iMac G3 DV drive replacement suggestions.

[myutopia]

I've not used a Mac in years but remember messing around with hte iMac G3's and G4 Tower systems when they came out and was really blown away by the build quality and detail in their design. As my dad had been begging me to sort him out with a computer for years I decided an old iMac would be perfect for him. So for £50 I got an iMac G3 400mhz DV edition, the only problem was the dvd would stick on ejecting. I tried cleaning the rollers inside and had a look to see if I could see if something was either obstructing the eject or causing too much undue friction. Alas no, so I've decided to replace the drive. On ebay the best I've seen is a cdrom drive but I'd rather a dvd or a combo of cd-rw/dvd, as it appears to be no more than a laptop drive I've been looking round sites like linitx.com trying to spot one that may be suitable, my only worry is they may not be compatible.

I realise that by todays standards sourcing a brand new drive that will work is going to be pretty remote so my best chance is to see if a suitable model shows up on ebay, I was wondering if anyone knows of equivelant models that would work in this type of mac. If not then I think my bets bet is to spend £20 on the cdrom drive I saw on ebay and get an external combo drive.

Thanks for any help.

Steve

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

I wish I could be more help with providing a brand name, but I know it's fairly easy to replace. I had to replace the DVD-ROM drive from my G3 after I broke it. We replaced it with a plain old CD-ROM drive, but I'm sure you could put a DVD DL drive in...

 

[Ugg]

Another option is to get an external drive. I had the same iMac and wanted to burn cds so bought an external Iomega that also read DVDs. It worked just fine and is still working for my mother who got it when I got my PB. The internal drive works ok still but sometimes the disc will get stuck when trying to eject it so when it fails, there won't be any need to replace it. I'd recommend maxing out the ram too. It makes a big difference in speed.

 

[myutopia]

Thanks for the advice.
I've done a bit of digging and these appear to be equivelant models.
"SR-8184-B", "CW-7121-B", "CW-7121", "CRN-8042B"," DVR-0009","STO-0085"
I'll probably get an external firewire combo.
I've seen a cdrom on ebay for £20 so I'll get that so that there's atleast something internal as a backup in case a system restore is necessary and I can't use the external drive. I've spotted a few more potentials on ebay but treckon I'll go for the low risk option.

Cheers

 

[chillywilly]

eBay is your best option for a replacement drive. I just replaced a broken CD-RW drive in my iMac Early 2001 indigo 500Mhz system with a DVD reader. I'm in the process of trying to get the iMac to recognize it (it physically works, but I can't boot from it or see it under OS 9.1, even though the driver for it says 'Apple CD/DVD driver version 1.44). I'll be using Firewire Target Disk Mode from my Mac mini to get Tiger installed. Hoping that will have the drive show up.

Regardless, the imac drive itself is a half-height drive (meaning, half of a standard 5.25" CD drive) and has a connector board on the back that provides both data and power connectivity.

I got my drive on eBay for under $50.