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nagromme · Sep 13, 2004, 09:59 AM

My friend's Apple-standard internal DVD/CD-ROM drive isn't working in his 350 Mhz Smurf Tower (rev A).

He took it out to clean out shards of a shattered CD, and has reconnected all 3 cables tightly (power, data, audio) but there is no activity--no sound, no indicator light, no spinning. The drive was still getting power after the disc shattered, but after cleaning. it doesn't show any signs of life. The computer still runs fine though.

Three questions then:

1. Aside from checking the three cables, is there anything else he can do to troubleshoot?

2. If the drive's just dead, will any old internal DVD drive off the shelf work OK as a replacement--and still boot an OS disc if needed?

3. He also has an external Firewire CD-R. Can an external FW CD boot an OS disc if he ever needs to? Or would that depend on the model? (Pioneer I think.)

(The main use he has for it is booting an OS disc for maintenance/repairs, and playing copy-protected CD games. So maybe he'll just leave the dead drive in there and not replace it.)

Thanks!

Skip Breakfast · Sep 13, 2004, 12:12 PM

I would take the external drive out of its case and install it in the tower for testing purposes.

Arkham_c · Sep 13, 2004, 12:35 PM

Most drives will work, but you should check before you purchase one. Look at the XLr8 drive compatibility database here:

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drived....drivedb.lasso

nagromme · Sep 13, 2004, 12:37 PM

Good thought, since the external's out of warranty anyway. Would "any old" drive work in that space?

nagromme · Sep 13, 2004, 12:39 PM

Cross-post. Thanks for the link!

angelmb · Sep 14, 2004, 05:30 AM

Originally posted by nagromme:
...He also has an external Firewire CD-R. Can an external FW CD boot an OS disc if he ever needs to? Or would that depend on the model? (Pioneer I think.)

(The main use he has for it is booting an OS disc for maintenance/repairs, and playing copy-protected CD games. So maybe he'll just leave the dead drive in there and not replace it.)

Thanks!

Smurf / Yosemite towers can not boot from firewire devices so to boot from the external one is not an option, but it could work if you place it inside, just check the xlr8 database, I have tried some new device, they use to work under Mac OS X but it is harder to get it work under Mac OS 9.

Good luck.

nagromme · Sep 14, 2004, 08:24 AM

Good to know. I didn't know FW booting couldn't be done with those.

tooki · Sep 16, 2004, 01:08 AM

Simple rule of thumb (with no exceptions): Macs with AGP graphics can boot from USB and FireWire, those without AGP cannot. (On the earliest AGP Macs, you need to make sure they have the latest firmware update applied.)

tooki

nagromme · Sep 16, 2004, 01:16 AM

Handy

Thanks.

Anyone have any brainstorms re what might be wrong? He was pretty careful in removing ( to dump out the shards) and replacing it... it's weird that it would suddenly be dead, since it DID survive the CD breaking.

Buying a new drive for such an old system seems like a shame... but might be necessary.

Cadaver · Sep 16, 2004, 09:03 AM

Originally posted by nagromme:
Buying a new drive for such an old system seems like a shame... but might be necessary.

Perhaps true, but should be cheap. CDRWs can be found for $50 or less... and as linked above, check the xlr8yourmac drive database for bootable drives. I have an older Sony 24x CDRW (can't recall the model #) in my Blue & White G3 - bootable and all. Burning is supported via the Finder with the PatchBurn utility (also linked on xlr8yourmac), and via Toast of course.