Combo-drive (tray) on iBook dead?

[sandman42]

Suddenly started having probs with the combo drive on my 600MHz iBook.

First noticed that sometimes when the computer would wake from sleep, it would be locked up. Forcing to shut down then restarting, it would give me the Finder/Question Mark "can't find startup folder" icon until I finally tried restarting with the CD tray open. Don't ask me what made me think to try that, but it works consistently.

Now it looks like I have to run my computer with the tray open. If I close it, with a CD in it or not, I get the spinning beach ball until I force the drive open (paperclip method), when the computer will eventually come back. If I try this with a CD in the tray, I don't hear the disk spin and there's no evidence of it in the Finder.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any guesses if it's a hardware or software problem?

Thanks!

 

[musicpyrite]

Try boot up from the hardware test cd/dvd you got. Run the test, and that should tell you if there is any hardware problem. If it is a hardware problem, the best I can think of is that you take it to a repair store, and see what they can do (unless it's still under warrantee, in which case, return it to Apple).

If it is not hardware related, try repairing permissions in Disk Utility located in Applications>Utilities. If repairing permissions doesn't work, then try wiping the hard drive, and do a fresh install.

fyi, you can open up the CD-ROM on you computer by holding down the right mouse button on startup.

 

[sandman42]

Unfortunately, I can't boot from a CD. If I try, I don't get past the blank gray screen. It would seem that no approach that involves using the combo drive is going to work for me. So far, the only way I can get the computer to work is to keep the drive tray open. If I close it, the trouble starts. I'm repairing permissions now, but I'm not hopeful.

 

[musicpyrite]

Do you have an external CD drive? You could try booting off that, but I don't know if OS X will allow you to boot off an external CD drive.

 

[question fear]

Do you have an external CD drive? You could try booting off that, but I don't know if OS X will allow you to boot off an external CD drive.

i believe a firewire external is ok.

 

[sandman42]

Unfortunately, I don't have any external drives. I could get access to one, or I can connect my computer to a friend's PowerMac.

Booting up's not my problem, though. I can boot my computer from the hard drive if I leave the CD tray open. Do I need to boot from a diagnostic disk to use it?

 

[musicpyrite]

Well the reason I want's you to boot up from an external CD drive is so that you could reinstall the operating system and/or run the hardware test CD. After-all, this could be a software problem. But if the problem is still there after you reinstall the OS, the you know it is a hardware problem.


Although you could try and take the iBook apart, and disconnect the entire CD drive from the rest of the computer, but I don't recommend that unless you are good at working with computer parts, and taking them apart.

 

[vraxtus]

Well the reason I want's you to boot up from an external CD drive is so that you could reinstall the operating system and/or run the hardware test CD. After-all, this could be a software problem. But if the problem is still there after you reinstall the OS, the you know it is a hardware problem.


Although you could try and take the iBook apart, and disconnect the entire CD drive from the rest of the computer, but I don't recommend that unless you are good at working with computer parts, and taking them apart.

...

Please stop telling him to use the Hardware Test...

Time and time again this has proven to prove nothing at all, in fact.

When I had kernel panics at startup, I ran the HW test and it came up with nothing... turns out I had a faulty mobo.

It sounds most likely that his drive is in fact dead. This does fall in line with the "lag" he experiences after it wakes from sleep, as the comp does always check the CD drive upon waking from sleep.

I'd take it your nearest Apple store... or cough up a few bucks and call Apple, and see what they say. I'm 100% sure they'll tell you to run the HW test too, but at this point I'd say there's virtually no point in doing that, as I think we've pretty much got it affirmed that it is the CD drive... repairing permissions won't do anything either.

 

[musicpyrite]

...

Please stop telling him to use the Hardware Test...

Time and time again this has proven to prove nothing at all, in fact.

When I had kernel panics at startup, I ran the HW test and it came up with nothing... turns out I had a faulty mobo.

Better he run the test, than not run the test at all.
Seems to me that some people here are quick to say 'oh well, f*** it, just return it to Apple and let them figure it out'.

But I still think you should run the hard ware test and/or reinstall the OS.


And how did my post about taking apart the iBook get edited?