[spindoctor]

hey agian..... imy powerbook g4 dvd drive stopped readfin cds all of a sudden. its doesnt even keep teh dvd in there... just pops it out... i tried burnin something and it said spiro spindle erroe... but then read teh cds and dvds after that perfectly... then it stopped again... the cds and dvds just pop pot..

please help... my exams r comin and i need the drive

thx

[Parky]

Sounds like a hardware problem to me, but you could always try a CD/DVD cleaner first (not a wet version)

If it is under warranty I would get it into a service centre ASAP.

Ian

[amazing]

Which PB do you have, Titanium or aluminum, what size and model? That makes a big difference in troubleshooting. What system software? And do you still have Applecare?

First thing to try is the following standard troubleshooting techniques for OS X:

Establish a second admin user and login as that second user. Does the problem with the optical driver persist?

Next, use Disk Utility to repair the permissions. Does that fix the problem? (try this first...)

[spindoctor]

Originally posted by amazing:
Which PB do you have, Titanium or aluminum, what size and model? That makes a big difference in troubleshooting. What system software? And do you still have Applecare?

First thing to try is the following standard troubleshooting techniques for OS X:

Establish a second admin user and login as that second user. Does the problem with the optical driver persist?

Next, use Disk Utility to repair the permissions. Does that fix the problem? (try this first...)

its a powerbook 17in. bought last year.... runs on jaguar.... no dotn have apple care anymore
it tried the seconf user thing .. but still doesnt work... used disk utility.... still nothing...
apple care says to use the hardware test cd.. but that doesnt saty in the drive long enough for it to be read

[amazing]

Originally posted by spindoctor:
its a powerbook 17in. bought last year.... runs on jaguar.... no dotn have apple care anymore
it tried the seconf user thing .. but still doesnt work... used disk utility.... still nothing...
apple care says to use the hardware test cd.. but that doesnt saty in the drive long enough for it to be read

Well, without Applecare, I can only think of 2 things to try before you decide to take it in for repair:

-- a clean System install, either Jaguar or Panther. I've heard in the past of things being installed that somehow had some weird effects. The only way to rule that out is a clean install.

--I've got a Ti, and even with Applecare replacing the DVD-Rom drive only 6 months ago, now that I'm out of Applecare sometimes DVDs fail to mount. Basically, I take the back skin off and press on the ribbon cables, put it back together and DVDs once again mount for awhile. This has happened twice. On the Ti, it's so easy to take the back off that this isn't a big deal for me...However, it throws a wrench into my vague plan to eventually sell it off.

There are directions out there on how to get to various parts of the new AlPB, so it's up to you whether you want to attempt this yourself or have it done somewhere. You can check xlr8yourmac.com or the following site:

http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/

[xpectagadget]

my tibook is doing the same thing now..
started out of nowhere...
does it in 9 and panther, the system profiler shows the drive, also in os 9...
the computer is quite old, so must i assume that at a certain age these things just fail?

i don't believe this has to do with software at all.. tried repairing permissions several times, actually reset the PMU at some point...

but since the computer 'sees' the drive, how can it be a ribbon or something like that?

i may just take it to the genius bar...