CD drive not working

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CD drive not working

My CD drive on my iBook G3 10.3.9 is not working. The eject button works just fine, but when I load a CD in there it either does nothing or just spits it back out. I looked in the System Profile to see what type of optical drive it was (CD, CD/DVD, CD/R) but it does not even have an optical drive listed. Could it be that it was somehow removed? If so, how do I get it back so that I can use the drive?

This is a 2nd hand refurbished laptop.

iBook G3, Mac OS X (10.3.x), also have an iMac

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 4:22 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 18, 2009 6:59 AM in response to ishaunie

Hi, and welcome to Apple Discussions.

Does it have a CD tray that pops out? If so, it definitely has a drive, physically.

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Answer 2

ishaunie Author

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Sep 18, 2009 11:07 AM in response to Ronda Wilson

yes it physically has the drive...but I dont see the optical drive listed on my computer. Its as if the computer doesnt know it exists. But the eject button on my keyboard opens the disk drive...so I'm not too sure.

I really just want to install a newer version of Mac OS x...is there anyother way I can do this without using my disk drive...like can i load it in my iMac and use appletalk or whatever to have my computers talk to each other?

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Answer 3

Sep 18, 2009 6:34 PM in response to ishaunie

Which model iMac do you have? You may be able to install the newer version of OS X via _FireWire Target Disk Mode_ if the iMac is equipped with FireWire.

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is the latest version an iBook G3 can run. You don't say how much RAM is installed. Tiger requires a minimum of 256 MB of RAM, and I strongly recommend maximizing the RAM with a 512 MB module (if you haven't already done that) if you want to run Tiger.

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Answer 4

ishaunie Author

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Sep 18, 2009 6:47 PM in response to Ronda Wilson

i have an iMac5,2 with intel core 2 duo, 1.83 ghz, 512MB memory - running Mac OS X 10.4.11

My iBook is:
Machine Model: iBook
CPU Type: PowerPC 750 (2.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 800 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 384 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.6.4f1

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Answer 5

Sep 18, 2009 10:09 PM in response to ishaunie

That should work, then.

Have you tried inserting an audio CD? Will it accept and play that? (Some of these iBooks had CD-ROM drives that won't recognize a DVD.)

Another thread about an optical drive that didn't work can be found here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3941653#3941653

You may want to try _resetting the PMU_ on the off-chance that may allow the iBook to recognize the drive.

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