:( Superdrive problem - imac 24inch please HELP!

[NakedPetals]

Hi all,

I am having a major problem with my 24inch aluminium (2.44ghz mid 2007 running leopard 10.5.8) superdrive

My apple care warranty has expired, the original superdrive died sometime last year and it took me a while to get it replaced. I took it down to a local apple care shop and paid for it to be looked at, buy a new superdrive, be replaced and labour costs, all up was NZD $650.

I received it back within 2 weeks and the new superdrive (manufactured in 2010, made in Malaysia) was working fine, it was reading, recording etc.


BUT 5 months later I decide to start backing up all my university work, I burnt about 20 dual layer dvd's at that time, while I waited for the burning process to finish I was multitasking by either watching online tv shows or playing music. My imac started to freeze, I had no control over it except to hold down the power button to restart it. I just thought my multi tasking was the reason for this so I continued on burning more dvds without doing so much other stuff in the background. THEN it happened again, the imac was frozen. I couldn't do anything except to restart it.

After a while without burning, just general internet use the superdrive starts to make ejecting noises, with absolutely no discs in it. It then starts to make ejection noises non stop like 3-5 split seconds one after the other, I restarted my imac, it logs in well, with no programs running and what do you know, no noise at all. So I thought maybe the restart had helped it. BUT BOY WAS I WRONG! After 5-10mins later it starts making the same ejection noise still with no discs in it, I even inserted a disc to see if it would work and to my surprise it read the discs I had just burned with no problems at all, but soon after I ejected the disc, it starts to make that same ejecting noise. The disc drive even shows up on disk utility, I thought maybe it had some sort of sensor error (i.e it thinks there's a disc in it so it tries to constantly keep eject one out), I unplugged my keyboard thinking that I had a sticky key but still no luck.

I started doing a lot of forum searching around the internet to see if anyone else had the same or similar problem but I couldn't find anyone out there that had the exact or similar problem as me. I did all the resetting of the PUM, PRAM, SMC etc... you name it, but nothing helped! I even mounted my installation CD and reformatted my whole operating system, after a whole lot of unplugging, restarting, updating etc... the noise still came back shortly after. A couple of days later I called up Apple support team to see if they could help me, and since I don't have apple care any more she asks if I want to pay $70 for her to help me over the phone or just send it back down to the apple shop and get them to have a look at it again. While I was deciding she suggests I send it to the apple shop any way because my problem seems to be something she cannot help me with over the phone.

I then rang the Apple shop who fixed my drive and explain my problem to one of their tech guy, he then tells me I'll have to drop it back off and pay them to look at it by the sounds of it I'll have to get the superdrive replaced again, and what do you know, I'll have to pay the same amount again because the part only had a 3 MONTH WARRANTY!!!!

I was then on the hunt to look for a superdrive online so I could just replace it myself, I have experience in openinh up my imac when my harddrive failed on me earlier last year which I replaced with a 1T harddrive that works perfectly fine. So I came across this one online from someone who also had a failing superdrive:

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/DVD-R-/CD-RW-8X-SuperDrive-for-intel-base-2006--2007-p-36069.html

I waited no more and paid NZD$160 including shipping fee, the item arrived within days because I paid extra $ for a higher priority shipping time. On it, it says manufactured in 2007, made in Malaysia. Although there were a few dents on the aluminium case along with a few curious bends which I didn't think such exterior would effect the interior at all.

I opened my imac and replaced the superdrive, screwed everything back up and turn it on and it doesn't work, ABSOLUTELY NO POWER RUNNING THROUGH IT AT ALL! It doesn't even show up on disk utility! So I reinstalled my old superdrive back in to see if I was doing anything wrong or could have missed a step in the process... The power ran through my old superdrive just fine.

So I start to get really upset because I felt like someone had stolen heaps of money from me . I was angry at the dodgy website by sending me a dead/broken superdrive, be very aware of this site because it is very cheeky! For me to send it back to them they required a 25% restocking fee from me plus pay a lot for shipping it to them and have it reshipped back to me. And because of the dodgy aluminium cover, at my desperate and thoughtless times I thought that MAYBE it was effecting for it to not power up so I took off my old superdrive cover and swapped it around but that was not the case, there was a sticker around the screws of the cover for returning policies that I had ripped off in the process so I would of lost the chance of sending it back to them anyways

I then find this one on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/18063064461...NX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_572wt_1270

NZD$90, asked VERY specific questions to see if this will work on my imac, the seller says Yes, so I buy it and within a week with FREE shipping from Taiwan the package arrives. I come across my observation and see that this one is slightly different, it came with a thin black plastic bit on top of the slot opening, it had a button like the ones you see on a PC where you press to eject a disc out, I was able to carefully removing that extra bit so I could screw the actual holder that is meant to be around it. It fitted well.

I started up the imac praying that it would work and what do you know... the same problem! AGAIN, WITH NO POWER RUNNING THROUGH IT AT ALL! The manufactured date on this one is 2008 made in Philippine.

Now I am left with 3 non working superdrives Could I really have had bad luck in receiving two dead superdrives? Does anyone seriously know what is happening? Why is there no power running through the superdrives I bought from online? Do I need to install certain drivers for it to power up? I've updated everything I possibly can. Is there something I am doing wrong? I have made sure a million times that everything is plugged in correctly and securely. I really don't know what else I can do, I am running out of ideas! I most certainly do not want to pay another $650 to Apple people just so they can replace it!

Please, if anyone has any ideas it would be much appreciated

 

[talmy]

I think most people in your circumstance (dead superdrive and out of warranty) would just buy an external USB drive and use that.

 

[panzer06]

I think most people in your circumstance (dead superdrive and out of warranty) would just buy an external USB drive and use that.

I was thinking the same thing. Also, why would anyone pay so much to fix an old machine. Op could've bought a new refurbished unit by now.

External odd is the way to go at this point.

Cheers,

 

[old-wiz]

I was thinking the same thing. Also, why would anyone pay so much to fix an old machine. Op could've bought a new refurbished unit by now.

External odd is the way to go at this point.

Cheers,

I have a 24" iMac as well from about 2007. I would never pay $ 650 to repair a SuperDrive - I would use an external. When the 24" dies I don't know if I'll go for another iMac or just switch to using my 13" 2011 MBP plus a screen.

 

[NakedPetals]

Thank you for your opinions, I should have mentioned that I want to get this problem fixed so that I can sell this machine off, I have thought about this before but for my reasons buying an external USB drive is not the solution that I am looking for.

 

[panzer06]

Thank you for your opinions, I should have mentioned that I want to get this problem fixed so that I can sell this machine off, I have thought about this before but for my reasons buying an external USB drive is not the solution that I am looking for.

It's too late for that now. The time to sell it off was b4 you spent hard earned money fixing it. Even in perfect condition a machine that old will be lucky to sell for $500. I'd personally cut your losses and sell it as is with a non-working superdrive and hope to get $400.

To keeping buying used drives that have no warranty is throwing good money after bad. You can buy a new slot load drive for no more than $100 but it's not going to add $100 in resale value. Best wishes on whatever you decide to do.

Cheers,

 

[NakedPetals]

Yeah I am aware of how much money I have spent on trying to fix this, but now I am left with two supposedly refurbished drives and am willing to at least try and fix the problem, I wouldn't want to pass on a broken computer to someone, I would feel as if I was ripping the buyer off because they too would eventually have to go through all this, but if I can't fix it then my last resort would be to sell it off without a disc drive

Oh that is very interesting on how cheap you can buy second hand imacs over in the states , I suppose every country is different on how much value apple products have because people here are still selling their second hand G5's for slightly under $1000.

Thanks again for your opinion

 

[namethisfile]

well, the cheapest solution is to DIY. i just replaced the hdd on a mid-2007 20" iMac following the ifixit guide and it was fairly straightforward and easy. i can imagine it would be the same replacing the optical drive. the only problem is to find an optical drive that would work with the 24" iMac. it is the same size drive bay as a laptop which is 2.5". i quickly looked at owc where they sell internal super drives for macs and although they don't have the one particular to your computer model--they do carry super drives for iMac g5's and macbook pros (one prior to the unibody). i am mentioning this as a possibility because those drives are physically the same size that you need for the iMac. what i don't know is if they are compatible. and for some reason, they don't carry internal super drives for intel macs.

regardless, here is that site: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MG5SL8XDLK/

again, i do not know if this is the one you need. you should call them for more information and/or do more research.

once you find an internal optical drive, you can easily replace the one in your iMac following the ifixit guide here:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-iMac-Intel-20-Inch-EMC-2266-Optical-Drive-Data-Cable/924/1

this one is for the 20" one but i believe it is similar to the 24" one.

anyway, good luck.

 

[NakedPetals]

Thanks for your opinion namethisfile Yes I have opened up my imac before when I replaced my hdd and am confident with it, I do have the knowledge in replacing the optical drive as I have done this many times (I did mention above that I've bought two newly refurbished optical drives and both the sellers have confirmed that they would defiantly work on my imac)

I don't think by going out to buy ANOTHER optical drive from somewhere else is going to help my situation, because I could be stuck with FOUR optical drives in total. The http://www.ifixit.com/ website I discovered when I first had this problem was the one who gave me inspiration in trying to DIY this issue.

Where I'm at now: I recently discovered noise coming in from the latest optical drive I purchased and installed, the one I was about to give up on. I was pretty excited and tried opening disk utility which was taking forever to load up (this has never happened before) I then saw the optical drive on the left hand menu and tried to insert a disc but the drive was not sucking it in. It was dead like it was before, so now I am hoping that there is a loose connection instead of a dead drive, I opened it up and tried making sure one more time that everything was pushed in place and turned it back on. Still nothing. No drive showing up in disk utility. No noise. Nothing

Still trying to find a solution... Any other opinions are highly wanted!

 

[talmy]

It seems to me that with all these "dead drives" the problem is probably not with the drive at all. Maybe it is the power connection, as you suggest, but there is also the (bad) possibility it is the logic board. Unless it is something obvious like a dangling cable you are best off selling it "as is" noting that it is fully functional except for the optical drive. Just consider it to be the iMac of the future.

 

[namethisfile]

i guess i would try to find out if the optical drives are truly dead or just non compatible.

it seems that finding compatible optical drives for intel iMacs might take more digging into. for example, owc sells internal optical drives for most macs except the intel iMacs. they have one for mbp's and g5 iMacs, which are the same size, physically, as the intel iMacs. yet, their compatibility chart doesn't show that they are compatible with the intel iMacs.

i guess, i would try to find out the compatibility issue more since my quick googling of this didn't result in anything helpful.

if the internet is unhelpful, i guess, my next step would be to try to call up an authorized apple tech/resellers about a compatible internal optical drive for your iMac. maybe they can help point you to the right direction.

if they are somehow unhelpful or too expensive, then we're back to DIY and the internet and forums to try to figure out which optical drive is compatible.

meanwhile, since you have multiple nonworking optical drives on hand, i would try to find out if there is an enclosure for it so you can use it as an external device and connect it to your iMac that way or another computer to check if the drives are working or not.