iMac G3 - Optical Drive issues

[mddguy]

In December last year I scored an 'as new' condition 700MHz 2001 Snow iMac G3 for a grand sum of £20 shipped with original disks, mouse, keyboard and power cable.

The machine is lovely, but there is one slight issue that I can't seem to fix. For some reason, the computer is not able to read CD-R disks. It whirrs a little then spits them back out. Interestingly, my 400MHz 200 Indigo has no issue with the exact same disks. The Snow will play a properly manufactured CD just fine (see video) and will let me skip/seek through it without a problem.

I would swap the drives over but if there is a fix, that would be even better. If anyone has any ideas, do let me know!

Link to video

 

[havokalien]

burn the disks at slower speeds. Cd writing was in its infancy back then. also media used to have issues. 1X burning and verification always helped.

 

[mddguy]

Thanks for your suggestion.

I do always verify my disks. On paper, I could possibly understand that theory. However, I've just burned to the disk a 1x speed and verified on my Mac Pro but in testing burn speeds and verification has had no effect on whether or not the Snow G3 accepts a disk. The Snow G3 still spits them out. I have also tried different brands of CD-R etc. Again, all play on the 2000 Indigo, but the 2001 Snow doesn't like them. The Indigo will read and play the same disks without hesitation.

 

[pochopsp]

Maybe it is simply broken... It happened the same thing on my PowerMac G4 MDD with the stock sony dvd/cd reader, about a year ago it did not play anymore cds, while dvds are read fine. After internet researches i found people having this problem too and they say that the cd reader lense is broken...

 

[mddguy]

Definitely a possibility. I just wondered whether or not anyone had encountered such an issue before, and whether or not they knew if there was a fix. I know those early slot load drives can be a bit temperamental.

 

[havokalien]

Some drives just never were able to accept burnable media. Even if it says "supported" in mac OS.

 

[mddguy]

Just really odd how the older iMac accepts it and the Snow can even burn to CD-R just not read what it has burned itself don't you think?

 

[0248294]

Some drives just never were able to accept burnable media. Even if it says "supported" in mac OS.

Yeah, but I've never heard of an iMac G3 not being able to read a burned disc. My slot and tray loaders have absolutely no issue with them, so I don't think it's really a problem.

 

[MagicBoy]

We're talking 15+ year old kit here. Assuming the lasers are good, they can be very dependent on the media used. I've seen plenty of drives of that period that won't read current generation cheap CD-Rs, where they are fine with the period correct gold discs or good quality (eg TDK, Verbatim etc) modern media.

 

[havokalien]

I know i have a playstation 2 that will read any disc except the blue discs made for playstation (hard to read) So many incarnations are possible.