Problem with G5 optical drive

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Robert Haar - 28 Jan 2006 18:01 GMT

The CD/DVD drive on my Power Mac is not reading CDs.

This is a dual CPY G5 with the dual layer CD/DVD Superdrive. It had been
working with no indications of any problems. Today, I cannot read any of
several CDs, both commercial (data and music) and ones that I created on the
same machine. When I load in a disk, I can hear the drive clicking as it
tries to read, but the disk is never mounted and the drive door eventually
opens by itself. TO make matters confusing, I also tried a commercial movie
at that plays just fine.

Is there any kind of cleaning or adjusting that I can do without opening the
drive case? Are there any other test that I could perform to diagnose the
problem?

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Ben - 28 Jan 2006 20:22 GMT

> The CD/DVD drive on my Power Mac is not reading CDs.
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> drive case? Are there any other test that I could perform to diagnose the
> problem?

If it is reading DVD's but not CD's then it is probably the laser unit,
cleaning will probably not help as these dual units have 2 lasers (DVD's
use a different wavelength to CD's) but both share the same optical
path, so as one is OK then the optics are probably clean.
your cheapest option would probably be to replace it with a pioneer
DVR110 / DVR110d as they work fine in the Mac (you may need PatchBurn
for some programs, but the Mac will recognise and boot from it fine)
Here in the UK the 110D is about £30 (US$50 ?) and would be a lot less
than having Apple fix it, it is also very easy to fit (I assume it is a
tower G5 and not a G5 iMac you have).
Ben.

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Robert Haar - 29 Jan 2006 04:13 GMT

>> The CD/DVD drive on my Power Mac is not reading CDs.
>>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> use a different wavelength to CD's) but both share the same optical
> path, so as one is OK then the optics are probably clean.

Thanks for this explanation. I knew that there were differences between the
CD and DVD portions but did not realize that two separate lasers were
involved. I makes sense that something is blown with the laser for CDs.

I tried some data DVDs and was able to read them OK. That reinforces the
idea of something wrong in the CD portion of the drive.

> your cheapest option would probably be to replace it with a pioneer
> DVR110 / DVR110d as they work fine in the Mac (you may need PatchBurn
> for some programs, but the Mac will recognise and boot from it fine)
> Here in the UK the 110D is about £30 (US$50 ?) and would be a lot less
> than having Apple fix it,

The whole computer is less than a year old, so it should be covered under
warrantee. I would prefer to not have to send my computer to Apple for
repair. I wonder if I can get them to ship me a replacement drive.

>it is also very easy to fit (I assume it is a
> tower G5 and not a G5 iMac you have).

Yes, the Power Mac is a tower configuration. Swapping drives is something
that I feel comfortable doing myself.

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Malcolm - 29 Jan 2006 05:29 GMT

> The whole computer is less than a year old, so it should be covered under
> warrantee. I would prefer to not have to send my computer to Apple for
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Yes, the Power Mac is a tower configuration. Swapping drives is something
> that I feel comfortable doing myself.

If Apple is convinced the drive is bad, they will send a new one, along
with a prepaid label to ship the bad one back. They will want a credit
card number so they can charge you if the old drive is not returned.

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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / January 2006

Problem with G5 optical drive