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iBook G4 DVD drive - anyone have tips to "goose" back to life?
Posted by: J English Smith on 2017-03-13 10:02:20
One of my iBook G4's has a slot-loading drive that will load CDs and eject, but not mount the disk. Has anyone managed to fix that issue via either a software fix, cleaning the lens, etc? I'm prepared to live with it if I have to, as doing a full teardown seems like a real pain... It was working previously.

Posted by: 360alaska on 2017-03-14 06:19:41
some say this works:http://lifehacker.com/clean-your-laptops-slot-loading-dvd-drive-with-a-credi-1546763763

Posted by: quinterro on 2017-03-15 17:05:54
May have to try this - I had a DVD Combo drive in my iBook G4 1.33ghz 12" and managed to find a SuperDrive from an iBook G4 14".  After the swap it wouldn't mount any discs either.

I have no interest at the moment to disassemble it yet again to swap it back right now...

Posted by: J English Smith on 2017-03-16 14:28:55
Didn't work, alas, on first try, with a little lens cleaner applied. I may give it one more go. It's frustrating that it pulls in the disk but then can't read it. On the plus side, one of my 800mhz iBooks mysteriously revived this week - it was having power management issues but those seem to be fixed for now, at least when it is plugged in to the charger.

You win some and you lose some...

Posted by: Jerry507 on 2017-03-19 18:29:12
I just finished re-calibrating the laser on the CDROM from my Powerbook 1400. Mine had exactly the same issue, so I tried the easy fix of cleaning the lens which was unsuccessful. I disassembled the drive and adjust a small potentiometer on the laser unit. Took about a hour of fiddling but I finally got it dialed in.

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