# Suddenly internal DVD drive won't work



## AMacWoman (Sep 24, 2008)

I have a Power Mac G5 with the stock built-in CD/DVD drive.  I'm running OS 10.4.11.

Suddenly the DVD drive won't work nor does the drive show up in the system profiler.  When I click on the DVD alias icon in the dock I get this error message:

"There was an initialization error.  A valid DVD drive could not be found 
(-70012)"

What to do?  

All assistance appreciated with gratitude.


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## gsahli (Sep 24, 2008)

It's very easy to replace the DVD drive - they cost $30 - $45 these days. It's an ATA (often called PATA) DVD/CD burner.

Because of its mechanical characteristics, the DVD drive is the least reliable part of your computer.

Places to compare:
www.macsales.com
www.newegg.com
www.amazon.com
etc.

Good luck.


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## AMacWoman (Sep 24, 2008)

Are you saying that the drive must be replaced?

I've been unable to locate a drive --I searched for ATA DVD/CD BURNER at the three places you suggested with these results:  

macsales.com: "There were no results for ATA DVD/CD BURNER to fit Mac G5 tower"

newegg.com "We have found 0 items that match your search criteria "ATA DVD/CD BURNER"

Amazon.com:"Your search "ATA DVD/CD BURNER to fit Mac G5 tower" did not match any products."

Anyone have further advice?

MacWoman in Land o'the recalcitrant dvd drive . . .


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## Satcomer (Sep 25, 2008)

AMacWoman said:


> macsales.com: "There were no results for ATA DVD/CD BURNER to fit Mac G5 tower"



MacSales: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Pioneer/DVR116DBK/



> newegg.com "We have found 0 items that match your search criteria "ATA DVD/CD BURNER"



NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106228




> Amazon.com:"Your search "ATA DVD/CD BURNER to fit Mac G5 tower" did not match any products."



Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_p...172476,1193860&field-keywords=ide+dvd&x=0&y=0
Note: Amazon has lots of IDE drives.

Also did you check out Accelerate Your Macintosh and looked at their drive search lasso?


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## didoman (Sep 25, 2008)

> I've been unable to locate a drive --I searched for ATA DVD/CD BURNER



A tip: it doesn't need to be a mac specific drive. Any dvd drive will do, as long as it has an ATA connection (some places will simply call them IDE drives, so as not to confuse ATA with SATA). Also, you'll have to remove the front part of the tray (really simple) so that it will eject properly through the powermac's metal drive door.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Sep 25, 2008)

didoman said:


> Any dvd drive will do, as long as it has an ATA connection...


Not true.  Use XLR8YouMac's drive lasso tool to get compatibility reports on certain DVD burner models and certain Mac models.

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso

Not every DVD drive will work flawlessly like the original drive -- there are some that are just plain unsupported/incompatible, some that are halfway-supported (ie, Toast will see and use them, but Mac OS X itself won't, leaving iTunes burning out of the question), and some that are fully-supported as if they originally shipped with the computer.


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