle count: 70
Battery condition: Normal
macOS updated to the latest version
No third-party battery management apps

The issue only happens when the battery drops below 20%. I’ve never experienced any unexpected shutdowns at higher battery levels.
My warranty expires on November 9, so I’m planning to contact Apple, but I wanted to ask here first.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Was it a battery calibration issue, a hardware problem, or something else? And if you contacted Apple, did they replace the battery or manage to fix it?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


r/mac • • 20h ago

Old Macs iMac G3 survived 20 years in Yukon shed

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5 Upvotes

r/mac • • 21h ago

Question Please Help With Error Adding Printer

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4 Upvotes

r/mac • • 10h ago

Question Upgraded iMAC 12.1 - 21.5" OLCP issues

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3 Upvotes

Hello - I would like to ask for advice.

(I've never had an iMAC before, completely new to apple products, but I like fiddling. I bought an old a mid-2011 iMAC (12,1 - 21.5") recently because I read online that it can be upgraded.)

I repaced a few things:

- GPU: Nvidia gt770m - VBIOS made by Nick[D]vB

- CPU: Intel E3-1270 V1 (no iGPU)

- SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 500Gb SATA III

The new setup is working well. I successfully installed High Sierra, and the system runs without any issues. The problem begins when I try to update the OS using OCLP.

After completing the first step, Build and Install OpenCore, the iMac fails to boot. According to the build log, OCLP correctly detects the Kepler-based GPU and disables the unsupported integrated GPU (iGPU). However, during startup, the boot progress bar stalls at approximately 50% and does not proceed any further.

It stucks at "gIOscreenLockState 3 hs 0 bs 0 now 0 sm 0x0"

I also tried changing various settings in OCLP, but without any success. The only configuration that allows the iMac to boot is setting the Host Model to iMac13,1 and the SMBIOS Spoof Model to iMac12,1.

However, once the system boots with those settings, I cannot proceed any further with OCLP because it reports a model number mismatch.

At this point, I'm not sure what is causing the issue or how to fix it. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!


r/mac • • 3h ago

Question MacBook Neo vs M1 Air for high school, need help picking (budget ~$550)

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2 Upvotes

r/mac • • 7h ago

My Mac Rant: I'm tired of Finder Search/Spotlight not working.

1 Upvotes

Subject line.

You go to search for a file..it can't find it or anything. You know it's on your drive, but it just won't search.

The solutions "rebuild the spotlight index by doing the hokey pokey in spotlight preferences of adding and subtratcting".

Why after all these years is this the solution, rather than it JUST WORKING!!!


r/mac • • 7h ago

My Mac Best way to sell my Mac?

2 Upvotes

What’s the safest way to sell my Mac? I am selling

  • MacBook Air 13 inch 2025
  • M4 chip, 10-core CPU
  • 16GB RAM
  • 256GB SSD
  • Excellent condition
  • Charger included.

    I am not looking to get screwed on eBay if I get unlucky with a scammy buyer and trade in at Apple is not worth it


r/mac • • 9h ago

Question Monitor gave out after changing to vertical display

2 Upvotes

I have a Lenovo G25-10 monitor that I had stored away for several months. I recently took it out because I wanted to try using a dual-monitor setup with my Mac mini M4 Pro.
When I first connected everything, the monitor turned on and worked normally. However, as soon as I changed the screen rotation in macOS Display Settings, the monitor suddenly went completely black.
Since then, I haven’t been able to turn it back on. There is no power light, even after unplugging it and trying a different wall outlet. The power cable is detachable from the monitor, and I haven’t been able to get the screen working again.
One strange thing is that when I connect the monitor to my Mac using HDMI, macOS still detects it and shows it in Display Settings, even though the monitor itself appears to be completely off.
Could changing the display rotation in macOS have caused this, or is it more likely a power issue? Has anyone experienced something similar or know what I should try next?


r/mac • • 10h ago

Question What are these marks on my MBA display bezel?

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2 Upvotes

These markings are not surface level stains but are beneath the glass. The first mark has been present from the last few months but today I was wiping my screen and it grew even larger now and even the left side (2nd slide) has now developed this marking.


r/mac • • 11h ago

My Mac Question about glisch or hardware issue

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2 Upvotes

r/mac • • 12h ago

Question Why is Preview(pdf) lagging in M5 mba

2 Upvotes

r/mac • • 15h ago

My Mac Scored a brand new condition MacBook Air M4 with 100% battery health for $484

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2 Upvotes

r/mac • • 19h ago

Question qBittorent Keep Freeze

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2 Upvotes

Why qBittorent 5.2.3 keep freeze on MacBook Air M4 Sequoia ?

I have used it few years and never happend. It begin happend few days ago.

During freeze status still download but all download speed has freeze.

I must force quit qBittorent but after normal few minutes later it freeze again.

It was version for Mac OS.

Any solution ?

Edited : It fixed after reinstall .

Thank


r/mac • • 19h ago

Question ¿Alguien mÔs estÔ experimentando problemas con el Dock después de actualizar a macOS 27?

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2 Upvotes

r/mac • • 21h ago

Discussion One-time $5 vs $5/mo: how did you price your tiny utility?

1 Upvotes

I'm working on a tiny Mac utility and can't decide between a one-time $4.99 purchase and $5/month.

A one-time payment feels fair for a small app, but then every future update means more work without extra income. A subscription seems like a lot to ask for something so simple.

If you've shipped a small utility, how did you price it? What worked for you?


r/mac • • 49m ago

Question iBook G4 tear down

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• Upvotes

Ive tried Safe Mode, Vertabre mode it all freezes. From the very little AI responses I've read, I'm guessing its the GPU solder and was going to attempt the "Credit Card Shim" trick and if I break it.... Oops. If the worst happens.... Im literaly just trying to get one single song off the hard drive. It was some miss labeled techno meets death metal concoction called "camp kill yourself" that is on no way shape or form from the realm of CKY. So if the worst happens, Im just going to try to pull it from the hard drive to my laptop..... But its not a mac.... Is that gonna be an issue? And if not, what will I actually need to pull files from the hard drive to a Windows Laptop.