External DVD drive not working

Question

Need some help with this one:
My sister-in-law has an iMac G4 1.25Ghz 17” LCD USB 2.0 with 10.4.11.
The internal DVD-ROM CD-RW died awhile back so she purchased a Sony external DVD-ROM CD-RW USB 2.0 to take its place.
Everything was working fine.
Recently, she had some bad sectors on her HD (5 yrs old anyhow), so I purchased her a new HD, installed it and while I had the case open, I removed the broken internal DVD-ROM CD-RW. Installed a fresh 10.4.11
System profiler can see the USB Sony DVD-ROM CD-RW, but when a disk is installed, or when I open Apple DVD player, it says a disk drive cannot be found.
The DVD can be seen on the desktop.
System prefs is configured to open Apple DVD player when a DVD is inserted.
I hooked the new Sony drive to my setup (iMac G5 2.0) and the drive works fine when I put in a DVD.
Would removing the old broken DVD-ROM drive from the G4 cause the new external USB Sony not to work??
Any suggestion? I checked Sony’s site and there is no d/l’s for the drive.
Thanks,
--Bob Aldridge
Huntsville, AL

Answer 1

Hey Bob,
My understanding of this is that when you install the OS there is like a "shake hands" with the DVD-ROM chip on the internal ATA bus by the installer. The installer then installs/enables the necessary components to play DVDs.
Would removing the old broken DVD-ROM drive from the G4 cause the new external USB Sony not to work??
If you remove that drive that's probably why you get the:
"An installed DVD player cannot be found" error.
I did not re-apply any thermal compound on the heat pipes. Is the compound something I can get a Radio Shack?
Here's the exact procedure from the 1.25 Service Manual:
"This procedure requires the following tools:
• Plastic stylus or plastic spatula to remove the old thermal paste
• Plastic stylus or plastic spatula to spread the thermal paste
• Thermal paste (922-4757)
Part Location
1. Thoroughly clean the original thermal film from the mating surfaces (circled below) of
the bottom housing and thermal pipe. Use a plastic stylus to scrape the surfaces
clean. Note: Do not use an abrasive material or liquid cleaner.
2. Squeeze a ball of thermal paste onto the mating surfaces of the thermal pipe.
3. Replace the bottom housing.
Warning: The bottom housing has four torx screws that must be tightened to at least
17 in.-lbs. Use a torque driver (service tool 076-0899) to ensure that the thermal pipe
is firmly mated with the top base. If you do not have a torque driver, you must make
sure the screws are tightened by hand FIRMLY, BUT NOT FORCIBLY.
Failure to apply the thermal paste as described in this procedure, and failure to
tighten the torx screws as directed, could cause the computer to overheat and
damage internal components."
I personally haven't had a 1.25 apart. The 700s and 800s I've had apart have a silicone pad like material or thick rubber compond on the heat pipes. The manuals for those machines refer to "thermal pads".
I think you could use a thermal pad material like from Micro Center, Comp USA or Radio Shack.
This is the Radio Shack stuff:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2295074&cp=&sr=1&kw=therma lpad&origkw=thermalpad&parentPage=search
If the thermal stuff was not too badly damaged you'll probably be OK but I'd probably run Temperature Monitor for a while just to make sure.
Richard