[stu2]

Hi,

I spent most of today installing a new Pioneer K05 DVD drive in my 12' Powerbook 867Mhz, replacing the superdrive that went bad last week. I followed the excellent instructions at pbfixit.com.

With everything back together again, the laptop recognizes the drive, and I can see all of the correct information in "System Info", listing the model, manufacturer, etc. Good so far, right?

But when I try to insert any media - cd, dvd, blank or otherwise - The drive vomits it back out immediately. It doesn't actually suck it in more than a tiny amount before immediately pushing it out again.

Help! I've taken it out, reinstalled it, and repeated this twice. It's apart again, and before I reassemble and give up, I wanted to see if anyone knows what might be wrong? I've read in some other forums that there may be master/slave issues, and that this drive generally ships as Slave, and that you have to change that through flashing from windows. Yuck. I'd rather not get the things I'll need to do that unless I have no other choice. Does anyone know if for a 12' powerbook this is something I should do?

Any input would be much appreciated!

Regards,

Stu

p.s. - This guy seems to have a very similar problem. http://www.macosx.com/content/faq.ph...Powerbook.html

This thread has some excellent info, but ultimately doesn't answer my specific question:
http://forums.macnn.com/mac-notebooks-69/265429/panasonic-or-pioneer-which-superdrive/print/

[stu2]

I just heard back from another person who had pretty much the same issue. Putting the new drive in an external enclosure, the drive always worked. But in the powerbook, it occasionally worked, but more often just ejected the drive. He put back the original superdrive into the computer and that still worked - so it doesn't appear to be an installation problem.

I'd flash the drive to make it master if I knew it might fix the problem, but it's a pretty big hassle for me and involves buying an ide cable adapter for my win laptop. From the above, I'm starting to give up hope with this drive.

Should I pick up a different model, or keep trying?

Thanks,

Stu