Replacing Intel iMac Superdrive

J

jbx74205

Registered
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!
 
jbx74205 said:
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.

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.
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I replace bad optical cables in those things all the time showing the same symptoms so how are you so sure? I can use just about any kind of old Apple laptop combo/superdrive for testing purposes and they all work just fine when its not a faulty cable or logic board. They just wont fit in the iMac when all put back together. As far as an aftermarket replacement, good luck finding one.
 
I don't know besides an Apple shop. An Apple shop is not going to sell you the cable without doing the work. Otherwise they are voiding their agreement with Apple. I get calls all the time from people trying to get Apple parts and I deny them all the time. Can't afford to risk our AASP agreement with Apple to do someone a favor. But the point is the Apple Genius was likely wrong about his diagnostic because you really don't know especially on those things without swapping parts and seeing what works.
 
So, it would seem the best thing to do would just be to buy an external DVD drive right? Otherwise I'm going to be hunting around for parts that may or may not work.
 
The repair should cost around $100 dollars not including any diagnostic fee or otherwise. I don't know what the the Apple Store would specifically charge? Even if you do find a cable, how comfortable would you be pulling the logic board to replace the cable, because that's what you'll need to do to replace the cable?
 
Thanks everyone for the help. I may just go with the external drive...it seems like the safest and most economical option at this point. I can pick up one for about $60 instead of having to tear apart my computer again and risk really damaging it. =)
 
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