Topic : Superdrive replacement?

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            Replies : 6 - Pages : 1 - Last Post : Dec 10, 2007 3:52 AM by: AndyO
DaveHughesInLon...

Posts: 1
From: UK
Registered: Nov 18, 2007
Superdrive replacement?
Posted: Nov 18, 2007 11:05 AM
 

My Superdrive has stopped working (just outside guarantee). What drives can I use as replacements (and buy in the UK)? What is supported by Apple? I've seen UJ-45J, are there any others?

MacMini G4   Mac OS X (10.4.11)    
AndyO


Posts: 8,209
From: Eastern US
Registered: Feb 3, 2003
Re: Superdrive replacement?
Posted: Nov 19, 2007 10:32 AM   in response to: DaveHughesInLon...
Helpful

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Starting you off:

For internal drives, have a look at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/superdrive/ and for external units, http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MRBFWU2D112/ would be my choice at reasonable cost. I believe OWC ship worldwide so you should not have problem obtaining the drive from them, and their reputation as long-standing retailers in the Mac community make them a good bet.

G5 DP/2.0, Mini/1.25, Mini/1.50, G4/450, TiBook/800, iBook G4/800, iPhone   Mac OS X (10.4.10)    
John Lockwood


Posts: 915
From: London,UK
Registered: Jul 10, 2001
Re: Superdrive replacement?
Posted: Nov 19, 2007 2:16 PM   in response to: DaveHughesInLon...
Solved

While Apple may ship Macs with drives that have slightly customised firmware, they will very happily use absolutely standard drives as well (I speak from experience having replaced numerous out of warranty DVD drives in PowerMacs at the office).

I would avoid the Matsushita / Panasonic drives as they have particularly aggressive DVD region protection.

My latest Mac mini has a Pioneer DVR-K06 as the Apple supplied SuperDrive, just search on Google.co.uk for that, prices seem to be between £30 and £35.

Intel Mac Mini   Windows XP Pro   Running MCE 2005!  
photo_journ

Posts: 18
From: Bangkok, Thailand
Registered: Aug 30, 2007
Re: Superdrive replacement?
Posted: Dec 6, 2007 3:52 PM   in response to: John Lockwood
 

I was wondering how happy you are with the DVR-K06? I want to replace the superdrive in my Powerbook because I'm tired of the slow DVD burning speed. Even on reasonable quality DVDs it only burns at 1x and on cheaper no name disks it won't burn at all.

PowerBook G4 1.67   Mac OS X (10.5)    
Toby Hamilton

Posts: 6
Registered: Sep 10, 2005
Re: Superdrive replacement?
Posted: Dec 9, 2007 9:23 PM   in response to: DaveHughesInLon...
 

Did Apple know that all of the Mac Mini Super drives were going to stop after a year or two?

It seems as if it's almost every Mac Mini with a Superdrive. And this was suppose to be my intro to Apple?

It really doesn't make me very confident in my next Apple purchase.

Mac Mini G4   Mac OS X (10.5.1)    

John Lockwood


Posts: 915
From: London,UK
Registered: Jul 10, 2001
Re: Superdrive replacement?
Posted: Dec 10, 2007 3:41 AM   in response to: Toby Hamilton
 

Toby Hamilton wrote:
Did Apple know that all of the Mac Mini Super drives were going to stop after a year or two?
It seems as if it's almost every Mac Mini with a Superdrive. And this was suppose to be my intro to Apple?
It really doesn't make me very confident in my next Apple purchase.

I have not had any Mac mini DVD drives fail (yet), only much older PowerMac ones. If it is merely read/writing problems rather than it completely dying and not being seen any more by the Mac, then it might simply be a matter of using a CD/DVD lens cleaner disk.

The Mac mini draws air in through the DVD drive slot and while there is a brush behind the slot to help keep out dust, some will still get in.

The failures I have had on old PowerMacs have been total such that the drive is not seen anymore (indicating a failure on the drives circuit board).

PowerBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.10)    
AndyO


Posts: 8,209
From: Eastern US
Registered: Feb 3, 2003
Re: Superdrive replacement?
Posted: Dec 10, 2007 3:52 AM   in response to: Toby Hamilton
 

Did Apple know that all of the Mac Mini Super drives were going to stop after a year or two?

While not being much of a fan of the slot-loading drives used in the mini and Apple's laptops, I must say that there is very little indication that their long term reliability is much worse than any other drive. Given the sheer volume of sales of the various Mac mini models over the past (almost) three years, there has not been the surge in drive failure reports here that would certainly have happened if 'almost every Mac Mini with a Superdrive' had failed as you suggest.

Without doubt some have done so - but there is no indication that the failure rate would justify caution over any further Apple purchase.

G5 DP/2.0, Mini/1.25, Mini/1.50, G4/450, TiBook/800, iBook G4/800, iPhone   Mac OS X (10.4.10)