As some of you may have read in my numerous other posts to this and the rpc1.org forums, I had a lot of difficulty getting a fully functioning self-installed SuperDrive in my TiBook.
But now I have finally succeeded! And I thought I should share the knowledge as a mark of respect for the many people who helped me on this and other forums (thank you all again).
So, without further ado, here is an layman's guide of the process to do it.
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1. Buy a Panasonic (aka Matshita) UJ-815 drive from somewhere. I bought mine on eBay, but there are online retailers selling them without doing the installation (
DFWdepot is one place I saw on another
forum).
Note that there are at least two versions of the drive: UJ-815A and UJ-815B. I don't claim to be an expert on this, but from what I've read, the A version is what Apple ships as the SuperDrive, and the B version (which I have) is I think intended for the PC market and so has different Firmware initially on it. I am not sure, but the B version could be a DVD-RAM capable drive (I have not tried this yet, but it says it is in the SystemProfiler), wheras I see from others' posts that the A version is not (or at least is not reported as one in the SystemP).
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2. Physically install the drive (the scariest part)
Unscrew back of PBook, gently lever out drive from outside edge (inside edge is slightly slotted in), uncouple connector, pull connector's lead off the drive (it's stuck pretty fast), remove side supports (two screws on each support), attach these to new drive, reconnect new drive, stick wire back down on new drive. slot in drive (watching front disk entry part), push in to place, replace back.
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3. Check what the SystemProfiler says
If the same thing happens for you as it did for me, it will rightly identify the drive, says it has revision D100 (PC Firmware) but will say that disk burning is not supported.
Toast should also see the drive fine, and will happily use it to burn CDs and DVDs (not sure about DVD-RW).
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(Not sure if this stage is required - I did it thinking disk nurning was not supported solely because of the Firmware.)
4. Upgrade Firmware (scary, but was ok for me)
The only Firmware I could get to work was Cynikal's
PB_UJ815A_FIRMWARE_UPGRADE.dmg. All other updaters give a message along the lines of "this machine does not require this upgrade".
You should note that Cynikal's Firmware was pieced together, but has been very popular - read about it
here.
SystemProfiler should now give revision D101, and the identification of your drive will have changed name slightly to "DVD-RAM UJ-815A".
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5. Hack one of your DevicePlugIns
Find this file on your HD:
system/Library/Frameworks/DisRecording.framework/Versions/A/Resources/DevicePlugIn/MatshitaCDR.device-plugin
Duplicate it. Open the duplicate in a HexEditor (I used
HexEditor 1.4 and didn't have a clue what I was doing - but it's actually very simple).
Find line : < 00008e90 > and change "SW-9571" to "UJ-815". Save (or just close in HexEditor) the file.
(To read more about this, go
here.)
Copy the new file to your OS 9 Desktop directory.
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6. Reboot in to OS 9
Replace the original file with this new file. The reason you boot in to OS 9 is to get round all the permissions - you can't replace the file whilst in OS X.
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7. Finished! Reboot in to OS X
Check the SystemProfiler - you should now see that disk burning is "fully supported"!!
You will need to change iTunes disk burning preferences to use the new drive. Not sure about other iLife apps.
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How good is all this?!?!? You can get a fully working SuperDrive in your PBook for around 200 quid ($300) and be able to flog your old combo drive on eBay (fetching around 80 to 100 quid at the moment!)!!!
Brilliant!
Let me know how you get on and whether this was of any use.
A.
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