Replacement Superdrive - Pioneer DVR 110

Personaly I replaced my Superdrive with a DVR-109 and I can tell you that without all discussions I found and all advices I read it would be much more difficult. For the DVR-109 you can find easyly the last firmware upgrade, you are sure of the compatibility of the drive with Mac OS X, etc. If you want to be sure to replace your superdrive without problem, choose the DVR-109 ! It is cheaper too !

I guess I just joined the club of iMac owners with dead superdrives. I have yet to see a link to instructions for physically replacing the unit. Does anyone know where I can find directions? I have never cracked my case, but since it's well out of warranty - might as well.

Thanks

Hey Graham,
I also seen that they have the DVR 110 as a replacement drive for the imac G4 800 and like others my drive has died so i ordered it and installed it just today, it was easy to install if you have ever done any upgrades before. i have burned a dvd with toast and it worked fine but i just tried it with itunes and it did not work apple does not find the DVR at all so i have emailed the company i got it from who said it would work with my imac to see if they can help i will keep you posted i hope it just some type of update i need to run to get it working

Hey Graham
Update the company sent me a link to some software called PatchBurn3.1.2 and i installed it and i have tested it with itunes and it worked fine i went from burning a music cd in about 8-10 min to about 1-2 and i tested it in Disk Utility and it works their to have not tested it in imovie or iDVD yet but going to sometime later this week if i can find the time 🙂 have lots to do first just got my new ram chip for the imac and waiting on my copy of Tiger to come then doing a clean install on the imac and it should be better than ever. : -) if you have any questions email me

Where are you ordering from? The local computer companies do not carry internal DVD burners for Macs.

Is there a link for Patchburn?

Where do you get the tools for cracking an iMac G4?

Hi everyone im new to the forum, since my Superdrive has never let me burn a DVD since I have had it and the internal 60G Maxtor HDD has failed I might as well put a new optical drive in the MOFO too?

I get loads of errors from toast 7 whilst burning so I think its on the way out too?

Gonna do this lot in one go:-

Got the ThermalPaste/Cleaner & Security Torx 10 & 15 ready ( just need grounding lead/plug)

I'm getting a new HDD (need to swat up the 120g+ support)
Got a new Pram battery
Got a 512M stick of Kingston PC133 Ram

So get the Pioneer DVR-110 then?

Cheers

Add

FAO Tim:-

http://www.patchburn.de

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Laptop-Repair-Apple-Powerbook-G4-Torx-Set-Brand-New_W0QQit emZ8702688778QQcategoryZ162QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://www.eserviceinfo.com/servicemanual/datasheets_a900.html

Good to see so many DIYers! Check out www.xlr8yourmac.com for a good take-apart guide on how to replace the HD and optical drives. And certainly check out their searchable archive on DVD drive compatibility. There are many comments and suggestions on the 110 and others, including links to Patchburn, etc.

Good luck!

Adam,

Thanks for the info.

Tim

Yea I checked that out and it all a little scary in parts and not wrote very clear either in places IMHO.
I recommend people doing this should hunt down the original Apple service manual its easy enough to find via google or the link I posted above (I think- its got picture of the Imac G4 polystyrene jig in it etc).

My superdrive also failed and I've installed a new Pioneer DVR 110 twice, both times the tray won't open. The company sent a replacement and again the tray won't open. Also, let me warn novices that the DVR ships with the setting of "master" instead of "slave", so you have to move the little jumper thing one slot over. I plan on trying the Patchburn download, but do I also need more RAM?