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iMac G3 Optical Drive Replacement

MrAjarix

MrAjarix

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 2, 2018
15
2
England
Hey guys. I have an iMac g3 600MHz Graphite (slot loading) and am looking for a replacement optical drive. As is common with these computers, the optical drive stopped working a while back. I decided that instead of simply replacing it with another CD-RW drive, I would upgrade it to a combo drive capable of reading DVDs also since I have DVDs that I wish to use with the machine. My problem is that supply of identical replacements has dried up (at least in the UK where I live). This got me looking at drives from other Apple computers. I have read that optical drives from the following list of computers will work.

- iBook G3/G4
- PowerBook G4
- iMac G3
- Mac mini G4

However, when looking at these drives on ebay, i noticed that the shape was different from the one which was removed from my iMac. Does anyone have knowledge on whether they will still be able to screw into the iMac G3, connect and work with full function in an iMac G3?

Thanks
 
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The only drives that will work in a G3 iMac without a custom adapter are G3 iMac and G4 Cube drives. On all other PATA slot loading drives, the connector is rotated 180 degrees to make it not fit in the iMac. They work, but you can't install it like that.
 
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External should have a firewire interface. The USB 1.1 bus makes any kind of USB storage, well, slow... really slow.
 
Expobill said:
OWC does not sell dvd drive for any iMac g3.
a good solution is to get an external one.
Click to expand...
I currently have an external one and have installed OS 9.1 and OSX on it previously without problem. However, once in OS 9.1 and transferring files from a cd to the iMac, the whole system locks up allowing me to move my cursor but nothing else works forcing me to hard restart - this does not happen in OS X or OS 9.2.2 . Also, when using an external drive to play DVDs on Mac OS X, it gives an error about a valid DVD drive not being found.
 
MrAjarix said:
I currently have an external one and have installed OS 9.1 and OSX on it previously without problem. However, once in OS 9.1 and transferring files from a cd to the iMac, the whole system locks up allowing me to move my cursor but nothing else works forcing me to hard restart - this does not happen in OS X or OS 9.2.2 . Also, when using an external drive to play DVDs on Mac OS X, it gives an error about a valid DVD drive not being found.
Click to expand...
ohhhh, i gave my imacG3 away in 2010
 
Intell said:
The only drives that will work in a G3 iMac without a custom adapter are G3 iMac and G4 Cube drives. On all other PATA slot loading drives, the connector is rotated 180 degrees to make it not fit in the iMac. They work, but you can't install it like that.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply. What kind of adaptor would i need? Would it be very difficult to install?
 
I'm not sure such an adapter exists for G3 iMacs. They do for G4 Cubes, but I do not believe they will work in a G3 iMac.
 
Intell said:
I'm not sure such an adapter exists for G3 iMacs. They do for G4 Cubes, but I do not believe they will work in a G3 iMac.
Click to expand...
That's a shame. Do you know what could be causing my external DVD drive to lock up OS 9.1 on data transfer (it doesn't happen on on OS X or OS 9.2)?
 
Maybe older extensions? I know that 9.1 is less stable with USB devices than 9.2.2. Any reason why you're using 9.1?
 
I wonder if some very bright person could come up with a sure-fire fix for the iMac G3 slot drives, and also the Cube G4 slot drives.
A number of times I have completely stripped both types and spent many, many head-scratching hours trying to work out a permanent fix, but never acheived my goal. I've acheived some very short-term improvements on the feed-in/extract CD mechanism, but nothing remotely what I would call a success. Shrinking a stretched drive belt can be effective but needless to say is only a very temporary fix.
The multi-national UK engineering company I worked for for many years, used to farm out interesting projects to universities for their students to 'get their teeth into' and often to assist in solving problems. This fresh approach from engineering students frequently resulted in some excellent results. This is one such problem that I'd love to see resolved by a younger, brighter brain than mine.
Here and Here are links on my previous unsuccessful results.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who could donate one of these troublesome drives to anyone who wishes to take up the challenge. For all those thousands of G3 and G4 Cube original slot-drives out there, I'm certain there are barely 1% which still function correctly, so an eventual sure-fire fix could be a relief to many current or potential G3/G4 PowerPc owners.
 
DeltaMac said:
Note that the OP has an iMac G3 newer than your reference links, which are for the older tray-loading iMac G3. The replacement part, and the repair process are quite different for the OP's slot-loading iMac G3.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they do have slot loading drives listed on the book yard but they are out of stock and i doubt they will ever be in stock again :/ .
[doublepost=1534629276][/doublepost]
CooperBox said:
I wonder if some very bright person could come up with a sure-fire fix for the iMac G3 slot drives, and also the Cube G4 slot drives.
A number of times I have completely stripped both types and spent many, many head-scratching hours trying to work out a permanent fix, but never acheived my goal. I've acheived some very short-term improvements on the feed-in/extract CD mechanism, but nothing remotely what I would call a success. Shrinking a stretched drive belt can be effective but needless to say is only a very temporary fix.
The multi-national UK engineering company I worked for for many years, used to farm out interesting projects to universities for their students to 'get their teeth into' and often to assist in solving problems. This fresh approach from engineering students frequently resulted in some excellent results. This is one such problem that I'd love to see resolved by a younger, brighter brain than mine.
Here and Here are links on my previous unsuccessful results.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who could donate one of these troublesome drives to anyone who wishes to take up the challenge. For all those thousands of G3 and G4 Cube original slot-drives out there, I'm certain there are barely 1% which still function correctly, so an eventual sure-fire fix could be a relief to many current or potential G3/G4 PowerPc owners.
Click to expand...
That would be brilliant. I personally however, am fine with replacing the drive completely if only there was a company out there manufacturing parts for retro computers lol.
 
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