Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

G4 Cube optical drive fix or replacement?

JCLrox

JCLrox

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 11, 2012
101
0
I put a disk in my G4 Cube's optical drive the other day, and it didn't show up on the desktop or eject. I tried pressing the mouse button as the computer booted, and I even took the drive out of the computer to see if I could fix anything (that didn't get me anywhere). Is there any way to force eject the disk that i haven't tried? Perhaps a third party program that force ejects disks? If not, does anyone have a link to a replacement drive compatible with the Cube (I believe it has to be an IDE optical drive)? Thanks!
 
Idk if this works but when this happened with my macbook, I just held down the left mouse button when booting and it ejected everything...
 
I did try that, but thanks for the suggestion! Any other ideas?
 
JCLrox said:
I put a disk in my G4 Cube's optical drive the other day, and it didn't show up on the desktop or eject. I tried pressing the mouse button as the computer booted, and I even took the drive out of the computer to see if I could fix anything (that didn't get me anywhere). Is there any way to force eject the disk that i haven't tried? Perhaps a third party program that force ejects disks? If not, does anyone have a link to a replacement drive compatible with the Cube (I believe it has to be an IDE optical drive)? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi!

your best bet will be to visit www.cubeowner.com, it's dedicated entirely to the Cube... I have replaced my optical drive by a slimline superdrive from a powerbook, but you will need adapting brackets to do so... there is a forum member (Parism) who builds and sells these brackets, you could drop him a message and he will let you know the details...
 
Make sure the drive is getting power. When you insert the disc, do it pull or did you push it in manually?

I believe the iMac G3 drives are compatible.
 
Sadly the Cubes optical drive is slowly dying, even for me. I actually need to help mine eject and insert the CD, and even then it only shows up 50% of the time.

The best solution is to replace it.
 
jpcoelho: I looked at the website you suggested, and I found a thread that says how to open up the drive. This way I'll be able to get out the disk, and maybe I'll even be able to fix the problem. I'm thinking maybe it's dusty in the drive. MisterKeeks: I am sure the drive is getting power, because I hear it making noises. It pulled the disk in itself, I didn't have to push it in. I actually did try one of the drives from an old G3 iMac I had lying around, but it didn't have the same connector. AlbertEinstein: You're probably right that replacing is the best solution, do you know where I can get one?

Thanks for all your help! Unfortunately, I will be out of town for the next few days so I will not be able to troubleshoot the Cube, but I can still reply to posts.
 
JCLrox said:
jpcoelho: I looked at the website you suggested, and I found a thread that says how to open up the drive. This way I'll be able to get out the disk, and maybe I'll even be able to fix the problem. I'm thinking maybe it's dusty in the drive. MisterKeeks: I am sure the drive is getting power, because I hear it making noises. It pulled the disk in itself, I didn't have to push it in. I actually did try one of the drives from an old G3 iMac I had lying around, but it didn't have the same connector. AlbertEinstein: You're probably right that replacing is the best solution, do you know where I can get one?

Thanks for all your help! Unfortunately, I will be out of town for the next few days so I will not be able to troubleshoot the Cube, but I can still reply to posts.
Click to expand...

Those old Cube cd drives were horrible, circa 1999 technology. If you can find a slot load iMac G3 with a working CDRom CD/CDrw or the coveted CD/DVD rom version, that might be cost effective. Those drives simply were bad. The bracket thing with a new drive is a good idea if you can afford cost and time spent.
 
Cube drives are an odd thing. They are standard ATAPI drives, but the connector is going 180 degrees away from the standard orientation. G3 iMacs have the same optical drive. Apple never made a Superdrive with the backwards ATAPI connector, best is a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive. Finding a one of these backwards DVD-ROM drives is very difficult. Only Cube and one or two models of the G3 iMac had one. You can get a different internal ATAPI-EIDE board for your Cube that will enable to take modern ATAPI optical drives.
 
I did salvage an optical drive from a dead iMac G3, but it would not plug Ito the cube. Intell, the option you mentioned seems worthwhile, but I will have to assess the price. I've also been considering an external optical drive or maybe just using the CD/DVD sharing function built into OS X. Thanks!
 
Cube optical drives are G3 iMac drives are the exact same, so long as the iMac is a slot loading drive. You need to remove the Cube's ATAPI-ATA board and put it on the iMac's optical drive. If you want to use a modern optical drive in a Cube, you'll have to find the correct adapter. I'm not sure if the Cube compatible ones are made anymore.
 
That makes sense. When I get home on Thursday, I will try it. If it doesn't work, I will make another post. Thanks!
 
DVD drive

If you went to cube owner web site go back. There is a guy there who makes. Slide in kit for newer laptop drives ( I got mine out of a G5 iMac ) and got a laptop IDE adapter and a mini solex power adapter and removed pin from adapter to make it bootable per the website. Now I have a brand new, perfectly aligned unit. And if it goes bad I get another apple laptop drive and I am golden. I haven't tested burning yet as I have a lot of options there but profiler shows correct drive and burn supported.
 
I put in the optical drive drive from the iMac G3 today, and the Cube didn't boot. I put in the old one again, and it booted. At this point, I think the simplest option would be to use an external drive. You guys have all given great suggestions, but I think external drive would probably be best for me. Can anyone recommend an external drive that will work with the Cube?
 
JCLrox said:
I put in the optical drive drive from the iMac G3 today, and the Cube didn't boot. I put in the old one again, and it booted. At this point, I think the simplest option would be to use an external drive. You guys have all given great suggestions, but I think external drive would probably be best for me. Can anyone recommend an external drive that will work with the Cube?
Click to expand...

A Firewire drive.
 
Make sure the iMac drive is set to the correct master/slave position. There's a little switch on the back of the drive. Also make sure you're using the Cube's optical adapter and not the iMac's optical adapter.
 
I found the switch and it was set to slave, so I set it to master. I wasn't sure if this was what I was supposed to do, but I gave it a try. When I turned on the Cube, it booted from the Panther install disk that I put in the drive earlier today. The installation of OS X I had on the drive was pretty old, so I erased the hard drive and installed. However, I'm worried I won't even be able to boot into panther once it's installed because the optical drive is set to master. And if it's set to slave, I'm worried I'll get the same problem as earlier where the computer won't boot at all. Suggestions?
 
JCLrox said:
I found the switch and it was set to slave, so I set it to master. I wasn't sure if this was what I was supposed to do, but I gave it a try. When I turned on the Cube, it booted from the Panther install disk that I put in the drive earlier today. The installation of OS X I had on the drive was pretty old, so I erased the hard drive and installed. However, I'm worried I won't even be able to boot into panther once it's installed because the optical drive is set to master. And if it's set to slave, I'm worried I'll get the same problem as earlier where the computer won't boot at all. Suggestions?
Click to expand...

That is the proper setup for the Cube... congrats, you have a functioning optical drive again!
 
Yep, it works! Thanks for everyone's help, couldn't have done it without all of you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back