Internal Optical Drive iMac Intel

The optical drive on one of my iMacs has decided to go tits-up. Basically it
does the following:

1 sometimes it declines to read a disc. If a disc is inserted into the drive,
the drive will whirr a few times, then spit it out. If the disc is reinserted
it will usually mount. Sometimes a disc might have to be reinserted two or
three times to get it to mount. The disc in question might be a CD or DVD, it
makes no difference. Commercial disc or burned disc, including discs burned
on that particular machine, no difference.

2 if I want to burn a disc, it will sometimes work... and sometimes it will
write the lead-in, write the data, and then _fail to write_ the lead-out,
making the disc a coaster. This applies to all types of discs, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs,
DVD+Rs, double-sided DVDs.

3 lately it has been failing to write the lead-out more often than not. It's
also been reporting a spindle error.

I suspect that the drive is not long for this world. Anyone know how much
Apple is likely to charge to replace it in a machine _not_ covered by
AppleCare? I suspect buying a new external drive would be cheaper. I've got a
Lite-On external drive for some of my WinBoxes, and that drive appears to
work properly on that machine. The Lite-On software is all Windows software
(and Windows software which knows not Win7 at that...) but Toast detects the
drive and so does iTunes. I'd prefer a drive with Mac software and a FireWire
connection instead of USB. Anyone have any good candidates? About the only
one I can see is a LaCie box, and the USB-only version of that costs about
twice what the Lite-On cost.

It should be noted that the optical drives on my iMac G5 and my eMacs, all of
them original equipment, work fine and they're older devices. The optical
drive in my beige G3 is _not_ original equipment (it's another Lite-On,
actually) but it's nearly a decade old, and it's running fine, too.

--
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.

On 2009/10/30 1:52 PM J.J. O'Shea wrote:
> I'd prefer a drive with Mac software and a FireWire
> connection instead of USB. Anyone have any good candidates? About the only
> one I can see is a LaCie box, and the USB-only version of that costs about
> twice what the Lite-On cost.
>

Check out Other World Computing. They have firewire drives starting at
US $ 84.99.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/


--
Larry I. Gusaas
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan Canada
Website: http://larry-gusaas.com
"An artist is never ahead of his time but most people are far behind theirs." - Edgard Varese

Bream Rockmetteller <bream-dot.rockmetteller-> wrote:

> They bought me an iMac at work a few years ago and the spring seems to
> have broken on the optical drive so that, in general, it works, but you
> just can't get the disc out.

I have a CD player in one of my cars like that. Oh, I'm sure I could get
the CD out, but the odds of ever getting another one in afterwards don't
seem so good. :-( It was a good CD, but getting a bit boring. :-) We
don't tend to use the CD player much any more anyway. Sure isn't worth
what it would cost to get it replaced (being a built in one).

--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgment.
domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain

In comp.sys.mac.system J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:
> The optical drive on one of my iMacs has decided to go tits-up. Basically it
> does the following:

<snip>

Have you tried cleaning the lens? I'd try that before replacing the
whole unit. A lens cleaning has revived a failing optical drive for me
more than once.

--
K.

Lang may your lum reek.

On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:12:40 -0400, Király wrote
(in article <I_%Gm.50025$Db2.48305@edtnps83>):

> In comp.sys.mac.system J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:
>> The optical drive on one of my iMacs has decided to go tits-up. Basically
>> it
>> does the following:
>
> <snip>
>
> Have you tried cleaning the lens? I'd try that before replacing the
> whole unit. A lens cleaning has revived a failing optical drive for me
> more than once.
>
>

I'll try that. Apple says that it would cost between $350-600 to replace the
internal unit. External units start at about $50. If a lens-cleaner doesn't
do the trick I'll be buying an external unit.

--
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.

J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:

> On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:12:40 -0400, Király wrote
> (in article <I_%Gm.50025$Db2.48305@edtnps83>):
>
> > In comp.sys.mac.system J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:
> >> The optical drive on one of my iMacs has decided to go tits-up.
> > Have you tried cleaning the lens?
> I'll try that. Apple says that it would cost between $350-600 to replace the
> internal unit. External units start at about $50. If a lens-cleaner doesn't
> do the trick I'll be buying an external unit.

That's likely to be the best option (after the lens cleaning, of
course). One other option, though, is to find an Apple repair shop that
will work on a time&materials basis. Apple tends to charge a fixed rate
for pretty much anything that involves opening the box. I suppose that
has an advantage of leting you know the max cost. It has the
disadvantage that it is also the min cost and it tends to be sort of
high for simple repairs.

My daughter once had a Macbook pro with a fan that was sounding ill.
Worked fine, but I figured that right after she went back to school on
the other coast, the fan would probably die and need replacing before
the heat killed the rest of the machine. Seemed a lot more convenient to
fix it before the fact. Apple wanted... gee I don't recall exactly, but
it was something really ludicrous that wasn't too far below what it
would have cost me to buy a whole new machine; if it wasn't $1000, it
was close.

The Apple genius even recommended that I take it elsewhere instead and
gave me a list of nearby certified Apple repair places. I did so and
they did the job for something much more reasonable - I think it was
around $100, which isn't cheap, but at least isn't ludicrous. Having
opened up one of those cases myself, I understand that it ain't going to
come from free or very close to it.

--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgment.
domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain

Jolly Roger <> wrote:

> In article <>,
> J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:

> > >> The optical drive on one of my iMacs has decided to go tits-up.
....
> Why go through Apple when you can do it yourself much cheaper? OWC sells
> replacement SuperDrives for Mac minis for $88:
>
> <http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/superdrive/>

Note he said iMac. While it might be the same drive (I didn't check, but
it is likely), replacing the drive in an iMac isn't entirely trivial.
Doable, but not trivial. I did open up one of my iMacs once, but I'd be
hesitant to recommend it to someone else who wasn't already confident
about it (i.e. anyone who would need a recommendation from me.)

I've opened up minis a few times (mostly to upgrade ram); it's easier.

--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgment.
domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain

On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:29:02 -0400, J.J. O'Shea
<> wrote:

>On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:12:40 -0400, Király wrote
>(in article <I_%Gm.50025$Db2.48305@edtnps83>):
>
>> In comp.sys.mac.system J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:
>>> The optical drive on one of my iMacs has decided to go tits-up. Basically
>>> it
>>> does the following:
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> Have you tried cleaning the lens? I'd try that before replacing the
>> whole unit. A lens cleaning has revived a failing optical drive for me
>> more than once.
>>
>>
>
>I'll try that. Apple says that it would cost between $350-600 to replace the
>internal unit. External units start at about $50. If a lens-cleaner doesn't
>do the trick I'll be buying an external unit.

Is there something special about the internal unit that you can't
replace it yourself with a standard unit?

=-=-=
Barry

See the website Gladys hates
Find out why she fears it so
http://members.iinet.net.au/~barry.og

In article <jollyroger->,
Jolly Roger <> wrote:

> In article <1j8gozn.13ucaod1mizl82N%>,
> ure (Richard Maine) wrote:
>
> > Jolly Roger <> wrote:
> >
> > > In article <>,
> > > J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:
> >
> > > > >> The optical drive on one of my iMacs has decided to go tits-up.
> > ...
> > > Why go through Apple when you can do it yourself much cheaper? OWC sells
> > > replacement SuperDrives for Mac minis for $88:
> > >
> > > <http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/superdrive/>
> >
> > Note he said iMac. While it might be the same drive (I didn't check, but
> > it is likely), replacing the drive in an iMac isn't entirely trivial.
> > Doable, but not trivial. I did open up one of my iMacs once, but I'd be
> > hesitant to recommend it to someone else who wasn't already confident
> > about it (i.e. anyone who would need a recommendation from me.)
> >
> > I've opened up minis a few times (mostly to upgrade ram); it's easier.
>
> My bad. For some reason I read "Mac mini". You're right - it's a bit
> harder with an iMac, but definitely not impossible.

I've got an early 2006 iMac whose SuperDrive lost usefulness shortly
after the warranty expired. (No AppleCare; my bad.) I replaced the drive
with the equivalent from OWC. This is not a job for the faint of heart.
I needed 1 or 2 more sizes of torx screwdrivers than I had on hand, plus
that stiff plastic unlatcher thingie. A friend had supplied me with the
pdf of the teardown manual, so that gave me the confidence I needed to
accomplish the job.

When the OWC drive eventually got to the point of extreme flakiness, I
threw in the towel and bought an external drive.

--
is a filtered spam magnet. Email replies may get lost.
Try <http://public.xdi.org/=chris.schram> instead.

On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:32:31 -0500, Jolly Roger wrote
(in article <jollyroger->):

> In article <>,
> J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:12:40 -0400, Király wrote
>> (in article <I_%Gm.50025$Db2.48305@edtnps83>):
>>
>>> In comp.sys.mac.system J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:
>>>> The optical drive on one of my iMacs has decided to go tits-up. Basically
>>>> it
>>>> does the following:
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>> Have you tried cleaning the lens? I'd try that before replacing the
>>> whole unit. A lens cleaning has revived a failing optical drive for me
>>> more than once.
>>
>> I'll try that. Apple says that it would cost between $350-600 to replace
>> the
>> internal unit.
>
> Why go through Apple when you can do it yourself much cheaper? OWC sells
> replacement SuperDrives for Mac minis for $88:
>
> <http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/superdrive/>
>
>

The only thing worse than opening up an Intel iMac is opening up an eMac. And
eMacs use conventional optical drives, horizontally mounted. iMacs use
slot-loader drives, vertically mounted. Slot-loader drives are significantly
more expensive than tray-loader drivers (I can get a tray-loader for $30-40
without a problem, and probably could get one for less if I tried) and
vertical-mount slot-loaders are more expensive still. I'm really not looking
forward to opening up the back of an Intel iMac, not just for swapping out
one component. If I did, I'd yank the hard drive as well and put in a
higher-capacity one. Right now the hard drive is fine. Should there be a
problem, though, then I'd open up iMac and replace both the hard drive and
the optical drive.

--
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.