G4 Cube and slot-loading G3 optical drives - Potential replacements

[alectrona6400]

So as some people know who have worked on G3 iMacs and cubes, the optical drives tend to go out very often. This could be related to a faulty laser, worn out belts, and in some cases, straight up not working. Here I'd like to discuss this topic of these DVD drives and maybe get some people to research potential replacements for these rare and failure-prone drives.

What I have seen is that the port used to connect the drive to the adapter board is turned 180 degrees, making it impossible to completely fit any other 50-pin laptop drive, let alone a newer slot loading drive. I have thought of getting help to potentially design or have someone design a new drive adapter board for the G3 iMacs and G4 cubes respectively, which can fit slot loading DVD drives from newer macs while fitting in to the case perfectly. However, it doesn't seem to be readily possible to mount one of these drives into a caddy either.

This is merely an idea, but it could potentially take off. My G4 cube is missing a drive entirely, whereas my G3 has a worn out belt and rollers. Obviously there are more practical solutions for this, like using an eMac or a PowerMac G4 instead of one of these... but it would be nice to preserve these computers and have them in fully working order.

 

[reddrag0n]

i posted in a different topic area here about caddies and such, but i will link here a 3D printed cd rom caddie that i was hunting for for years since prysm and the cubeowner.com forums went down

iMac G3 / Powerbook G4 / G4 Cube adapter for standard slimline optical drives

then from there you will be able to use any ide to slimline cd adapter and it should work

 

[alectrona6400]

i posted in a different topic area here about caddies and such, but i will link here a 3D printed cd rom caddie that i was hunting for for years since prysm and the cubeowner.com forums went down

iMac G3 / Powerbook G4 / G4 Cube adapter for standard slimline optical drives

then from there you will be able to use any ide to slimline cd adapter and it should work

That's news... so I wasn't the only one who thought of that. It seems like the cable is also just a normal IDE one with a few pins tacked onto the end for power. I'm definitely trying this with my G4 cube and maybe even my G3 slot loader someday.

 

[reddrag0n]

If you click the youtube link on the 3d file page, he shows you how to install one on a slotload imac, hes speaking german but the video shows all

 

[crimsonRE]

The ifixit.com page for the G4 Cube has a list of the various Apple SuperDrive models that will fit in a Cube - it's the answer for a question someone posted, possibly under the 'optical drive replacement' page...

 

[Wouter3]

I have replaced my Cube DVD drive with a slimline IDE drive using the ice to slimline DVD adapter. The slimline DVD drive fits in the original DVD housing after taking all the internals. Just put in some double sided tape.

However, the slimline DVD drive died on me so I bought a replacement drive: A TEAC DV-W28SL. This is not recognized by the OS. It takes a DVD, starts turning but nothing happens. You cannot eject the DVD either. Could this be caused by the lack of a driver for the TEAC drive. Has anyone experience in getting "newer: 2007) drives working in a Cube? When I connect an old iMac G4 drive to the IDE cable it works OK.

 

[Webster's Mac]

I simply replaced the belt and cleaned up the roller a bit on my G4 cube optical drive. It's worked perfectly for about a year now since I did that repair. You can get assorted CD changer belts on amazon. Then in the bag, find a belt that is slightly smaller than the belt currently in the Cube. That should do the trick

 

[Wouter3]

If that would be my problem, I would have indeed replaced the rubber belt. There is an instruction film on this forum I believe. However, I passed that station. My Cube DVD was no longer working, not because of an old belt, but burned electronics, so I took all its internals out and put in a slimline DVD. That worked for a while and then it no longer worked. I wanted to replace it with another drive from eBay, but it is not recognized by Mac OS Leopard on the Cube. I assume this is a driver issue, so wonder whether someone knows if there are drivers available for a TEAC DVD drive from 2007?