Macbook superdrive disappeared!

recordame

Registered
Hello,
The optical drive on my macbook literally disappeared a couple weeks ago. I had put in a CD from a library (which aren't ever a problem - I've played library CDs in my laptop hundreds of times before), and when I ejected it, the CD icon disappeared from my desktop and the sidebar in the Finder, but the CD didn't come out. At first I thought it was just stuck, so I tried rebooting holding the mouse button down - nothing. When I press the eject button on the keyboard, nothing happens - the white eject icon doesn't flash on my screen. Then I realized that the computer was no longer recognizing that there was an optical drive attached - in the system profiler, there is no ATA drive recognized or listed! Toast, iTunes, etc all tell me that there is no optical device found to burn with! I have tried resetting the PRAM using option+command+P+R, and resetting the SMC. Whenever I boot up the computer or wake it from sleep mode, I can hear the CD spinning inside like it normally does, but there is nothing in the Finder that would indicate that a drive exists. It just spins down after about 30 seconds.
I've run out of options here. Has anyone heard of something like this happening who could suggest a possible solution?
I am running Mac OSX 10.4.11 with a 2.16 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM. Bought the computer brand new about a year and a half ago. All other operations on the computer (USB, AirPort, power, sound, monitor, camera, etc.) are fully functional and seem unaffected.
 
After trying everything I could at home to no avail, I finally took it in to a Mac Store.
The tech there booted from an external firewire hard drive to determine whether it was a hardware problem or OS problem. Seeing that the Superdrive was also not recognized on the guest OS, he concluded that it was a hardware problem and that the best solution would be to order a new drive and install it, or hire someone to install it.
However, when I returned home and rebooted into the original OS, the superdrive magically reappeared! the disc mounted, I ejected it, and it seems to be working fine since then...
 
I read somewhere about deleting Finder preferences. So I tried it and it worked for 2 days and then it disappeared again 9on my MacBook Pro 3,1, 10.6.8). Haven't tried again. Maybe there only one or two successes in this one trick, so I'll save it for a System reinstall.
 
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