[Mallrat]

One day my keyboard wouldn't work... moved it to other USB port, fine. So I test a few things and it seems that USB port is dead.

The Superdrive barely reads any DVD-Rs... burns fine. Plays commercial DVD's fine. But now when it plays DVDs it's very loud... use to hear nothing, not it sounds like a motor going.

My question is, does this mean my computer is not long for this world? I have had it 4 plus years... It's an iMac G4 1.25...

just curious if one day I'll wake up and it will just be dead like that.

[ibook_steve]

First, try resetting the power manager:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1712

That might reset the USB port. As for the optical drive, yes it could be dying if it has started to get very loud. It probably wouldn't be too difficult or expensive to replace.

It doesn't sound like your machine is going to just up and die.

Steve

[Veltliner]

Good luck for your museum piece!

[Quantum_of_Macs]

Mine had similar problems (except my problem was a firewire port), and I just reinstalled the OS, reset PRAM, and put in a new superdrive. Now it works like a charm!

[adamfishercox]

It sounds like certain components might be going, but the computer is still ok. Just make sure you have a backup that is regularly updated, and you're fine.