iMac CD-RW drive

[rbertelsen]

Greetings from a first timer,
I have a 1.5 year old iMac 600mHz with a slot type CD bay that will not read/write CD's anymore. It accepts a disk, makes some humming noises for a few seconds, then ejects it. Have tried numerous disks with the same results. Also tried using iTunes to try and burn a disk but the blank also was spit out. Tried rebooting with extensions off to check for software glitch.
So I'm thinking it's a hardware problem and I'm wondering how hard it is to replace the internal CD-RW drive assuming it is unfixable. Or should I just get a new external drive.
Any thoughts before I go to my local Mac fixer?

 

[FattyMembrane]

i have a summer 2001 imac as well and the cd-rw has been finickey from the get go (i cant help but notice that the company producing them is named m.a.t.S.H.I.T.a). you can probably find an appropriate slotloading cdrw online somewhere, but if you install it yourself, you'll void any apple warranty you still have (but there are directions online and i've heard that its not too difficult). external ones are nice, but really expensive, so if the local repair shop can do it inexpensively, i'd give them a call, otherwise, an internal one would probably be your best (and cheapest) bet, unless you really need warranties and such.

 

[Megaquad]

You can get replacement DVD drive from http://eshop.macsales.com. AFAIK thats the only replacement internal optical drive for slot-loading imacs..
I got it, its only 50$ and it works great! (my cdrom drive died same way yours did..)
Replacing the drive is not hard procedure at all, actually i enjoyed it. You can find link with instructions somewhere on xlr8yourmac.com (search entry's for your slot-loading imac,ide,dvdrom etc.)
If you need cd burner, get external firewire case and put some cheap cd burner in it (they are all fast and good these days..).

 

[G5orbust]

Originally posted by Megaquad
You can get replacement DVD drive from http://eshop.macsales.com. AFAIK thats the only replacement internal optical drive for slot-loading imacs..
I got it, its only 50$ and it works great! (my cdrom drive died same way yours did..)
Replacing the drive is not hard procedure at all, actually i enjoyed it. You can find link with instructions somewhere on xlr8yourmac.com (search entry's for your slot-loading imac,ide,dvdrom etc.)
If you need cd burner, get external firewire case and put some cheap cd burner in it (they are all fast and good these days..).

Yeah an external cd burner would be a good one... the only problem being itunes compatablility or disk burner compatatbility. Hopefully, there is a drive that has full itunes compatability. Dont get TDK drives if u want itunes compatability/disk burner things.

I could be wrong tho...

 

[rbertelsen]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm not too worried about warranty since it is way past 90 days or even a year and I didn't get any extended thing. Thanks for the itunes info. I was wondering about itunes compatibility if I were to use an external unit. Burning CD's is the my main use, although most of the abuse/use of the CD-RW comes from my kids who are addicted to Warcraft and Diablo. And, naturally they don't think about compatibilty. Just get the #*@% thing working! One nice thing; now that they can't play on our computer anymore they spend more time at their friends' houses. So maybe I'll fix it and keep it a secret.

Bert

 

[Megaquad]

Yeah rbertelsen, if you replace it with dvd-rom just get some external firewire case from OWC. And then check out cd burners on xlr8yourmac.com that are compatible with disk copy and itunes (you are on jaguar, right?).
As for burning data cd's (and even audio) I think Toast 5.2 is much better solution, it is compatible with many burners and its more powerful then apple's solutions.
As for your kids ,they shouldn't play games all the time,let them do something creative on that imac. Like..let them learn how to make web pages in dreamweaver or flash..and then they could learn PHP (or some other scripting lang).. things like that