CD drive acting up

[MonkeyJones]

The drive on my iMac G5 ('05) will load a CD (pre-recorded or custom burned on this very drive in the past), whiz around a second or two then stop. No icon on desktop or in iTunes. Just doesn't recognize the disc at all. Eject works like a charm and out comes the disc. My non-computer savvy but music-loving husband is despondent. Any insight/advice is much appreciated. Being an "older" user raised by resourceful Depression-era parents, I'd much rather try to fix it than play Taps... however, it may just be the excuse I've been looking for for a trip to my local Apple store .

 

[Knoodles]

More than likely your 7 year old optical drive is toast. The good news is it's easy to fix.
Option 1. Replace the internal optical drive. Watch the video on this page to see if is something you can do.
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_g5_optical/
To purchase the internal drive look here.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Panasonic/MG5SL8XDL/

Option 2. Buy an external optical drive and just plug it in.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRF82SD22LS/

Both options cost the same<$100

 

[Sonhascome]

Ifixit will offer some good repair guides, and will probably have the part you need, and will tell you what tools you'll need.

 

[Makosuke]

Given the computer's age, it's probably just a failed disc drive, as said, and the solution is to either replace the drive or get an external--the companies and methods above are the way to go.

I'll add, in case you're wondering, that it's probably not just dirty, which would be the only "fixable" problem with an optical drive; if the lens were just dirty, the symptoms are almost always the drive making a lot of noise after a disc is inserted, then eventually spitting it out automatically. Since it's just sitting there waiting for you to hit the eject button, there's something else wrong with it.

 

[MonkeyJones]

Thanks much!

The OWC video was great; filmed really well and the instructions were very comprehensive - it's definitely doable... at a bargain price too. Thank you all for responding. It's nice to know there's such great resources like you folks out there! Thanks again!