Hi All,
So, my iMac's "Superdrive" isn't all that super. I have the 20" Early 2008 variety. Over the past couple of months, the DVD drive started acting up. It began with some scraping noises when I put a DVD into it. A few weeks later, it started to randomly spit out discs. I would put one in, it would read it for a few seconds, then it would just eject it. The last straw was when I tried to install Final Cut Express and it just took in the DVD and never gave it back. I tried all of the various solutions mentioned here to eject the disc, but nothing worked, so I took it to Apple. The "genius" there told me after doing less to diagnose the problem than I did that I would have to pay $400 for a new DVD drive since my computer was out of warranty.
Upon hearing that piece of bad news, I set out to replace the drive myself. I ordered one from a site recommended by a friend. When I removed the existing drive, I discovered that it was a Pioneer DVR-K06PD. The new drive that came was an unbranded UJ-875. It had the same PATA connector on the back, but would not power up when I put it into the iMac. I ordered a replacement drive and received an identical model, which also didn't power up. Just to make sure I didn't damage anything, I reconnected the old Pioneer drive and it powered up just fine. It still wouldn't read anything, but it showed me that it wasn't the cable that was at fault.
My question is, does my iMac only work with DVR-K06PD drives? I'm having a hard time locating a compatible after-market unit since most of the superdrives are for laptops and it doesn't seem like too many people on the web have tried to replace their iMac drive.
Thanks in advance!
So, my iMac's "Superdrive" isn't all that super. I have the 20" Early 2008 variety. Over the past couple of months, the DVD drive started acting up. It began with some scraping noises when I put a DVD into it. A few weeks later, it started to randomly spit out discs. I would put one in, it would read it for a few seconds, then it would just eject it. The last straw was when I tried to install Final Cut Express and it just took in the DVD and never gave it back. I tried all of the various solutions mentioned here to eject the disc, but nothing worked, so I took it to Apple. The "genius" there told me after doing less to diagnose the problem than I did that I would have to pay $400 for a new DVD drive since my computer was out of warranty.
Upon hearing that piece of bad news, I set out to replace the drive myself. I ordered one from a site recommended by a friend. When I removed the existing drive, I discovered that it was a Pioneer DVR-K06PD. The new drive that came was an unbranded UJ-875. It had the same PATA connector on the back, but would not power up when I put it into the iMac. I ordered a replacement drive and received an identical model, which also didn't power up. Just to make sure I didn't damage anything, I reconnected the old Pioneer drive and it powered up just fine. It still wouldn't read anything, but it showed me that it wasn't the cable that was at fault.
My question is, does my iMac only work with DVR-K06PD drives? I'm having a hard time locating a compatible after-market unit since most of the superdrives are for laptops and it doesn't seem like too many people on the web have tried to replace their iMac drive.
Thanks in advance!