[escher]

I broke the CD tray on my low-end iBook's CD-ROM drive. I'm considering replacing the drive with a Matsushita (Panasonic) CW-8121 -- the slot-loading 8x Combo drive from the recent TiBooks.

Do any of you here have thoughts about the process and compatibility in terms of connectors? I assume since the iBook's CD-ROM and the slot-load Combo are both made by Matsushita they will be compatible connection-wise. I'm less worried about the face plate since I can just modify the old one with a dremel tool, build my own, or live without one.

Has anybody found a source for the CW-8121 or other slot-load optical drives? I'd be happy with a slot-load DVD drive instead of a Combo as well (I don't need to burn CDs on the road).

Carl Norum: This might be a project worth exploring for you and Stan Rabu. I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on the slot-load topic.

Escher

[Carl Norum]

Originally posted by escher:
Do any of you here have thoughts about the process and compatibility in terms of connectors?

I would expect that the plugs are the same, all ATAPI devices being equal. That should not cause you any problems.

I have no idea about fitting it in there, though I believe the slot-loading drives are smaller, so you should have no problems with that either. You may need to make yourself some mounting brackets or something to attach it correctly, but that's not really a big deal.

Has anybody found a source for the CW-8121 or other slot-load optical drives?

eBay is usually the best bet. Other than that, you can always contact the manufacturer and ask if they can point you in the right direction.

At any rate, I can see no reason why this would not be possible, and I'd love to see another success story in this forum!

[COmie JOe]

Originally posted by Carl Norum:


I would expect that the plugs are the same, all ATAPI devices being equal. That should not cause you any problems.

All ATAPI devices do not use the same connector, desktop and laptop drives have diffrent connectors, and inside the catogory of laptop connectors there are a number of diffrent connectors used by apple and manurfactures. I am going to take a shot in the dark that the Ti book had a diffrent connector than a Ibook simply due to size constraints (either nativaly or via adaptor connector). I will try to take a look at the connector in the ibook next week.

[Carl Norum]

Here is the iBook's drive connector:
Toshiba Optical Drive
I don't think this exact model is in any iBooks, but it is the next model up from the one I have (SD-R2002). I can't find the CW-8121 ANYWHERE online. If someone could find it, could they please confirm the connector?

Thanks!

[COmie JOe]

that is the same connector used in the slot load drive in the imac

[escher]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

Originally posted by Carl Norum:
I can't find the CW-8121 ANYWHERE online.

Carl Norum: Beyond XLR8YourMac, the only reference to the Matsushita CW-8121 8x slot-loading Combo I could find was on this page. I can't find it for sale anywhere. Of course, MCE Technologies must have them because they are selling an upgrade kit for non-combo TiBooks. But it sounds like they won't even let you install it yourself. So I'm not sure whether MCE would be willing to sell the CW-8121 without installation.

I imagine that a small Apple Aurthorized Service Provider could order the part. I haven't tried MacResQ yet.

I was just looking at the MCE Lucid 24x portable FireWire CD-RW. I think I'd have a hard time choosing between the 8x slot-loader Combo and a 24x tray-load CD-RW. I'd probably go with the slot-load Combo for coolness sake, though, because I have a faster FireWire CD-RW at home.

Of course, since the iBook is my main machine (I use it for hours of work every day of the year), the million dollar question is whether it's worth the risk to open up my iBook in the first place.

Escher

[COmie JOe]

there is good reasion why they don't want you installing it, it is very diffcult to do almost any service on a Ti (expect for ram and HD) that is why apple only allows "specialist" and their own stores to do service on location. Also I could see someone wanting to save some money and trying to do the install them-selfs and totaly destroying their orignal drive (which they require as an exchange)

[escher]

Originally posted by COmie JOe:
I could see someone wanting to save some money and trying to do the install them-selfs and totaly destroying their orignal drive (which they require as an exchange)

You know, I wonder what Apple does with all the slot-load DVD drives it gets. If I could get my hands on one of those, at least the mod would be free (assuming I don't break my iBook and have to buy a new one).

Escher

[dvd]

Originally posted by escher:


You know, I wonder what Apple does with all the slot-load DVD drives it gets. If I could get my hands on one of those, at least the mod would be free (assuming I don't break my iBook and have to buy a new one).

Escher

problay toss it in a pile with unsold flower imacs and dalmation imacs, and cubes hehe.

[escher]

Originally posted by dvd:
problay toss it in a pile with unsold flower imacs and dalmation imacs, and cubes hehe.

Toss 'em in a pile? Nah... I just checked out MacResQ. They sell refurbished slot-load DVD drives for US$199! Holy **** that's a rip-off!

At those prices, I just might have to live with my broken CD-ROM, or rip it out completely.

Escher

[madmacs137]

It's not a combo-drive, but what about the slot-load DVD drive from an iMac? You can pick one up on eBay for about $35 (search for "imac cdrom").

I haven't seen a slot-loading iMac taken apart, but my Rev A's tray-loading cdrom is the same slimline design as a "standard" laptop -- I can't speak to the TiBook's super-thin optical drive. The auction descriptions say that the slot-loaders won't function in a tray-loading machine, but I assume that's because of the video chip and not because of the interface. It should just have a slimline ATAPI plug -- standard stuff.

Anyway, $35 is a lot cheaper than the $199 for a used G4 drive.

[escher]

Originally posted by madmacs137:
It's not a combo-drive, but what about the slot-load DVD drive from an iMac? You can pick one up on eBay for about $35 (search for "imac cdrom").

Thanks for the tip, madmacs137. I'll check out eBay. I'd be much more comfortable taking a $35 risk for a drive that might not work.

Escher

[madmacs137]

You should probably confirm that the slot-loading iMac optical drive is in fact a slimline design...I'm assuming it is since the slot-loaders have the same general form factor as the tray-loading iMacs...I don't think there's enough room in there for a normal 5.25" drive enclosure. Of course, I've never seen a slot-loading iMac opened up, so it's just a guess.

Let me know how it works out...

[ShotgunEd]

Originally posted by escher:


Thanks for the tip, madmacs137. I'll check out eBay. I'd be much more comfortable taking a $35 risk for a drive that might not work.

Escher

Keep us updated escher, the warranty on my 2001 500Mhz iBook is running out at the end of the month and I'm intending on upgrading the Hard Disk and overclocking the cpu to a 600/100. It'd be great if I could stick a DVD drive or better yet a combo drive in place of my crappy CD ROM Drive. I know I know, if it ain't broke don't fix it, but I intend on keeping this baby for a while yet, a few upgrades would do it some good :-)

[madmacs137]

Escher (and others),

I had my iBook apart today to try and install a cd-rw drive in place of the stock cd-rom and I may have found a couple of problems with the iMac slot-load DVD idea:

1) Form factor. From what I can tell by looking at photos of the iMac slot-load DVD drives on ebay, they appear to have a square or rectangular form factor, unlike the tray-loading drives that have the 45-degree "notch" cut out of the rear right corner. The optical drive bay in the iBook is designed for a tray-loading drive with the cut out in corner and it didn't look like it could be modified (easily...never say never). Bottom line, I don't think a slot-loading drive will physically fit without some serious modifications (that might have negative effects on the iBook's structural integrity).

2) Single IDE bus. The iBook's HD and optical drive share the same IDE bus (HD is ID=0 and optical drive is ID=1). The stock iBook cd-rom (and I assume the other stock iBook optical drives) have a switch that allows you to choose master, slave, or cable select. The slimline cd-rw that I was trying to install did not have this switch or any jumpers and seems to be hard-wired to act as the master IDE device. This wouldn't be a serious problem if I could re-jumper the iBook HD to act as the slave, but the jumper for the HD is built into the IDE cable, so that doesn't look like an easy option either.

Apple might include the master/slave switch on all of their optical drives (my Rev A iMac's tray-loading drive has the same switch as the iBook's), so this might not be as serious a problem if you're using an Apple device, but it may be an issue if you use a 3rd party drive.

[escher]

Originally posted by madmacs137:
I had my iBook apart today to try and install a cd-rw drive in place of the stock cd-rom and I may have found a couple of problems with the iMac slot-load DVD idea:

madmacs137: Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts. I'm still pondering my options. I'm tempted to install a Travelstar 40GNX HDD. I'd like to buy a new laser printer that has OS X drivers (my Epson EPL-5700i only has an OS 9 driver and is thus a paperweight). Finally, I want to get a T68i mobile phone to replace my Palm. That's just the toys. Then there's the demands of law school and my wife...

The major holdup right now, however, is that I started experiencing backlight failures with my iBook's LCD. It appears the only fix for my out-of-warranty iBook is a $350 operation at Apple. Eek!

See the following two threads on Apple's discussion boards for backlight failure reports:

http://discusssearch.info.apple.com/...12.0@.2cd73727
http://discusssearch.info.apple.com/...F.12@.3bb8aa5f

There are also a few threads in the iBook forum here at MacNN.)

Escher