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Peter O · Sep 28, 2001, 02:36 AM

Hi all. I like my original iMac and don't really want to get a new model that badly... but I DO want a burner. I was looking on eBay and see that there are a number of laptop CD-RW drives for sale. I am under the impression that my iMac CD-ROM drive is a plain old normal laptop drive; in fact, I looked at Panasonic's website and found out that the CR-173 (which is what System Profiler says my drive is) is a Matsushita OEM drive. Is there any problem with me replacing it with another Matsushita laptop drive (but one that is CD-RW)? Are the dimensions of laptop drives the same? Is there some kind of special button on the iMac OEM one that won't be on another? Could I remove the faceplate bezel-thing of my drive and stick it on the new one? Would it just work, since they are both IDE Matsushita laptop drives as long as I have Toast? I am pretty interested in pursuing this, even though I have never taken my iMac apart and don't really have any Mac modification experience. What do you all think?

Peter O.

vmarks · Sep 29, 2001, 11:27 PM

Originally posted by Peter O:
<STRONG>Hi all. I like my original iMac and don't really want to get a new model that badly... but I DO want a burner. I was looking on eBay and see that there are a number of laptop CD-RW drives for sale. I am under the impression that my iMac CD-ROM drive is a plain old normal laptop drive; in fact, I looked at Panasonic's website and found out that the CR-173 (which is what System Profiler says my drive is) is a Matsushita OEM drive. Is there any problem with me replacing it with another Matsushita laptop drive (but one that is CD-RW)? Are the dimensions of laptop drives the same? Is there some kind of special button on the iMac OEM one that won't be on another? Could I remove the faceplate bezel-thing of my drive and stick it on the new one? Would it just work, since they are both IDE Matsushita laptop drives as long as I have Toast? I am pretty interested in pursuing this, even though I have never taken my iMac apart and don't really have any Mac modification experience. What do you all think?

Peter O.</STRONG>

Peter,

you have many questions. I'm going to try and answer them all.

1) you can replace the CR-173 with a cd-rw. It is a standard (if there's any such thing) laptop drive. You have to be able to transfer the imac laptop-drive-to-50pin connector board that's on the back of the tray loading drive.

2) the drive outer dimensions are the same, or similar enough that it will work.

3) the eject button may be in a different place and not allow you to use the nice iMac tray.

I think you can do this and make it work. I just want to know where you're getting the drives from affordably.

Victor Marks
lvmarks@mac.com

Peter O · Sep 30, 2001, 12:40 AM

Hi Victor.

If you go to the Laptop section of eBay there seem to be a lot of CD-R and CD-RW (as well as DVD-CD-RW) drives for sale. Perhaps I just checked at an opportune time, but there were a few that were designated 'Buy it Now' at US$ 50. They might have been bought already... There are also a few people who have attemped the same or similar modifications (I forget the sites that detail them) with a discontinued product called PowerCDR by Techworks or some such company. I am going to keep my eyes open for cheap CDRs and may attempt this in the future. Thanks for your response.

Peter.

ae77 · Sep 30, 2001, 12:57 PM

This is what I'm looking for! I didn't know it's possible to add a CD-R drive to iMac.

This person (see here) seems to have a lot of the laptop CD drives. Will any 50-pin model work with the iMac rev. A? It doesn't have to be Matsushita is it?

Thanks.

Peter O · Sep 30, 2001, 09:15 PM

I think this is something many people would like to do. Check out the following links:

Drive Compatability List and search CD-RW, IDE, and iMac; some people have already tried this

How to install the Techworks PowerCDR from imac2day, has lots of tips for installing what appears to be a regular sony laptop CDR.

Since I'm in Canada, I hesitate to get an eBay CDR from the US unless I know it will work out. Who is going to be the guinea pig tester? Lets keep this thread alive!

ae77 · Sep 30, 2001, 10:09 PM

On xlr8yourmac database, it seems that UJDA330 model of Matshita is popular. It seems like a good choice because it's internal. I really don't want to have to connect an external out of the iMac.

The search on eBay for UJDA330 only yields one seller though, and he doesn't give much details about the drive other than pictures. I can't seem to find it anywhere else. There has to be more options out there.

Still looking...

Peter O · Oct 1, 2001, 12:16 AM

Try searching for CD-R or CD-RW or CDR under the laptop accessories section. I found quite a few choices, and I'm sure that they sell fast. I bet there is a lot of sales activity and that there are alway new postings and such.

As a side note, I feel like I should clean out my iMac for dust. Has anyone done that? Are there areas I should avoid, and how mush of the computer should I take apart? I don't want to blow all the dust into some unaccesible corner that I can never clean out...

Peter.

doggkruse · Nov 1, 2001, 08:31 PM

I put a torisan cdrw in my rev d, see my post in the imac forum, Or e-mail me for more info. kruse@flatirons.org

ValVashon · Nov 2, 2001, 08:28 PM

The Techworks PowerCDR is really a Sony CRX-510E that Techworks just added a faceplate and button to (or so it would seem). Mine is a real P.O.S., though (keeps randomly going dead and freezing up the computer- shutting down and starting up again fixes it. No, it's not the power connector, checked that a million times) and I would be interested in replacing it if I could switch the button and faceplate to another laptop drive. I checked out the eBay store mentioned above, and just about fell out of my chair-the TEAC drive looks jut like mine. I didn't know the PowerCDR was just a laptop drive. Do ya suppose Sony could fix it?

Val

doggkruse · Nov 6, 2001, 02:14 AM

Originally posted by ValVashon:
<STRONG>The Techworks PowerCDR is really a Sony CRX-510E that Techworks just added a faceplate and button to (or so it would seem). Mine is a real P.O.S., though (keeps randomly going dead and freezing up the computer- shutting down and starting up again fixes it. No, it's not the power connector, checked that a million times) and I would be interested in replacing it if I could switch the button and faceplate to another laptop drive. I checked out the eBay store mentioned above, and just about fell out of my chair-the TEAC drive looks jut like mine. I didn't know the PowerCDR was just a laptop drive. Do ya suppose Sony could fix it?

Val</STRONG>

I would call sony... or buy a 8x or 16x sony on ebay and use the face plate from your other drive...

tobster · Nov 6, 2001, 07:49 AM

Just to offer a confirmation...

I have added both a cd-r and a dvd drive to an original iMac (the threads on that are somewhere here) and both worked. Both were bought on eBay - the cd-r coming from a ibm thinkpad and the dvd from a dell laptop. dvd drive worked, but obviously the computer didn't have the decoder power to play the movies. Cd-r worked flawlessly.

Only problems you might encounter is fitting the front back on. I had to drill out a hole for the eject button, a little modification there. I don't have a digital camera so unfortunately there are no pics of the process.

Feel free to ask though