Dvd drive dead...and MANY more problems

hi there,
I had a bad sector on my hard drive, so i couldn't boot my machine. I had a diskwarrior cd, so i rebuilt the volume. AFter process, the machine restarted, and ejected the cd. I went to put it back in, and pop grrrrr buzz dvd drive crapped out...mechanically. I've restarted a few times since, in verbose mode, and it hangs up waiting for a cd...so i'm guessing the machine needs the diskwarrior cd present to finish the rebuilding job. how ultimately annoying.
i went out and bought, absolutely hesitatingly, a torx set which would open the 'scenester' screws on my tibook. took the optical drive out, and obviously the part that i beleive is unhinged/broken is hidden under a metal surface.
so now here's my thing. all i want is to start my bloody machine again. i rarely use the optical drive int he first place...so i'd consider an external drive. i dont need a fancy superdrive or anything as well. infact i'm skeptical about buying any other model optical drive, as i dont have the capability to install supplementary drivers...as my machine wont boot
i also can't afford the absurd price for the replacement (cw-8121-c), i've seen it a bunch of places for 200$USD. I'm a dead broke recent student. I'm fairly sure if i can't find a solution for under 50$ then it's over with apple and I.
So basically what this is, is a general call for anything sensical. I'm open to any suggestions anyone may have, and my gawd would i be thankful. I started as a mac person 15 years ago, but with my horrible track record im moving to 'indifferent' person status.
thanks in advance!

You could try this one on eBay perhaps, it's a risky one but it's no money so it may be worth it.

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Stuck: Need Disk repair but DVD drive dead and only have USB 1

[1 Ghz flat-panel iMac with USB 1 ports (no USB 2) and also Firewire 400]
I noticed a strange discrepancy (small but concerning) between the size of a folder on hard drive (folder of all mp3's with no subfolders) and the backup of the same folder on a mounted thumb drive.
(The size difference was not due to any invisible .DS_Store files and both folders are displayed in List view format.)
Disk Utility reports three things:
1. Incorrect number of thread records
2. Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
3. Checking volume information.
Volume free block count",0) [I might have mangled this line]
(It should be 13438611 instead of 13437937)
Here is the GOOD (but these are useless as explained under the "Bad"):
- I have a Tiger 10.4 boot DVD for a repair ==>but see below
- I also have a Disk Warrior disk (never used)
Here is the BAD:
- My built-in optical drive [Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-105] is -- I now discover - defunct and DEAD - it does not run the Tiger Boot DVD (in pristine shape).
- I bought an external SuperDrive (unopened) but I believe no boot from USB 1 is possible in PowerPC so a SuperDrive with USB 1 is useless.
Questions:
1.) Is there any way to boot from some external source (optical drive is DEAD) to run Disk Utility and/or Disk Warrior? -- I see none in this case! (gulp).
2.) More importantly (and this is my fundamental concern): Do the three Disk Utility hard drive issues constitute any direct threat to the integrity of my files?
I have almost everything backed up to duplicate thumb drives over these many months as standard practice.
Are these Disk Utility errors fully isolated to hard drive directory-keeping...or do these directory damage errors pose the possibility of mangling or harming my files or their metadata (filesize, etc.).
Put another way, when files are backed-up from a hard drive under the Disk Utility reports above, do they remain unharmed and undamaged by the situations reported by Disk Utility?
Thanks,
Bill

Jeff and Michael,
Thank you both for your generous and thoughtful input.
Michael: As I slept on it overnight, the exact same idea occurred to me of trying a Target Mode to the iMac from my Lion MacbookPro (I have it but stupidly have yet to use it much!).
I did buy a Firewire 800 (MBP) to Firewire 400 (iMac) adapter cable a few months ago!
CONCERN: Would there be potential compatibility issues or risks in running Lion 10.7's Disk Utility against the hard drive of the old OSX 10.4 iMac in Target Disk Mode?
==> Assuming an "it's ok" answer to the Target Disk question, would the majority of users agree that the Target Disk Mode would be more prudent than running:
fsck -fy in Single User Mode
I have never done fsck -fy before especially because I was under the impression there were issues with Journaled drived but from what I have read today...it looks ok to do)
Jeff: Can't thank you enough for the reference to the OTW DVD drive. I might first invest $10 in one of those DVD lens cleaner disks that I've read about. It's probably not the issue or else why would the drive read commercial Music cds perfectly well!
Thanks,
Bilil

SRW2048 - Webinterface doesn't work and many more problems

I bought a SRW2048 last week and I've updated the firmware to v1.2.2
I have many problems with this switch:
a) Firefox doesn't work with the webinterface
b) IE7 doesn't work with the webinterface
c) IE8 doesn't work with the webinterface
d) ONLY IE6 works.
e) if it works with IE6 (sometimes it doesn't) then it's sooooo slow
f) the informations for Link Aggregation are wrong
g) SNTP doesn't work
h) setting the time manually and the time zone doesn't work with summer time in germany. i never get the correct time.
Has any of the developers ever used the web interface?
Message Edited by Heathen on 08-14-2008 07:29 AM

I have SRW2016, 1.2.2 firmware. Web interface works with IE7 but not FF3 (not tested with IE6 or FF2). When using IE7, however, it keeps saying
This website wants to run the following add-on: 'MSXML 5.0' from 'Microsoft Corporation'.
Other than that it works fine. I suggest you try a few different computers with various browser versions because it could be a browser settings/profile thing.
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G50-70: empty DVD-drive clicking and freezing other drives for about 30 seconds all the time

Hello board. Big problem. Seem to be the only one having this after searching the board:
Brand new G50-70: When using OS from the SSD or using OS from the SSD and doing things with a USB-drive, the empty internal DVD-drive making clicking sound and sometimes freezing SSD read/write operation for about 30 seconds but all the time freezing USB-storage read/write operation for about 30 seconds.
When freezing there's always clicking. But when clicking there's not always freezing except when using USB-storage.
OS is Win81-64.
An example scenario: connect USB stick, open terminal, type diskpart, dvd-drive clicks and freezes opening of diskpart for about 30 seconds, then the same may or may not happen when entering commands like clear the stick and format the stick.
Any clues, why I have this issue? Thank you very much for reading.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

hi georg43,
it's possible that there's a software running on startup that's accessing the ODD when the machine is being used (especially if the ODD LED blinks when it's being accessed)..
To check, you can perform a clean boot to temporarily disable apps & services running on startup. If the machine functions properly on a clean boot, you will need to enable the startup services/programs that you have disabled in groups of two or three (trial and error) to find the culprit. You can start by enabling the lenovo services and apps first followed by the Intel ones and observe.
In addition, you can also try to disable the DVD-drive under device manager and observe.
- Link to picture
Regards
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Ok i get this error when hooking my dvd drive up and tring to use my windows 7 cdNo Bootable device. Insert boot disk and press any key. i have tried to use command key i see the cd icon and hit that and i get the error

ok i get this error when hooking my dvd drive up and tring to use my windows 7 cdNo Bootable device. Insert boot disk and press any key. i have tried to use command key i see the cd icon and hit that and i get the error

Wiley207 wrote:
Believe it or not, it was the FireWire drive that was the problem! I managed to successfully install Windows 7 using an external USB DVD drive!
Well I am truly staggered, I have tried this on two different MacBook Pros, with three different external USB optical drives. Don't know if you googled as I suggested but you would find hundreds of others who have found same thing. The exception is MacBook Air which works with the Apple writer, but I don't know much about this.
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What model USB DVD drive?

I think my spouse is using apps like YouMail and many more to throw me off her real location and different things of that nature. How do I tell if I'm miss informed?o

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I suggest you talk to your spouse: honest communication is the only approach when this kind of question bothers your mind. There's no way that anyone here can tell you anything useful.

Digital persona(fingerprint reader) extension is incompatable with firefox 4.0b7 and many more extension which is working in firefox 3.6 is not compatable with this version

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My ipod touch 4g is missing alot of important apps like settings, music, itunes store, app store and many more and i was wondering if there is any way at all to fix this for free or less than 70 dollars

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First try using Spotlight Search to find Settings. If that works go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Home Screen Settings. If you can't get to Settings:
Try a reset:
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red "slide to power off" slider appears, and then slide the slider.
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.
If that doesn't work do a restore from backup or to factory settings:
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DVD drive issues and other problems

Nothing but problems with my mac since day one. This is the reason why I went from PC to Mac to avoid all these problems.
Started with DVD drive problems. Took my computer in as they said wound need to replace the drive -and it would take a week.... sorry I can't be down for a week. Many of my businesses rely heavily on me have access to my computer.
There have been many small glitches since then also. Some times the display wont come back on after I have closed the lid and re-opened. Only way to get it working again is to do a manual restart.... and sometimes that doesn't even work.
<Title Edited by Host>

I forgot to mention that I have also cleared my PRAM (a few times) -- so that's probably not the culprit.

CD/DVD Drive Dead

Hey everyone,
My CD/DVD Drive is dead. Trying to reinstall the OS 10.6.
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Cd/dvd drive disappeared and spits out cds and dvds

hi all, i got a plastic case 24" imac 2.33 with osx tiger. i noticed the drive hadnt showed in my finder folder quite awhile now but paid no mind to it. a week ago a friend brought over a rush dvd to watch and it spit it out everytime i put it in, i thought bad dvd. months before that i noticed i had to really work to get disks to eject. theyd come out a lil then suck back in. today i tried to put in a blank cd and it spit it out right away after many attempts. same disk works fine in my mas older imac. looks like many here having same problem. any answers from apple? please not another issue like the airport express that mac never acknowledged. that took me almost a week to fix while apple has still never offered a solution.
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thanks

hello all,
i got a remedy from phone support today. heres the scoop:
step 1: insert your install disk 1 from apple. it your drive sees it goto step 2. if no disk appears make reservation at genius bar.
step 2: eject disk shut down comp. restart, press and hold down appleoption+pr until you hear 2 chimes. release buttons. try a commercial cd(store bought music), if it fails try another commercial cd to be sure its not the disk. do the same procedure with a dvd. next do the same procedure with a blank cd. open system preferences cd/dvd change top two options to, ask what to do, just in case they been changed.
i did everything but insert the install disk before without any luck. that maybe the trick.
im a happy man again, thanks to apple phone support.
good luck all
peace

Mac Mini DVD Drive fail and upgrading to Snow Leopard

Hey, my Mac Mini has a dvd drive failure, ir reads cd's but just spits out dvd's. It no longer burns cd's either.
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Sure,
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DVD drive issue and permissions repair

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3. Would I gain anything by booting to install media and running the verify and repair from there?
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Could the problem I'm seeing with my DVD drive be related to permissions of some of the system files?
If you've repaired permissions, and you still have the problem, then the answer is no.
Do I have anything to worry about with the disk permissions not appearing to be repaired?
Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore
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No.

Satellite L300D-11A - DVD-drive issue and Blue Screen

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I'm going out of my mind :o//
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Are you talking about *Upper/Lower Filters* ?
Follow these instructions for clearing the Upper/Lower Filters:
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Empty DVD drive spins and hums while battery is charging

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Arvin: Are you quite certain there's no disc in the drive? Nearly all of the vibration that you feel and the sound that you hear when an optical drive is operating normally is caused by the disc itself being minutely (or sometimes not so minutely) unbalanced. There should be far less noise and vibration without any disc in the drive, because only the drive motor is spinning. Of course without a disc in the drive, the motor shouldn't be spinning at all — as you know.
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Dvd drive dead...and MANY more problems

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