Pismo PowerBook, DVD spions then stops

S

Smylight

Registered
Hello fellows!
I have had a nagging problem with my old and trusty Pismo PowerBook (10.3.9). Whenever I try to use the DVD drive (Matsushita SR-8174-C, not the LG), it spins, fails to recognize what's been inserted, then stops. No CDs or DVDs get to mount. It acts the same when I try to boot off a CD.

I have read elsewhere that 10.3.8 could likely have caused this crippling of my drive and someone suggested reinstalling a previous version. This problem prevents me from reinstalling system software, so it gets complicated.

Maybe it's just plain half-dead and needs replacing, in which case I'll scour eBay.

Anyone has seen this problem and cares to give advice?

Thanks!
 
Have you tried booting from the drive? If you can boot from it, you can rule out a hardware problem. If you can't boot from it, it is more likely a hardware problem (unless Panther made some fimware change on the drive, which I doubt). When the CD ROM drive on my Lombard went out, it did the same thing.
 
epooch said:
Have you tried booting from the drive? If you can boot from it, you can rule out a hardware problem. If you can't boot from it, it is more likely a hardware problem (unless Panther made some fimware change on the drive, which I doubt). When the CD ROM drive on my Lombard went out, it did the same thing.
Click to expand...

No, you can't boot from this drive anymore. I tried DW, OS X install, you name it. I doubt 10.3.9 could be the source of this problem as well, but you never know. One of these updates hosed the FireWire interface of my LaCie 200 Gig drive. USB still works (sort of, considering the slow pace), so it might very well be the case.

Anyone knows for sure that it MUST be a bad drive?
 
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