IMac G4 Optical Drive Replacement?

I want to buy a used iMac G4. I've found one for a good price - only problem is, the guy says the Optocal Drive is broken. Is it possible to replace it, prefferably cheaply?
Thanks!

Hello,
So long as you're fairly handy with a torx screwdriver it's possible and cheap.
Here's a guide I wrote a few years ago:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/3711034#3711034
Photos to assist here:
http://www.mrtotes.co.uk/page1/page1.html
Thermal Paste:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/nano-diamond-thermal-compound-32417
PRAM battery (always worth changing on a Mac of this age):
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/displayProduct.jsp?sku=BT03447&CMP=e-2072-00001000
"Factory" RAM:
PC133 (700, 800MHz models) is now to expensive to be worth upgrading to the 512MB max (for this slot).
PC2700 (1GHz, 1.25GHz models) is fairly expensive but especially if you have a 256MB module a 1GB upgrade might be worth doing at this point.
Hard Disk.
Why not go the whole hog and upgrade the hard disk (apart from the 700MHz iMac) just about any size PATA/IDE 3.5" Hard Disk Drive will fit.
I used to recommend Pioneer drives as you'll almost certainly have a Pioneer in there now but they don't seem to be available anymore. This LiteOn should 'just work'.
Hope this helps.
mrtotes

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Apple store installed optical drive replacement. It plays CD and DVD but will not let me change a DVD to .mp4 without stalling and or going very very slow. Can I fix the HL-DT-STDVDRW GA11NR?

Apple store installed optical drive replacement. It plays CD and DVD but will not let me change a DVD to .mp4 without stalling and or going very very slow. Can I fix the HL-DT-STDVDRW GA11NR? The Apple store is a two hundred mile one way trip.

I didn't imply anything; I simply explained the terms of the ToU here because you had not specified what you were trying to do. Most such related questions are about copying protected content and I would not appreciate having my post removed with the obligatory email from Apple because I violated the ToU. In any case, you can find dozens of threads googling (or here) about the newer burners being slow copying content if it is protected. FWIW, if the DVD was produced by a commercial outfit, they may have used some sort of protection or an unusual file format - that problem has been discussed here previously.
As for your slow burner - since we don't even know what type of Mac/model/year/OS you have, it is impossible to guess. If it's an iMac, those vertically installed burners are known to be less than perfect; the horizontally installed versions are better, but still not as good as an external. I've used an external burner for years.
As for the conversion time: the burner should have nothing to do with that; it is your software and your Mac's processor and amount of RAM that matter for conversions and rendering. I have no idea what you are using to burn the DVD. And, as a last consideration: you should always burn your content at a slow speed so you can avoid burn errors and have better results.
Good luck.

Can i use seagate goflex 3tb external hard drive for 2010 27" imac internal hard drive replacment if i take it out of the goflex case.do i need to format it before installation due to it allready having goflex software on it from manufacturer.

i have 3tb seagate goflex external hard drive.its brand new in package.i took it out of case and deleted partitions that were created by manufacturer.so now i have 2800 gigs.its formatted ntfs.will it work for late 2010 27" imac internal hard drive replacement.i found a apple repair place that will charge me 50$ to swap drives for me assuming i have the drive.i will have to install leopard myself at this price.i dont want to have to pay for anything other than the swap.will this hard drive work with this format or do i need to format it differently.

Hello
formatted ntfs
NTFS format not work on mac system , need to be formatted as Extended Mac os Journaled format and partition table need to be GUID
how to do that in video
HTH
Pierre

MacBook Pro Repeatedly Loads Purple & Teal Stripe, Gray, Light Blue, Bright Blue and Bright Blue Stripe Screens Instead of OS after Optical Drive Replacement by Apple (PICTURES INCLUDED)

17 inch March 26-29 (order date – shipping date) 2011 MacBook Pro, 256GB Solid State Drive, 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, 1 processer, 4 Cores, 256 KB L2 Cache per core, 8 MB L3 Cache, 8 GB Memory (8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB), AMD Radeon HD 6750M Video Card, Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 512 MB total of VRAM. 110 GBs of free/unused disk space remaining.
Full Specs are in subsequent post.
The issues described in the title continue even after I’ve reinstalled the operating system twice (Snow Leopard) and installed Mavericks (which is working fine and even faster). I’ve tried many commands to repair this.
If anyone has experienced any of the symptoms above or below, your advice and response will be much appreciated as well as marked. These are the details:
My Early 2011 MacBook Pro has had the typical blue screens, screen freezes and graphics issues since I bought it about three years ago but nothing like this and NEVER any load issues until about a month ago. That was when my superdrive replacement was put in.
Since then my MacBook Pro will go into hard freezes or kernel panics. Then I’ll have to power it down manually and power it up manually. It’ll then refuse to load the OS until after multiple tries. It started out just 2 or 3, then 4 or 5, then 6-12, then 20. Now it takes over 30 boots to load the OS. These boot issues also occur even if it doesn’t freeze, i.e.: when I shut it down or restart it naturally (via the Apple menu, etc.).
95% of the time it’ll load to a gray screen instead of the OS. 4% of the time it’ll load to a light blue screen. Then there are the others: the first time this happened it loaded to the striped purple and teal screen shown in the picture. This happened the next four times then intermittently for about 5 or so more times.
It also loaded gray flickering screens. Flickering screens also occurred right before it froze and had to be manually powered down and up. Then it began to load regular gray and light blue screens and all flickering screens stopped. And then bright blue screens a couple times intermittently for a few days, sometimes with lines. Sometimes it’ll load to a blank/black screen as well. I’d reset the NVRAM and SMC but it still continued, happening multiple times a day, each time taking more and more hard shut downs and hard power ons to finally load the OS.
Until I installed Mavericks, every time it finally loaded the OS Finder began indexing. After Mavericks this has occurred 95% of the time.
After talking to Apple Support they had me do a NVRAM and SMC reset again over the phone. The MacBook Pro refused to load the entire time we were on the phone. After the call it got worse. It froze over 6 times that day and at worse took over 30 boots to load the OS.
I finally had time to deal with it the next day when it froze again. After over 25 boots it loaded and I put in the Snow Leopard OS dvd and ran Disk Utility. I verified the hard drive and it said it was fine. Repaired the disk anyway and it gave this message at the end:
“Updating boot support partitions for volume required”.
Next I tried to start in safe mode and it just hung up for hours. Then started up in single mode and it loaded the OS. It then loaded normally for three times in a row. I reinstalled Snow Leopard. Everything loaded normally. I waited an hour or so and then I downloaded Mavericks. 5 or so hours later Mavericks was installed. Everything hardware wise was fine for a day and all software issues were easily fixable incompatibilities. My Mac was even faster with Mavericks. However, Photoshop did give a perhaps relevant message:
“Photoshop has encountered a problem with the display driver, and has temporarily disabled GPU enhancements. Check the video card manufacturer’s website for the latest software.
GPU enhancements can be enabled in the Performance panel of Preferences.”
(I have OpenGL enabled in Photoshop and it was already checked when this error occurred).
Two days ago I went to Disk Utility to repair permissions while logged in to a non-admin account. Verified and repaired the disk, then verified permissions. Everything fine. After repairing permissions however, it gave a weird error box:
"Unapproved caller, SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".
The box stayed “stuck” in the Disk Utility window. My MacBook Pro then failed to do anything. I manually powered it down and up. It loaded to a gray screen with the error message box again: "Unapproved caller, SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".
It then refused to load anything else but this message box on a gray screen even after rebooting it multiple times in safe, verbose and single modes and after resetting the NVRAM and SMC. I went online with an iPad and entered in the error and got some advice. I tried to run fsck and erase the /var/folders/ via single user mode but it still loaded to a gray screen with the error message. I just decided to skip to the end and Cmd-R loaded into recovery mode and reinstalled Mavericks again. That worked: the message has not appeared since.
Some people have said this error is related to a hard drive cable failure. I know that this cable was tampered with during the optical drive replacement procedures because I watched them do it.
Everything was fine for a day. Then yesterday my MacBook Pro froze while trying to open a VLC file. It took 12 boots to load the OS. I tried single mode once and verbose mode once. 10 times it loaded to gray screens, even in those mode. A Safe boot lead to a bright blue screen. Finally reset the SMC and it loaded on the 12th time.
Just five hours ago the same thing happened except it took over 30 boots to load the OS. Single, verbose and normal boots, NVRAM and SMC resets lead to gray screens. Safe boots lead to bright blue screens with and without lines (see pictures). Finally loaded on a normal boot.
I know I should have tried safe booting, verbose, single and recovery modes, disk utility, fsck and other command methods earlier this month but in the end, these methods have not solved the problem anymore than resetting the NVRAM or SMC.
There seems to be conclusive evidence that it’s a hardware problem, stemming from last month, the FIRST AND ONLY time my MacBook Pro was opened up. Maybe it’s the hard drive cable, but it could also be the graphics card and/or logic board (something that’s always been defective on this MacBook Pro, in my opinion). Many early 2011 MacBook Pro owners have given evidence to the latter possibility online.
The first time it started it seemed to stem from me using iPhoto and Photoshop a lot. I had both running continuously for about two weeks. This is another reason for suspecting the graphics card/logic board is at fault (in addition to three years of screen/graphics glitches). And since the card is soldered to the board and the board connected to the cable...I also have serious battery draining issues, something else that got bad after the Apple Superdrive repair. And the battery is connected to the board...
Also, since downloading Mavericks, windows from every app get blurry/fuzzy when I scroll or zoom in. I have read that this is happening to a lot of folks though for various reasons.
I guess it could always be the hard drive. I just don’t know. I’m taking it in to Apple, but can't right away because it’s not local. I know they’ll be able to run a test on the hard drive. I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem (especially the purple and teal striped screen) before they start poking around, possibly creating another problem that goes beyond my Apple Care Plan allotment.

SPECS OF MY MACBOOK PRO:
Model Name: March 26-29 2011 MacBook Pro (order date – shipping date)
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,3
Processor Name: Quad-core Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:    2.3 GHz
Number of Processors:    1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB Memory (8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB)
HARD DRIVE: 256GB Solid State Drive
DISPLAY: MBP 17" HR Antiglare WS Display
AMD Radeon HD 6750M:
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M
Type:    GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width:    x8
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x6741
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0170L-573
gMux Version: 1.9.24
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.573
Intel HD Graphics 3000:
Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Type:    GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0126
Revision ID: 0x0009
gMux Version: 1.9.24
Displays
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number:    C01111403GLDGKMAE
Manufacturer: DP
Device Name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:    0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0406
Hardware Revision: 0001
Cell Revision:    1102
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 4583
Fully Charged:    No
Charging: Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 7765
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 276
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA):    -4487
Voltage (mV): 11306
System Power Settings:
AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake on LAN: No
Current Power Source: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
GPUSwitch: 2
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    5
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
GPUSwitch: 2
Reduce Brightness: Yes
Hardware Configuration:
UPS Installed:    No
AC Charger Information:
Connected: Yes
ID:    0x0100
Wattage (W): 85
Revision: 0x0000
Family: 0x0085
Serial Number:    0x007ad8c5
Charging: Yes
Current operating system: 10.9.3 (Mavericks) ; Installed on 6/21/14
Previous operating system: 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard); Installed 4/4/11
        Reinstalled multiple times. Last reinstall: 6/21/14

What external dvd drive is compatible with IMAC with optical drive

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I was wondering if there's a way to make it so that the fan is quiet at the boot screen too...it's quite annoying turning my iMac on and hearing that obnoxiously loud whirring sound as it's booting up. Is it possible, or can it just be controlled while I'm actually logged in?

An iPad is a great device, but it's no computer replacement. It lacks the file sharing/structure that comptuers have and the ability to easily get files onto/off it without the internet.
That said, if you still have your desktop and use it for most of the computing work and basically just want a photo viewer, check your e-mail device, then it may work for you.
The networked harddrive will be the hard part. Since the iPad lacks a file manager anything you use on it must have an app so that you can access it. And that app also must be allowed to 'send' your files to another app. So that may be what you really need to research. The ability and ease of using a network drive to do the file sharing you want.

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thanks

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Hi,
I recently replaced my HDD with an SSD and the Superdrive with the old HDD. Is there any possibility to install Windows 8.1 with help of an external Superdrive or a bootable USB stick without removing HDD/SSD again?! Would be great!
Thanks,
Linksaussen13

okay, thanks!
but I guess the bigger problem will be that the internal Superdrive is replaced and that there is not support for installing windows from an external optical drive if you had an internal drive before. Or am I false!?
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iMac internal drive locks up after trying to play a DVD. CD's work properly. All preference settings are correct. I have tried several different DVD's that work in other drives. Drive is : HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA11N. After spinning wheel of doom goes away, so does the optical drive in Disk Utility and System Profiler and no disks work because the drive isn't there until a restsrt. Any ideas? Thanks.

The battery alone is a $5 to $15 part. Hard drives vary in cost, and depending on the iMac, they may or may not be able to install a third party hard drive, or one resold through Apple. The resold through Apple drives tend to cost more. This article discusses the varying successes of third party drives on iMacs:
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The labor costs depend on the store as well as the time to get the parts in stock. Call around.

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Hello,
I just wanted to write and let you all know of my 1st experience buying a Mac computer. I needed a laptop, so I
decided on the MacBook. I saw BH Photo had some 1st generation
Macbooks at a decent price, so I took the plunge and bought one.
When it arrived, I tried loading Adobe's Creative Suite software,
however the optical drive keep rejecting the media. So I made an
appointment with an Apple Genius at our local Apple store. To my
surprise, after the Tech confirmed the drive was not working, he
asked me if it would be OK if he just replaced my whole machine. He
brought out a new machine which upgraded me to the 2nd generation
with a 2ghz duo core 2 processor, a full gig a ram, and a 6x
superdrive. Wow!
Well, when I arrived home, I once again went through the whole
process of setting up the machine. This time when I placed a cd in
the optical drive it made a horrible mechanical noise, like it was
taking a bite out it. I couldn't believe my bad luck.
Today, I took it back to the Apple Store, and again the Tech
confirmed there was something wrong with the drive. I really thought
that they would just replace the drive for me since they had already
upgraded my machine for free. However, the Tech asked me if I would
like the top of the line Black MacBook since I had to return a second
time. I couldn't believe it...I really had liked the looks of the
black MacBook, but could not justify paying nearly $200 just for the
black color.
Well, tonight I'm writing to you on my new MacBook Black laptop.
I've got the entire Creative Suite loaded on it along with Lightroom,
and I'm very happy with the performance thus far.
Apple has the best customer service I have ever dealt with...they
just might have won over a new customer for life!
Judgement of a company should not be solely on the mistakes they make, no company is going to be perfect, to me is a much better scale to see what they do about their mistakes...I love my new MacBook Black!
-Bryan
Salt Lake City, Utah

Awesome, another fellow BlackBook owner.
Coincidentally, I've found Apple's customer service is generally pretty good. I had to exchange my week-old Blackbook b/c of a slight seperation of the screen bezel (next to the iSight). They were really up-front "...this shouldn't be doing this...please have a seat, we'll exchange this for you right away...do you need us to transfer your data?" Wow. Not to rant, but this is a lot different than when we were at Best Buy a year ago and my g/f bought her Vaio (she teaches at a high school that is PC-only, no Mac at all). She uses her old G3 Lombard as a spare and it still runs beautifully.
The Vaio had a blemish on the lid (paint defect on the lid...bubbles) that we brought back the same day. No big deal, just want an exchange. The kid-manager-on-duty told us that it was "within manufacturer's specifications....restocking fee...etc." before even looking at it. We told him it wasn't a pixel, but a paint defect, and he could at least look at it before telling us to "pound sand." After a 10min demand for the store manager, they relented and exchanged the Vaio for us. Her Vaio just had an XP re-install this last weekend but is otherwise in excellent shape.
After our expeirence w/ my Macbook exchange (..."have a seat...transfer data..etc.") she bought herself a new Mac Mini and is anxiously awaiting it to arrive.
Happy Macs to all.
13" Core 2 Black Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9) 14" Core Duo HP Notebook XP SP2

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Trouble is, the optical drive in G3 doesn't work now. Is there a way I can install OS 9.2.2 using my Intel iMac to G3's Harddrive. I don't mind opening the G3 to remove the hard drive.
I really need help over here and appreciate the suggestions.
Thanks,

Help? Here's the situation. I've got a iMac G3 with OS 9.2.2. While trying to reinstall my speech software (blind user) in the system folder, I think I accidentally moved the finder to the trash. Basically the OS ate itself. Panicked, I restarted and it all went to pieces.
When I tried booting the system, it gives me the start screen like it's loading, and then once loaded, gives me a blank background and blank menu bar atop. A few times the message: Error 10 "Finder" has come up and I'm stuck.
To make things more interesting, my internal disk drive is no longer there, so I'm using a firewire external drive (Dell, does that matter?) and trying to reinstall the system from the disk.
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Please help. My next attempt to reboot will be dropping it from a 10-story building. Thanks in advance!

Macbook mid 2007 optical drive replacment

Did anyone tried to replace an optical drive? Is it expensive?

The only limit on hard drives is height. It must be 9.5mm or less. The largest drive now available is a Samsung 1tb http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/HNM101MBB/ but it's only 5400rpm. There's a Seagate 7200rpm 1tb but it's 15mm high.
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Hello, thank you in advance for taking the time.
I have 2 Probook 4530s, one is fully functional, with cosmetic damage (and an nonworking optical drive).
The other is missing HD and ram, with a dysfunctional MB, but pristine as far as aesthetics.
My goal is to replace my hingeset, display enclosure and optical drive on my working 4530s with the parts from the non-working one.
I do have a pdf titled "c02844462" which I believe is the full manual for the 4530s.
This brings up a few questions.
1. Would it be easier to transfer the HD, ram, and MB from working laptop to the other, or rather transfer the hinge set, display enclosure and optical drive from nonworking to other.
2. What tools would i need aside from a small phillips/flat?
3. As I am fairly inexperienced with computer/laptop hardware, (I've only installed ram and replaced a keyboard) am I getting myself in too deep with either or both of these options? (my warranty is no longer applicable).
Again, thanks for taking time to read and ponder this
broken hinge
nonworking (left), working(right)

*although inexperienced, I am meticulous and pretty tech savvy*

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Lotekschmotek please see http://forums.adobe.com/thread/981369 for information on how to download the software. Also you can copy the files to a USB drive on a computer which does have an optical drive. You can then use the USB drive to install the software on the new computer. You may also want to consider getting an external optical drive in case you have a need to install other software or read other optical media in the future.

IMac G4 Optical Drive Replacement?

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