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Wano

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2002
487
0
Hey,
I just recieved my Pioneer DVR-108 dvd burner and I installed it in my MDD G4 in the bottom slot. My computer has recognized it, however I can't open/eject either drives.
Anyone know what to do?
Thanks!
 

Finiksa

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2003
595
13
Australia
Wano said:
Anyone know what to do?
Just a wild stab in the dark, but did you make sure the jumpers on the 108 were set to "Slave"? or set the jumpers on both optical drives to "Cable Select"?
 

SilentPanda

Moderator emeritus
Oct 8, 2002
9,992
31
The Bamboo Forest
On the back of the drive is where the jumpers are at... you'll need to look on the drive (should be a sticker somewhere) to set the jumpers or it will be in the manual. Usually...
 

Wano

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2002
487
0
Ok, so I got it to eject! However, I found this on dealmac.com and 1. it is not mac supported, 2. it's too wide to eject through the mdd slots. so, back to newegg it goes. thanks for the help though!
 

paxtonandrew

macrumors 6502
May 10, 2004
323
0
I Come From A Land Down Under
What a bugger it is too wide for the MDD slots. The Mac compatibility issue is not to be taken literally. I have a Sony, Windows Xp :eek: only DVD burner in my Quicksilver, and it works perfectly. There is no issue with compatibility, it is all just hype. You got it to open in your MDD right? It works with Macintosh!
 

varmit

macrumors 68000
Aug 5, 2003
1,830
0
paxtonandrew said:
What a bugger it is too wide for the MDD slots. The Mac compatibility issue is not to be taken literally. I have a Sony, Windows Xp :eek: only DVD burner in my Quicksilver, and it works perfectly. There is no issue with compatibility, it is all just hype. You got it to open in your MDD right? It works with Macintosh!

He got it to open, but it has the front part that PCs have. The mac doesn't have that front part to tray. So that was banging on stuff. You could remove it probably, but I would just return it for a different drive that is fully mac, and doesn't have the front part to the drive tray.
 

osprey76

macrumors 6502
May 3, 2004
300
0
Oklahoma City, OK
I think I recall a note about that on http://xlr8yourmac.com. For any optical drive in the MDD Macs you have to remove the dust bezel off the front of the drive. All Pioneer drives would ship with this on, whether you buy it from a Mac vendor or a more general one.

Edit: Look on page 8 here. You can see the front cover isn't on the tray. I have never removed one, but it should be fairly simple.

Also, isn't it option+Eject to open the second drive slot on a MDD? Of course, your jumpers would need to be set correctly. Both of the drives you have probably shipped as Master.
 

Wano

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2002
487
0
Thanks guys! I think I will be sending it back and getting a external one instead.
 

blodwyn

macrumors 65816
Jul 28, 2004
1,147
1
Portland, Oregon
Wano said:
Thanks guys! I think I will be sending it back and getting a external one instead.

Why not just buy an external firewire enclosure and put the burner in it. I bought the same burner and put it in an enclosure - works fine.
 

Finiksa

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2003
595
13
Australia
Wano said:
Thanks guys! I think I will be sending it back and getting a external one instead.
Don't send it back, osprey76 is right you just need to remove the dust bezel from the drive. All modern Apple systems with tray load drives (eMac, iMac G4, Power Mac) don't use them, it's very simple to unclip from the drive tray. Look at the factory installed drive in your MDD it won't have one.
 

caveman_uk

Guest
Feb 17, 2003
2,390
1
Hitchin, Herts, UK
Wano said:
Ok, so I got it to eject! However, I found this on dealmac.com and 1. it is not mac supported, 2. it's too wide to eject through the mdd slots. so, back to newegg it goes. thanks for the help though!
1. Very few CD-burners/DVD burners are supported by the Apple drivers. If you use the Pioneers they usually are as Apple used them themselves. You can however get most drives to work using Patchburn (google for it). It's free. Apparently PAtchburn 3 also gets the drives to work with iDVD. If you get an external drive IT WILL NOT WORK WITH iDVD.
2. Take off the door bezel. It's only clipped on. All drives shipped by Apple have this removed. All 3rd party drives expect to be fitted in PCs so will ship with the bezel in place. If you exchange this drive for another it to will have this bezel in place.

AFAIK the best DVD burner supported by Apple is the Pioneer DVR-107. This is an 8x drive but doesn't have dual layer support. You can also get Mac firmware flashers for this drive.
 

freiheit

macrumors 6502a
Jul 20, 2004
643
90
California
Drive front bezel or only drive tray bezel?

I just bought a Pioneer 108 for my MDD G4 as well. To say it's not Mac supported is way off -- it is Mac supported. Roxio Toast 6 Titanium (MacOS equivalent of the Windows Easy CD/DVD Creator) supports the 108, including DL burning support for 8.5GB disks! It also supports both the +R and -R formats on this drive. The drive is just not iLife supported.

I personally plan to keep my 105 (official Apple 4X SuperDrive) in the system for iLife and use the 108 with Toast for my data backups, system backups, etc.

So here I sit about ready to put my 108 into my PowerMac, and I'm wondering if I also need to remove the bezel on the front of the drive or just the one on the front of the drive tray. From what I can tell when I open up my Mac, the official SuperDrive doesn't have either one, but it's awfully difficult to push in all 4 clips to remove the drive front.
 

Rod Rod

macrumors 68020
Sep 21, 2003
2,180
6
Las Vegas, NV
freiheit, you don't need to remove all of the front plastics of the drive. the only part you need to remove is that piece of plastic that's attached on the front of the tray.

I installed a Pioneer 105 in an eMac and a Pioneer 106 in a MDD Power Mac G4. I didn't need to remove the front piece for the eMac.

for the MDD, removing the front piece on the tray was EASY... it just slid perfectly in one direction (either up or down, I don't remember, but it'll be easy to figure out if you look at it closely). there wasn't any resistance from clips. there's some initial friction but you won't feel like you're about to break the plastic.

Wano, I'll bet you a firewire cable that 10.3.6 (if and when it comes) will add support for the Pioneer 108.

just wait it out a little bit, and get by with Toast 6.0.7. as for iDVD, burn to disk image, and burn to DVD-R in Toast. there are threads in here about the iDVD easter egg.

at the moment I can burn to my self-installed external firewire Pioneer 107 from iDVD.
 

Wano

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2002
487
0
Ok. So, I am not quiet sure how this works. But, I installed the drive and it showed up under 'about this mac' but it says that it's not supported. I inserted a blank dvd and then i got a message saying that the drive is not supported. So.........you guys think it will still work like you guys have mentioned?
 

Rod Rod

macrumors 68020
Sep 21, 2003
2,180
6
Las Vegas, NV
yes sir, just get Toast or Dragon Burn for your disc burning needs. Finder burning is nice, but Toast is a very full-featured program that might as well be bundled with every Mac.
 

Wano

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2002
487
0
Good news!!!! I installed it, in the place of the combo drive. I was able to remove the dust thing and it now fits through. I downloaded Patchburn 3 and it works perfect!!!!!!

Just one more question. How do i install it along with my combo drive? I don't understand the jumper settings.
 

Finiksa

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2003
595
13
Australia
Wano said:
Just one more question. How do i install it along with my combo drive? I don't understand the jumper settings.
Look at the label on the drives it should have a picture showing the jumpers pins and have them labeled, it's usually two rows of three pins (though there maybe a couple of pins that do nothing). Your options will be Master, Slave and Cable Select, then all you have to do is place the plastic jumper cap so that it connects the two corresponding pins. So for Master place the jumper cap across the two pins indicated in red on the attached picture.

The drive in the top bay, attached to the end of the ribbon cable, should be set to Master. The drive in the bottom bay which is attached to the middle of the ribbon cable should be set to Slave. You could also set both to Cable Select and they'll sort out which is Slave and Master themselves, this sometimes doesn't work for all computers though.

Lastly it's probably a good idea to put the DVD burner in the top bay (Master) since it get bandwidth priority over the Slave device.
 

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caveman_uk

Guest
Feb 17, 2003
2,390
1
Hitchin, Herts, UK
freiheit said:
I just bought a Pioneer 108 for my MDD G4 as well. To say it's not Mac supported is way off -- it is Mac supported.
That's rather different. Toast uses it's own drivers and many drives that Apple does not support will work with toast. If you want to use your drive with finder and the iLife suite then either get a drive Apple supports (the most full featured being the Pioneer DVD-107 which is used in the PM G5 and the emac) OR use Patchburn which, as Wano has found out, will make nearly any drive work.
 

DVDwannabe

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2003
28
0
Indiana
Pioneer DVR-108 Firmware for Mac

So I was looking for the newest firmware for my 108 drive. Windows has 1.14, but I am stuck with 1.01 or something like that. Its at home and i can't remember, but anywho, can anyone point me in the right direction to a site that I can download the newest firmware for the mac?

Dvdwannabe
 
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