DVD-ROM problems on Pismo...

[blackfox]

Hello everyone, my stock DVD-ROM drive on my pismo has stopped working...I am pretty sure it has read its' last DVD but hope springs eternal...so I thought I'd post what happened and hope for some good advice and a miracle...roughly speaking this is what happened:
1. Watched a DVD from the local video store late-night
2. next afternoon ejected DVD, put in another...disk spun...nothing mounted
3. Restarted computer...disk spun...rather uncontrollably...hung up start up...had to manually eject
4.Many variations of #2 and #3
5.Even empty, disk drive spins when closed in a syncopated pattern...then continues when open!...
6. Seems to have tired of #5, but no other improvement
...If it is indeed dead, any advice on how to proceed...might it be repaired...can I find a replacement drive retail (or anywhere other than apple)...used/refurbished(other than Ebay)...I deeply love my Pismo, have invested a lot in it (G3 900 upgrade, 7200rpm drive, max ram...) so wish to have a working optical drive ASAP...thanks in advance for any advice

 

[utilizer]

Ah, welcome to the club!
Samsung manufactures the DVD-ROM drives in Pismos -- When OS X came out, the first firmware upgrades issued for these particular drives were corrupt and quite possibly wrong altogether. There is an extremely long thread on Apple's support forum about this nagging issue but we haven't gotten any remedies. I made my own in the meantime: An external Lacie Firewire 52x burner! No DVD but hey, what I can say?! The DVD works occasionally but when it gets too "hot", it'll stop working (freeze up frames).
If you haven't already upgraded to Panther, I HIGHLY suggest it; I'd wait though until the 10.3.3 update gets here within the next couple of weeks, as the most recent update slows most processes down! That's besides the point though; the DVD is much more functional and I've been able to watch my DVDs of "24" without running into a few problems as before.
At any rate good luck!

 

[blackfox]

ahhh...i suspected something like that...I will peruse the apple forums on this issue, but...it leaves me with this issue...pay about $90 for Panther (@ my college) and POSSIBLY solve the problem or buy a replacement drive (internal or otherwise) for a bit more...I currently run 10.2.8, what will 10.3 solve w/ regards to this problem? Have been patiently waiting for 3.3 to upgrade(as have alot of people). More suggestions/clarifications? thanx.

 

[utilizer]

This is only with my case on my Pismo and a few others that have responded positively to Panther on the Apple boards.
If you really want to be sure, I would highly suggest getting an external DVD Firewire burner. These things have fallen rapidly over the course of the last year in price, to the $200s from the $500 range.

I've watched the "Matchstick Men" DVD and my series of "24 season 2" DVDs just fine on the past couple of occassions with Panther. So, it may or may not fix your specific issues.

You're going to basically need another drive anyways to install Panther on your Pismo (crazy, isn't it?!).

 

[mymemory]

The CD-Rom on my Pismo is fine, I have an external superdrive too. In your case I would look for the internal superdrive for the Pismo, there is one out there already.