Installing an optical drive in a G4 tower

Hello,
How do I remove my current CD/DVD read only drive and install a new DVD/CD double layer burner in my 400 mhz G4 tower?
Many thanks for your help,
Valentine

Hi
Instructions for replacing the optical drive, including a QuickTime movie, can be found here (under Drives - CD/DVD Drive):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75312
Removing the old drive just involves releasing the drive face plate clips to remove the face plate, undoing the two screws that secure the drive carrier to the computer and sliding the drive carrier forward, unplugging the ribbon and power cables. With the drive carrier removed from the computer, it's then just a case of undoing the four screws that hold the drive in the carrier. Installation of the new drive is the reverse of this process, having made sure the jumpers on the back of the new drive are set correctly.
I hope this helps.

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Message was edited by: dubious elise

I don't have a laptop but I believe that laptop drives are not the same size as the standard 5.25 inch drives in desktop computer. It would probably be cheaper and easier to simply buy a new optical drive of the correct size.
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and
[Optical drive installation videos|http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/installation.cfm]
Pioneer drives in the past have been a safe bet, from [OWC|http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Pioneer/DVR116DBK> or [Newegg|http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129023], however, check [Jeff's January 2010 post about re-branded Pioneer drives|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10839236#10839236] that are no longer really Pioneer manufactured.

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Machine information:
PowerMac G4 with dual 867 MHz processors, 1 MB L3 cache per processor, 1.75 GB DDR SDRAM and using OS 10.4.9.
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PHILIPS CDD5101:
Firmware Revision: A4.2
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 8192 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-Raw
Media: No
PowerMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Sure sounds dead to me. If it won't play or record at all, that's a very bad sign. The lens cleaning trick may work, but you should have noticed a lot of skipping before it got to the point you are at now if it was just the lens. But that's definitely what you want to do first, to be sure.
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Look to spend about $40 for a bare drive, $65 for a boxed version, $80 to $100 for an external.
mac pro, dual 1.25 g4 Mac OS X (10.4.9) dell 9200, dell xps 400

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Be sure to get a drive that uses ATA, such as the Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-115D, not SATA. You need to remove the tray lip.
<http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=removedrivedoor.html>
Apple provides the mounting screws. They are on the back of the metal drive holder. Set the drive jumper to CS (Cable Select). Be careful when putting the drive holder back into the Mac Pro, so you don't nick or pinch any cables.
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Thanks, I apologize if my english is not very good

I've just bought on ebay an iMac G5 1,6 Ghz (without isight) with the motherboard dead.
I assume you managed to fix that "motherboard dead" problem, since there would be no point in installing an optical drive in a Mac that does not work.
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Hello again!
Will boot natively into Win from time to time but noticed you used Parallels and were able to access the Win 7 VM very quickly! Must say I was pretty excited to see that (as it is painfully slow on my current MBP). You're running 8GB of RAM, correct?
Plan on using Win VM often and primarily because of one program... MS OneNote. Use it often and am annoyed that it is not available in Office for the Mac!
Re Audi... Have you heard about or seen spy photos of the new RS4 Avante? Gorgeous car but it will never come to the US. You guys get all the nice cars. BTW, did Euro delivery on my 540 and can't bare to part with it as I still have less than 100k miles on it... Well and then I'd have to change my email alias. Though pkh-m5 has a nice ring to it!
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