Mega PC Optical Drive Compatibility List

So you've just parted with the cash for your shiny new Mega PC barebones, now you have to choose which optical drive (CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW) you want to go inside. Of course MSI recommend you use one of their optical drives, but they would say that! You might prefer other manufacturer's units (myself am very happy with NEC drives) so the aim of this thread is to provide as comprehensive as possible a list of drives **known** to work correctly with the Mega series, as well as pointing out drives to avoid.
If you have a drive that is not listed here, but works correctly in hifi and PC mode, or works fine with a couple of quirks, then please post below, and i'll add them into this post at a later date. Please state the manufacturer (eg NEC), model code (eg ND2510A) and drive type (CD-ROM, DVD-RW etc), and i'll make sure you get credited with the comment.
Unfortunately, I have not added some drives listed in the old thread due to not enough information being given (eg Toshiba DVD-ROM doesn't really narrow a particular model down). Comments from users are credited to them.
AOPEN
DUW1608/ARR DVD rewriter – “not recognised by the hifi part” – Jadi
ASUS
DRW-1604B DVD Writer – “big thumbs up” - ZicWiz
LG
GSA 4040B – “works ok” - Rkoppen
4081B DVD-RAM – “Sometimes it doesn’t open in PC mode and you have to eject it by the windows explorer” – nschmid
LITEON
166S DVD Writer – “works well” - hellmaster
SOHW-1653S – “works flawless” – Jadi
MSI
CR52 CD-RW – “it should work, and it does perfectly” – mosher
NEC
ND1300A DVD Writer – “works with no problems” – Doctor Stu
ND2500A DVD Writer - "works fine" - Justify73
ND2510A DVD Writer – “Problems found in Hi-Fi mode. Stops playing Audio-CD after 30-45 second from beginning of track. mp3 disks randomly stopped with Nodisk message on LCD display and no way to eject/restart disk without switching to pc mode” - alk
ND3500A DVD Writer – “works fine” – Doctor Stu
PIONEER
108 DVD Writer (?) – “working fine” - domby
PLEXTOR
708A DVD Writer – “If the tray is open, and I press the button to close it, the tray closes, but then opens right back up. In order to close the tray, I have to actually push the tray in. It's more of an annoyance than a problem.” - jjarrett
SAMSUNG
SD-816E DVD-ROM – “no problems so far” - rkoppen
SH-W08A DVD – “working perfectly” – lorx
SONY
DDU-1612 DVD-ROM – “Sometimes have to press eject twice to open” – Doctor Stu
CRX225E
CRX230E
CRX320E – “occasional short sound interruptions during audio-CD playing. Not so frequent to be annoying.” – alk
Please do not start discussions in this thread, please start your own topic if you need help. Only post in this thread if you want to share your optical drive compatibility.
Thanks!!

MEGA 180:
Plextor PX-800A Internal IDE DVD-Writer doesn't work in HiFi mode, but works fine in PC mode. This drive is shorter in length then the NEC ND-3550A.
NEC ND-3550A Internal IDE Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer doesn't work in HiFi mode, but works fine in PC mode. Not much room between end of drive and power supply.
Both drives are really nosiy when playing DVD's, so much so I have to turn the volume up extra loud to drown it out, annoying.
LG GSA-4082B SUPER MULTI DVD±RW/DVD-RAM DRIVE works flawless in HiFi and PC mode.
Only down fall is its old and only 8xDVD writer.

Similar Messages

Mega PC barebones optical drive compatibility list

please post here your optical drive youre using with your mega 180 or mega 865, and if you have any problems or hints for compatibility - thanks
ps i have the plex 708 and a tdk 4x dvdrw - will these work with the 865?

Quote
Originally posted by alk
I've received some interesting URL from MSI, it i s a kind of what we are talking about:
AVL from MSI Mega 865 page
Nice compatability page there... they are all MSI Products. You sure that isn't just a product listing page?
I am running a Plextor 708A - 8X DVD Burner and the only problem I have had is using the eject button to close the DVD tray. If the tray is open, and I press the button to close it, the tray closes, but then opens right back up. In order to close the tray, I have to actually push the tray in. It's more of an annoyance than a problem.
The other thing I have noticed is that the DVD will spin up extremely fast, like it's going to break the sound barrier fast, if I open up Windoze Explorer after working on the computer for a half hour or so without having browsed/explored the file system.

Third party IDE optical drive compatibility....

Hi guys,
The original optical drive in my Mac Pro (2006, MacPro 1,1) has failed and I need to replace it. My questions is does the replacement explicitly have to state OS X/Mac compatibility? PATA drives are getting harder to come by, let alone Apple compatible drives, but for all I know OS X will pick up any IDE drive just fine. Anyone know for sure?

well, not 100%, but I can tell you my experience, fwiw. My mom's husband's PC was dying and I was working on getting the old hard drive out and the photos off of it, which I managed to do (with some help). He said I could take whatever was left, so for a laugh, I grabbed the LiteOn dvd burner that was in there and put it in my Mac Pro (3.1, I think). Surprisingly enought it worked just fine, didn't need anything else. I put it in bay 2, plugged in the power and data cable, set it to cable select, and was good to go. It lasted a few years, but these things do wear out eventually, and no, it didn't say anything about OS X/Mac compatibility. so, my opinion is as follows: Go for it. It ought to work. Of course, I'm no expert
John B

Optical drive compatibility

I have a 17" flat panel iMac which has a malfunctioning combo drive.
I also have an spare eMac G4 1.25 with a working combo drive that i'm not using.
Is it possible for me to take the combo drive from the emac and install it into the imac without any compatibility issues?
thanks
Mac Mini Core Dou Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1.66Ghz 512MB DDR2 80GB HDD

That would be possible, but considering that a new Dual Layer DVD±RW 18x optical drives are <$40us or <£20gbp there is no point in butchering both Macs. <p>If you need a quick fix you can use Firewire Target Disk Mode which allows the eMac to provide both it's hard drive and optical drive for the iMac to use have a read of this article (link).
Let us know if you need to know more about changing the Optical Drive
mrtotes

Power supply and optical drive compatibility

My wife has an original MacBook Air. I just bought the new 2011 model. Are the power suppplies/connectors and add-on optical drives interchangeable? Thank you.

I have both as well. I can only promise that the Apple external Superdrive works on both.
Regards,
Captfred

SuperDrive (optical drive) Compatibility

Have a MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2010) that has a damaged SuperDrive.
Have another MacBook Pro 15" mid-2009) where someone spilled coke on it and fried the Logic & Keyboard assemblies Board (too expensive to repair thus the 13" replacement.
Anyway was wondering if anyone out there knows if the SuperDrive in the 15" is compatable with my 13"?

In my experience, the manufacturer's drive model used inside may indeed be the same. But then there is the mount, and that is why I suggested you look at the shape of the assembled module on ifixit.
I have found that these drives may be partially enclosed by lightweight aluminum carriers. These may be attached by glue or double-stick foam tape or other diabolical attachment methods that are not simple to remove. In removing these in the past, all I ended up with after a lot of work was a pile of bent aluminum mountings and a bent and unusable drive. It was an exercise in futility.
Because of this potential difficulty, I do not recommend re-purposing the drive from one model into another.
But sites like ifixit and many others will sell you a used drive, with a modest warranty, with exactly the mounting frame you need, for not a lot of money. That is the approach I would recommend.

Looking for Optical Drive compatability by part number

I have located a replacement 20X CD-ROM Module for my Pismo PowerBook. I want to be sure it is compatible. The model number of the drive is M2451. The person selling the drive has no clue if it is compatible. If anyone has any information about this dilema, it would be greatly appreciated.

twillaustin, welcome to Apple Discussions from a fellow Texan.
The M2451 CD-ROM (661-1516) is for a Wallstreet model G3. Don't know if it would work in a G3 Pismo.
The Pismo originally came with a DVD-ROM M7931 (P/N 661-2244). I have one of these with my Pismo. I also have a 24X CD-ROM M7388 to use with my Pismo.
If you want to be safe, get the M7388. It should be about the same $ as the M2451.
 Cheers, Tom

External DVD drives compatibility

Is there an external DVD drives compatibility list anywhere?

Go to Lacie's site
http://www.lacie.com/
Remember that almost all external drive manufactures make them for both Mac and PC. I suggest you make a Google search.
Don

Booting from Optical Drive - Drive omitted from boot list

Hey Guys - I've read similar posts yet none seems to offer a solution. My machine came preinstalled with windows 8 which I upgraded to 8.1 and last week upgraded to Windows 10 with only one issue (display driver). The machine itself has a recovery partition. And the product key is obviously embedding within the motherboard. Obviously with the Windows 10 upgrade I am concerned about recovery issues as I believe the upgrade effectively makes the recovery partition useless (I can only go by what I've read) therfore I downloaded the winddows 10 64-bit iso from microsoft and I attempted to book the iso from my optical drive but the drive was not listed in the boot options. I'm not an amateur in this regard and when I was using 8.1 on this machine i booted from the optical drive a dvd to recover my password. I've included a screenshot to show the set up but I'm sure that'll need to be approved so in the meantime the BIOS boot set up was as follows:CD ROM BOOT - ENABLEDLEGACY SUPPORT - ENABLEDSECURE BOOT - DISABLED UEFI BOOT ORDER - SAME AS LEGACY LEGACY BOOT ORDERUSB CD/DVD ROM DRIVEINTERNAL CD/DVD ROM DRIVEUSB DISKETTE ON KEY/USB HARD DISKNOTEBOOK HARD DRIVE! NETWORK ADAPTER - (network adaptor boot disabled by the way) Now I'm trying to boot from teh internal dvd/cd drive not usb and i have swapped them around it made no difference. If i can post two screen shots i'll also post the boot list. I should also add the the disc itself boots on another machine no problem and the internal optical drive on my HP machine passes all the HP diagnostics. So with all that said - what is the issue. I did contact HP support on twitter who ran out of ideas and suggested i wait on windows 10 updates from microsoft (why? lol) but for me this seems like the bios just inst reconising the optical drive - it's as if secure boot hasn't been turned off. So i start the machine - press Esc then F9 and select boot list and my optical drive isn't listed. FYI - I even tried refreshing the bios image but this has not effect either - so advice please?!

STILL NO ONE CAN OFFER A WORKAROUND FOR THIS? WHERE ARE ALL THESE EXPERTS???

Compatability of optical drive, PowerMac to Mac Pro

I have a PowerMac G5 that I am no longer using. I now use a Mac Pro, I think it's 1.1. Would the SuperDrive from the Mac Pro work in my PowerMac? If so, how do I remove it? (I know how to put it into the PowerMac)

Hi,
G5s used IDE/ATAPI opticals, Mac Pros use SATA Opticals.
Might work with the right adapter...
http://www.walmart.com/ip/28879969?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227019472865&wl 0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=55380887409&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=87884735889&veh=sem
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232004
Optical drive removal/install on G5..
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/powermac_g5_opt/
Mac Pro Optical drives...
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=249&type=Internal%20Optical%2 0Drives&sort=pop

3000 n200 Optical Drive problems

Hi all.
I have a Lenovo 3000 N200 MT0687, that has NEVER had a properly working optical drive.
Purchased this machine, was on display, and they had lost the box, and no one knew the password on it, so formatted and installec Win XP. The optical drive will install Win XP and other operating systems, but once installed
will NOT look at any other Discs. Data, DVD's, music CD's Will not see a blank cd/dvd so can't write to cd.
Have tried Ubuntu 8.04 with exactly the same result.
Everything else works fine on both WinXP and Linux. Optical Drive doesn't show in either.
I have been in touch with the Lenovo service centre on a number of occasions, and have had different answers
each time, everything from updating the bios, to installing drivers. Nothing worked. Have been told my problem, "original
image" not still on it. See below re re-installing said image with recovery cd's.
Lenovo sent me a new optical drive, a different make to the original, no change, still no
drive showing anywhere on XP. (Or ubuntu 8.04, I appreciate there is no support for Linux)
Lenovo even sent me a set of recovery discs(3), which I installed (after formatting, several times with bios set to both AHCI and Compatability) using both the internal and an external USB connected optical drive. Same result, system boots to "Welcome to Vista etc, then shutting down logging off, only to re-boot to the same place ad infinitum. In short "recovery discs" did not recover. Get error message randomly when this happens "Side Bar error The application failed to initialize properly
(0xc0000189) " Click OK to terminate, but is too fast, and terminates itself.
Machine was sent to Selectron for checkout, told "Nothing wrong with it", but the Optical Drive working at last.
Partitioned Vista, (Shrunk Partition to 45gig) installed another operating system on new partition, can boot into both systems
and recovery, working fine, but now no Optical Drive again.
Rang Lenovo again, informed them, and queried possibilty of buying a Win XP recovery disc, told drive will only work with
Vista, so waste of funds to get a Win XP recovery disc that may or may not work properly.
Am I missing an obscure driver, or will the drive only perform all it's functions running Vista
(which the recovery discs will not install properly)?. If this is the case shouldn't it (the fact that it needs Vista)
be mentioned at point of sale. Does this breach the Anti trust laws? I am afraid I am getting very fed up, would be nice not to have to carry around an external optical drive, that needs a power supply, so if anyone has any ideas I would be extremely appreciative, would even consider naming y first born after them. Will post my problem on the Ubuntu lists again, hoping for resolution. Seems that it's a retty basic expectation that CD drives just work. This should be a machine that can have software installed on it. Have 2 towers (1 dual boot) that have had a few optical drives changed with never any problems.
Thanks in advance. Any ideas very much appreciated.
Winton

What a terrible service from Lenovo. Well after many phone calls to what turned out to be a call centre in Romania. and after being promised a replacement drive day after day one finally turned up. Even after fully explaining what I needed I was sent the wrong drive they sent me a DVD Rom and not the DVD Rewriter that was in my original laptop. The same Romanians have promised me the correct one on Monday. I will wait and see. I have little faith in Lenovo and their whole very poor support network. Quite frankly the drive should never have broken in only 3 weeks and after only approx 8 uses.
I wonder what will turn up
Dennis
Message Edited by DennisN on 10-09-2008 02:28 PM

External optical drive with new imac 27"

Does anyone know if the Apple external optical drive will work with the new (skinny) iMac 27" computer? I didn't see that listed as a supported device on the Apple site, only laptops. Seems like it should, but then again, maybe it doesn't.

Yes look at the System Requirement at > Apple USB SuperDrive - Apple Store (U.S.)
Although personally I'd go for a Tray Loading External Optical Drive over any USB SuperDrive, because they are faster and more reliable.
I'm happily using an > GE24LU20 with my old and new Mac's.
Other good choice's include the > OWC Optical Drive Solutions and the > LaCie - LightScribe
Note: Most after market Optical Drives will work with the Mac's, but for full compatibility it's a good idea to check the spec's and make sure that it is MAC OS X compatible.

Q700 - Optical Drive Hardware Compatibility (12.7mm slot-in blu-ray)

Lenovo folks:
I would like to the replace the standard DVD optical drive on my Q700 with a 12.7mm slot-in blu-ray ROM drive (I'm not concerned with voiding the warranty). I have idenitified two possible drives but I'm not sure how the eject button will interface with the Q700's external case. Anyone have any experience or recommendations on the correct drive to purchase?
Hitacahi-LG CA10N (commonly found in Dell laptops)
SONY BC-5600S
Thanks,
Dan

I have noted that on numerous wish lists for Mac enhancements has been Blue Ray capability. I looked at the Fast mac web site and the specifications were impressive. When I saw the price, I had to have the Heimlich maneuver performed. This is not to dissuade you or anyone else to purchase one. It simply is a reflection of my cheapness ex. for me SSD are overpriced for the value received but I take no issue for those who but them.
What I find to be very peculiar is the issue of apparent compatibility with only pre-unibody MBPs. We know that these MBP are slower than the subsequent generations. Blu-ray vidio files are huge. To load, tranferr, edit and compile these such files is best served with a fast processor. To install this on an older MBP seem like simultanously taking a step forward and a step backward.
Your list of virtues has merit but I have to take exception with your 'Future Proofing'. Apple has a habit of going down the road less traveled. If and when they integrate Blu-ray capability in their MBPs, it does not follow that the Fast Mac drive will be the same or have software compatibility.
I have both a pre-unibody MBP and a unibody MBP. I have changed the optical drive on the old machine and I have just looked inside the newer one (when I upgraded the HHD). They both APPEAR to be identical but I suspect there may be subtle physical differences. Hence this may be the reason why it can be installed only pre-unibody MBPs. (I can be bribed to take the both out and compare them!)
I would suggest to contact the technical department at OWC and find out if they are familiar with this product and what opinions they may have. I have dealt with them on several occasions and they seem knowledgeable.
Ciao.

New Ultrabay Slim Optical Drive for T60

I'm after a new Ultrabay Slim Optical drive, whether CDRW or multiburner for my T60.
Cn anyone suggest what model numbers I should be looking for, as the currently available ones seem to be incompatible?
Many thanks.

Hello,
If I am reading the specs right, the following FRU's are compatible:
DVD±RW: 39T2570, 39T2828, 39T2829, 39T2851, 41N5643 , 42T2506
CD-RW/DVD-ROM: 40Y8783 (does not burn DVDs)
Please double-check with Lenovo support in your country, though, to verify compatibility with your machine type, which is listed on a sticker on the bottom of the unit, and will look something like "1234-ABC".
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
I am a volunteer and neither a Lenovo nor a Microsoft employee. • Dexter is a good dog • Dexter je dobrý pes
S230u (3347-4HU) • X220 (4286-CTO) • W510 (4318-CTO) • W530 (2441-4R3) • X100e (3508-CTO) • X120e (0596-CTO) • T61p (6459-CTO) • T43p (2678-H7U) • T42 (2378-R4U) • T23 (2648-LU7)
Deutsche Community Comunidad en Español Русскоязычное Сообщество

DVD/CD optical drive is recognized only occasionally and temporarily

Hi, I recently bought an ASUS Essentio desktop model CG8350 running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. My DVD/CD optical drive is not consistently being recognized. I've made few changes to the computer and have even tried reinstalling Windows (system recovery, factory settings), but no luck. The curious thing is that after booting up I can occasionally temporarily see the D:\ optical drive listed under My Computer or under Device Manager, but after a few seconds or about a minute after restarting or trying to read a disk, this disappears and the optical drive is no longer shown. I would take it back to Best Buy I bought it for repair, but unfortunately that was in the U.S. and I've since moved to Canada. It's frustrating that Best Buy Canada won't honor service warranties for items bought from Best Buy U.S. If there's something I can try in order to avoid shipping it off to ASUS or back to Best Buy U.S. (at my expense, and potential loss of PC for a few weeks), I would much prefer that. These are the things I have tried so far: 1) opening it up and checking/re-plugging the power cable to the optical drive and the data cable between the optical drive and motherboard. All cables seemed fine. The drive ejects and spins a little bit when a disk is inserted, but neither a blank CD/DVD nor a commercial CD are recognised after insertion. 2) looking at the registry to try the "delete UpperFilters" and "delete LowerFilters" trick that I've seen posted several times. Since the computer had Windows 7 from the start (was not upgraded), these entries were not visible under the suggested registry subkey. 3) under boot options, I've selected "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" and have booted up. The optical drive showed up under My Computer and/or Device Manager for a few seconds or a minute, but then vanished. 4) disabled integrity checks: I've pasted "bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS" into the Run window. After restarting, the optical drive is again occasionally visible, but only for a short period after which it disappears. 5) following a tip on one website, I tried shutting off and unplugging the data cable between optical drive & motherboard, restarting the computer so Windows could "see" there was actually no optical drive connected, then shutting off and connecting the data cable again and restarting. no luck. 6) I've run the Microsoft Support Fixit executable under "Your CD or DVD drive can't read or write media". The first time I ran this, it ran for about 5-10 minutes, but didn't diagnose a problem. The second time I tried to run it (after the Windows 7 re-install), is said my CD/DVD drive was not detected, so didn't run. 7) I've tried built-in Windows diagnostics and ASUS diagnostics, but they didn't help much. 8) I've updated ny BIOS to the most recent version. I've now run out of ideas and can't find any other suggestions on previous troubleshooting searches. The observation of the drive occasionally being seen for a few seconds/minute after start-up before disappearing seems like it might be a good clue, but I'm not sure how to interpret this. I did get it to play an audio CD a couple hours ago, but after trying to use my drive for something else after that, it's right back into the situation of not being consistently recognized, except sometimes immediately after booting up and then only for a short period. Any help or suggestions you have will be very very welcome -- thank you.

Honestly since it was recalled due to the sandy bridge recall anyways, it is going to have to go to asus eventually so I would just have them fix both in one shot. The Canada and U.S. support number is the same and I'm sure they could fix both issues at once to save you time: 1-866-625-9873
Crystal
Superuser
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Mega PC Optical Drive Compatibility List

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