DVD burners and SuperDrives

[applegeek13]

I have a PowerMac G4 MDD, and it currently has a combo drive. I also happen to have a working DVD burner from a windows PC. They both use IDE connections, will the burner work in my Mac? Or should I spend the 40$ and buy a Superdrive from MacSales?

Thanks - applegeek13

 

[Dave H]

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso

 

[applegeek13]

Thank you.

 

[applegeek13]

Ok, I have another problem. The standard IDE optical drive I just put in makes a thumping noise whenever I try and get it open. I hit the "Eject" key, and it thumps instead of coming open. Any Ideas?

 

[Nameci]

Have you removed the plastic front panel of the drive tray? If you did not it will not get out of the optical drive slot.

 

[applegeek13]

The drive is installed correctly, with front bezel removed. In theory it should work, in practice, I hit the button, I get a thumping noise. Any ideas?

 

[occams razor]

have you tried the manual release with a paperclip?

 

[rtrt]

The drive is installed correctly, with front bezel removed. In theory it should work, in practice, I hit the button, I get a thumping noise. Any ideas?

i don't know the pm g4 but if that was a mac pro i'd be thinking about the door being jammed. not the drive door, i mean the pm g4 case door that the tray presumably slides thro. if that makes no sense on the g4 then apologies!

 

[occams razor]

remove the drive from the system and hook it up and see if it will open that way. if so its the case. if not manually eject the drive tray and see whats up. I got a drive that was from a house of smokers and the dust got on the plastic gears and seized them. tried to open the door and it snapped the drive gear. Ps2's has this problem as well! Good luck to ya

 

[applegeek13]

It's not the case cover door, but I'll pull it out and have a look. I'm thinking that it's just dead and I may buy a new one.

P.S. I can get it open with a paperclip, as long as it's not doing anything. If it's trying to open then it makes a whining noise.

 

[occams razor]

sounds like the drive gear for the tray is stripped at the drive shaft from the motor

 

[rtrt]

i'd open the drive up as a last resort to see if you can see what the problem is - might save you a few £/$s

 

[applegeek13]

I'll open it up and see if I can fix anything. Either way, I might need a new drive, so why not try fixing it first? I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks for the help!