yes-apparently the Apple USB Superdrive will work with your Mac Pro, but it requires some messing around, so I've been told....
so-give the cleaning thing a try. I'm guessing that you can't just load a cleaning dvd into the drive and clean it that way (I think it has brushes built into it?)
so-you'll have to go for method 2. Shut down the Mac Pro. Give it a little time to cool. Remove the side panel and look at the top above the hard drives. that is where the dvd writer sits. Pulling on the cage (straight out) should give you access to it. remove the 2 cables (power and data) and using a #1 Phillips screwdriver (maybe a #0) remove the drive from the cage. After doing this, use a standard phillips screwdriver to remove the drive's metal casing. the plastic front bezel should just snap off (2 tabs at the front of the drive). find the laser lens. clean it with a q tip and some isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol 70% or better). Let it dry. reassemble the drive-put the metal casing on, snap the front bezel into place and reinstall it back into the cage, and reconnect the power and data cables. put the side panel back on and restart your Mac pro. try out your dvd drive. If it still doesn't work, it's probably toast. Buy a replacement one. I think it's an ATAPI/IDE connection, but not 100% sure. If it is, buy a sata dvd drive and an ATAPI/IDE bridge board for it (the bridge should be around $30) and install it into the optical drive cage, and replace the old drive.If you have one of the stock Optiarc drives, these do go bad once in a while.
Oh, and if you're wondering-as far as I know there's no such thing as an "Apple Only" dvd drive. If you're stuck when it comes to choices, you could grab a working dvd drive out of a PC that's about to be junked and use that. I did that for a while and it was fine, but it was an old drive...and eventually it died after a few years. I couldn't say if it's the superdrive connection that's gone bad. It may require a little power than most things, or there's the 1st thing I mentioned.... Of course, if you wanted to, you could put a Blu-Ray burner in there....but the blu-ray player software you'd have to buy, but it wouldn't be super expensive.
just some suggestions
John b
