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Zoom · Oct 7, 2006, 10:13 AM

I've got a PowerMac DP 1.8 with a stock Pioneer 107 drive. It's not burning at full speed. Still haven't figured that out.

Instead of trying to flash the thing, I figure maybe I'll just upgrade this drive to a newer, faster one. The 107 tops out at 8x, so I'm looking at the Pioneer 109 or 111. Then I can take the old 107 and put it in an eMac I have which currently only has a CD-R drive. I need to upgrade that box to Tiger, and that requires a DVD drive. ("Target mode" is hokey.)

So. The question for this forum is: how well do these upgrades work? I've had nightmares trying to do this on an old PowerMac G4. I removed the stock drive and put in a Pioneer, and ended up with kernel panics and all sorts of random bad behavior. I ended up having to move it to an external drive.

I'm assuming things are better now. But I also know there's a difference between OAM Apple drives (special Pioneer drives with Apple firmware/ROMs) and off the shelf drives, even in the same family. I want a drive that will work seamlessly with OSX, the iLife suite and Toast. If I can flash it or Patchburn it on my PowerMac, then I can deal with that - as long as it really works (99% success rate).

I can buy an Apple OEM Superdrive version of the Pioneer 109 (190AB?) from Other World Computing. I can also get a non-Apple Pioneer 111D. What's the real diff? The specs look similar, unless I missed something. Can I make the 111 work completely with OSX/iLife? Or is there a newer Apple OAM SuperDrive that I can buy?

I'm not worried about the physical installation, unless there's metal cutting involved (some old Apple machines had that issue).

imitchellg5 · Oct 7, 2006, 08:10 PM

They aren't too hard to put in... maybe a 20 minute job if you take it carefully. You don't have to cut any metal either

Big Mac · Oct 7, 2006, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by Zoom

unless there's metal cutting involved (some old Apple machines had that issue).

Which machines? Unless you're trying to accomplish something non-standard, I have never heard of having to cut metal.

imitchellg5 · Oct 7, 2006, 08:22 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Which machines? Unless you're trying to accomplish something non-standard, I have never heard of having to cut metal.

Back in the G3 Beige days you would have to cut metal sometimes to add extras to it.

 · Oct 7, 2006, 08:24 PM

Those were the days. No you sure don't have to cut anything to add just about anything to the G5 ( at least anything normal

)

angelmb · Oct 8, 2006, 04:30 AM

It would be easy, maybe you would need to take the new SuperDrive's front bezel off, that is all I had to do with a Pioneer DVR 111-D to get it installed in a Power Mac MDD G4 since the optical drive tray wouldn't close. So far this Pioneer model works great with iLife apps and Toast 6 & 7.

There is a topic about another user replacing the G5's stock SuperDrive right here:

Need replacement superdrive for PowerMac G5 - what fits? - MacNN Forums

Zoom · Oct 9, 2006, 09:13 AM

Okay, folks - sounds good! I think I'll find myself a deal on a 111D! I'll try to report back once I get it installed.

robby818 · Oct 9, 2006, 02:43 PM

My cd drive was stuck in its footholds (there's four screws under the drive that slide into metal tabs on the chassis). in order to get a better grip on the drive i used two thick cables wrapped around the drive and pulled it toward me. of course don't forget to detach the ribbon cable from the motherboard before pulling the drive out

Zoom · Oct 11, 2006, 11:46 PM

Well, I think it's working....

The install wasn't bad, but I highly recommend reading Apple's optical upgrade guide to do it. I had a very hard time getting the bezel off the front with the drawer in, but I guess there's a drawer release pin hole you can hit that will let it slide out - THAT would have saved me a good 10 minutes.

Anyway, I slapped it in and fired up my PowerMac G5. The System Profiler under Disk Buring says "Burn Support: Yes (unsupported)" which I find terribly contradictory. I tried DVD Player and it didn't seem to want to work, though the DVD was mounted on the desktop and Toast seemed okay with the new drive. iDVD complained about a "disk read error" or something.

I futzed around on the net looking for wisdom. Then, for the hell of it, I tried it again - since just about everyone said "it just works". And it worked. Weird. Not sure if I did something wrong or if maybe the system needed a little time to get used to the drive... no clue.

So, for now, it seems to work. Anyone know of a definitive test? Something like "if you can do XYZ, then it should work will all iApps"?

macgeek2005 · Oct 11, 2006, 11:59 PM

Wait, it's a project to replace an optical drive in a G5 tower? I've never owned one, or even used one first hand, but I've always assumed that they are as easy as in any computer.....

Zoom · Oct 12, 2006, 01:33 AM

No, it's pretty easy, you just need to know a couple tricks - at least the physical installation part. The software/OS support is what I'm worried about.