Cube DVD Drive

[bunnspecial]

I have a cube with a dead DVD drive.

I can put a disk in and it will feed it in, but(seemingly) will not spin the disk and will instead eject it back out(albeit sluggishly). Occasionally, the disk will remain in the drive and not eject until I hit the eject key, but it never mounts on the desktop.

I've tried CD-ROMs, audio CDs, and DVDs, all in both burned and pressed form. I've also tried a cleaning disk.

The drive DOES show up in system profiler, so I suspect that there's some life in it.

I know that pretty much the only drive directly interchangeable in these is the iMac drive, but all the working pulls I seem to find are CD-ROM drives. I'd really like to keep the DVD in this. Apparently the MCE Superdrive is still available, but I'm also not inclined to drop $100 on one.

As I tend to be a pretty heavy user of target disk mode at least with PPC Macs, I really want to use the correct Cube drive so that I don't lose TDM on my hard drive.

From what I've described, is there any chance of this drive being able to be rebuilt?

 

[Intell]

To give a better answer, you'd need to put a disc in and watch what the drive does when working. Does the spindle motor spin, but not clamp the disc?

 

[bunnspecial]

I tried operating it out of the computer last night via a USB bridge, but couldn't tell a whole lot. As best as I could tell, it was not clamping the disk, although I'm also not sure if the spindle motor was running.

 

[Intell]

If the spindle motor spins, you should try rebuilding it. For it to clamp the disc, the disc must go in all the way and trigger the gears to move over and engage the clamp part of the drive.

 

[thewap]

found this dvd drive apparently works with the cube and the imac g3 - at we love macs-

http://www.welovemacs.com/6612342.html

 

[bunnspecial]

found this dvd drive apparently works with the cube and the imac g3 - at we love macs-

http://www.welovemacs.com/6612342.html

Thanks-the seller refunded me just about that much for the dead drive(since it was advertised as working) so I may just buy that.

Then, I'll have a drive that's working for sure. If I can rebuilt the one in it, I can then change out the CD-ROM drive in my other Cube for a DVD.

 

[redhatcode29]

Thanks-the seller refunded me just about that much for the dead drive(since it was advertised as working) so I may just buy that.

Then, I'll have a drive that's working for sure. If I can rebuilt the one in it, I can then change out the CD-ROM drive in my other Cube for a DVD.

Decent seller...good for u. I once had a seller replace the superdrive since it stopped functioning soon after i bought his Pwr Mac G5..

Anyways u are a step ahead of me in restoring your Cube, my restoration of my Cube is frozen for the time being ! Work/studies

 

[comda]

Thanks-the seller refunded me just about that much for the dead drive(since it was advertised as working) so I may just buy that.

Then, I'll have a drive that's working for sure. If I can rebuilt the one in it, I can then change out the CD-ROM drive in my other Cube for a DVD.

Seeing this makes me beleive there is some good left in this world. After seeing all these people abuse the name apple and selling people PowerPC macs for WAY too much and claiming they are new macs. The amount of people that get screwed is sad. But to see some are still honest and he refunded the cost of a non working drive says there is hope.

 

[bunnspecial]

The drive from We Love Macs arrived today.

I got it installed, and it works perfectly.

I can now play with rebuilding the old one, but if I don't get anywhere, no big deal.

My other Cube has a CD-RW, so I think I'm going to leave it as-is.

 

[havokalien]

at cube owner

I got the parts at cube owner and such to put in a iMac G5 dvd burner and it aligns correctly. With ice adapter and power cord any Apple branded (for ease) works well in there. At cube owner I got in touch with a guy years ago who had the spacers to slide the drive right in. I added a fan just because and been super happy since.