[jeff k]

My DVD seems to be giving me some problems.
Sometimes burns fail sometimes succeed.
Is there a definitive way to know if it's the burner or not? How do you know if you burner is good of bad?

Also:
What is the replacement drive/ part for the DVD burner, any links appreciated. Maybe I can hire someone to come by and replace that.

And what about Laser disc cleaners, and doing firmware update for the drive. thanks! again, any links or ideas appreciated!

10.6.8

[phil_w73]

In my experience - its always the drive itself. Spent many years of my life a Certified Apple Technician and it was never (well, hardly, ever) software.

Best to cut your losses and get an Apple Store or Authorised repair shop to swap it out - if under warranty, easy, if not, should be able to get an exchange price rather than full as you're providing one (albeit faulty) as part of the transaction...

Just my 2c

[P]

Cheapest is to buy an external DVD that runs off USB.

[jeff k]

Thanks guys, did order an external one today. Any recommendations on where to buy the internal replacement? not under warranty.

[P]

Not really. iFixit used to sell them, but either I can't navigate or they don't any more.

[jmiddel]

I can't find it either. I looked all over for the drive you'd need, and found nothing. Externals are sooo cheap, under $20 for usb 2, why bother with replacing the internal? I mean, if you really want to open up your iMac, replace the optical witha a SSD, that will truly make a difference.

[jeff k]

J don't understand:
eplace the optical witha a SSD, that will truly make a difference.

The only reason is when I sell this one day on ebay, for a drive I only used 20 burns for, I have to announce the DVD/ CD BURNER DOES NOT WORK ALL TIME WELL.

It just kills the sale no?

[P]

What jmiddel is suggesting is that you replace the optical with an SSD and move the OS and apps to that. It will speed up the Mac greatly, and will probably help your reslae value when you get to that point.

[Waragainstsleep]

The PATA based slim optical drives went out of production a while back and the price spiked fairly immediately. Once upon a time they were cheap and easy to find if you knew where to look. You'll get one from Apple if you want but you'll pay through the nose for it more than likely. eBay is not a bad idea or a place that sells used Mac parts. Get an Apple store to quote you the exchange price and if its high, look to eBay. If you can stand to swap it yourself, you might find it cheaper to buy a whole (faulty or older) iMac to take one from.

Apple will match the current drive as closely as possible and if it happens to be an expensive model it will not help you. If you go to eBay, any iMac drive over a certain age as well as any drive from a PowerBook G4 or iBook G4 will work just fine. A lot of PC laptop drives would work too but you'd be better off matching the model of the drive in that case. Any Apple-shipped drive should work.

[jeff k]

thanks P/W.
Wow, I thought internals were cheap $50, and then I could get someone off craig list to install it $50 --

But I've learned from another thread that installing these is a beast and can ruin the whole machine if done poorly. I may just have to admit that the drive is sometimes bad when I sell it down the road. What's a good way to word that!

BTW the text on this forum is so small, what's the deal with that?

[Waragainstsleep]

Best term to use is 'intermittent fault.'

[jeff k]

W thanks, you would put this:



Computer in excellent condition except intermittent fault with DVD burner.

Do you think that would degrade the final rate by a lot. pity no?