Powerbook G4 Combo drive

[weeowey2]

Hi, I recently got a powerbook g4 titanium, it is the 1GHz DVI one ("Antimony").
My DVD drive is not able to read disks and sometimes doesn't eject disks properly.

Now, the issue is, I live in the UK, and I can only get the part I need from the USA.

Will a US DVD drive work in my British machine?

well, obviously, it will work, but isn't there any region lock stuff going on?
I need this drive to work so I can install Mac OS 9 or 10 on to the hard drive, any other methods (attempting to boot from a USB DVD burner) have failed and this is the only PPC mac I own. I own two other intel macs.
One is a mid 2011 Mac Mini
the other is a white unibody 13" macbook from mid 2010.

anything I can do?
thanks.

note;
It does spin CDs and DVDs, but will try and read them, you can hear the motor quite well. I don't know if that is normal for these, but I learned after a bit of research that the motors in the combo drives are common to fail. I cannot hear it reading the disk, either. my hard drive is currently dead inside the machine (I went to test it, but the caddy at work killed it) and I want to get the DVD drive working before I replace the HDD.

tl;dr:
will a US combo drive read dvds from the UK, incl. install disks?

EDIT: I have replaced the HDD with a 250GB samsung PATA drive. I have partitioned it for five OSes.

 

[thats all folks]

the region lock is a software setting and only applies to video DVDs, not software or data disks.
what Apple has to say about it,
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201705

 

[iModFrenzy]

Now, the issue is, I live in the UK, and I can only get the part I need from the USA.

Will a US DVD drive work in my British machine?

well, obviously, it will work, but isn't there any region lock stuff going on?
I need this drive to work so I can install Mac OS 9 or 10 on to the hard drive, any other methods (attempting to boot from a USB DVD burner) have failed and this is the only PPC mac I own.

I don't think installing OS 9 or 10 will be a problem with a US drive.

Or you could grab a dead TiBook from a seller in the UK and strip it for its DVD drive.

 

[Dronecatcher]

ny other methods (attempting to boot from a USB DVD burner)

Have you tried booting holding the Option key - that opens the boot manager, you then might see the USB DVD, where you can select it to boot.

Otherwise, look at the info on booting via USB here:

https://sites.google.com/site/shawn...le-powerpcs-from-a-usb-drive-in-open-firmware

 

[CooperBox]

Hi, I recently got a powerbook g4 titanium, it is the 1GHz DVI one ("Antimony").
My DVD drive is not able to read disks and sometimes doesn't eject disks properly.

Now, the issue is, I live in the UK, and I can only get the part I need from the USA.

Will a US DVD drive work in my British machine?

well, obviously, it will work, but isn't there any region lock stuff going on?
I need this drive to work so I can install Mac OS 9 or 10 on to the hard drive, any other methods (attempting to boot from a USB DVD burner) have failed and this is the only PPC mac I own. I own two other intel macs.
One is a mid 2011 Mac Mini
the other is a white unibody 13" macbook from mid 2010.

anything I can do?
thanks.

note;
It does spin CDs and DVDs, but will try and read them, you can hear the motor quite well. I don't know if that is normal for these, but I learned after a bit of research that the motors in the combo drives are common to fail. I cannot hear it reading the disk, either. my hard drive is currently dead inside the machine (I went to test it, but the caddy at work killed it) and I want to get the DVD drive working before I replace the HDD.

tl;dr:
will a US combo drive read dvds from the UK, incl. install disks?

I reckon you were fortunate to find a 1GHz Antimony model. I was given one a short while ago with broken hinges and a very poor screen. Have been looking for a donor unit ever since, and think I've just sniffed one out. Will report further in due course.

 

[bobesch]

If you have another mac with firewire at hands just bootup your TiBook in Target-mode (press T-button when booting up), connect the TiBook via firewire with any of your capable macs.
Then run any required installation-CD/DVD on that specific mac and choose the TiBooks-HDD or any partition on that drive as your destination folder for installation. You may also start disk-utility off the installation-CD/DVD to make changes to your firewire-attached TiBook's HDD. So you won't be urged to get a new optical-drive.
If you've got the original TiBook's installation disks you may install OSX and OS9 into the same partition (the installation-routine will do that automatically for you). You'll be able to swap between booting into OS9 or OSX within the System-Settings.
Good luck & have fun.

It's great to run Panther/Tiger plus Classic on the TiBook.
There's endless stuff on Macintoshgarden.org for free.

Your machine will be up-to date concerning:
- email: with the inbuild email-client of OSX or Classilla on OS9
- browser: TenFourFox or webkit for tiger or Classilla
- office 2001(os9) or 2004(osX) if you install MS "Open XML Converter" for docx/xlsx/pptx documents
- webDAV (Cloud-storage): with both OS9 (Goliath) and OSX (Finder:Goto/Connect to server) with e.g. Box or GMX accounts
- ScreenSharing (OSX) with your other macs
- FileSharing with Transport1.7(OS) or Finder (OSX) with your other PPC-macs
...

 

[weeowey2]

If you have another mac with firewire at hands just bootup your TiBook in Target-mode (press T-button when booting up), connect the TiBook via firewire with any of your capable macs.
Then run any required installation-CD/DVD on that specific mac and choose the TiBooks-HDD or any partition on that drive as your destination folder for installation. You may also start disk-utility off the installation-CD/DVD to make changes to your firewire-attached TiBook's HDD. So you won't be urged to get a new optical-drive.
If you've got the original TiBook's installation disks you may install OSX and OS9 into the same partition (the installation-routine will do that automatically for you). You'll be able to swap between booting into OS9 or OSX within the System-Settings.
Good luck & have fun.

It's great to run Panther/Tiger plus Classic on the TiBook.
There's endless stuff on Macintoshgarden.org for free.

Your machine will be up-to date concerning:
- email: with the inbuild email-client of OSX or Classilla on OS9
- browser: TenFourFox or webkit for tiger or Classilla
- office 2001(os9) or 2004(osX) if you install MS "Open XML Converter" for docx/xlsx/pptx documents
- webDAV (Cloud-storage): with both OS9 (Goliath) and OSX (Finder:Goto/Connect to server) with e.g. Box or GMX accounts
- ScreenSharing (OSX) with your other macs
- FileSharing with Transport1.7(OS) or Finder (OSX) with your other PPC-macs
...

The only Mac I have with FireWire is an Intel 2011 Mac mini. Can I do anything with that? It can't boot any Mac OS X installer below lion.
[doublepost=1470185984][/doublepost]
oh, and thanks for that website! I have been struggling to find the correct version of mac os 9 for my powerbook. hopefully I can do a restore through firewire or install via a combo drive from another laptop (a tray one, so I have to leave it open. I will be very careful of the inverter)

 

[weeowey2]

I don't think installing OS 9 or 10 will be a problem with a US drive.

Or you could grab a dead TiBook from a seller in the UK and strip it for its DVD drive.

I bit the bullet and ordered a DVD drive from the US. Hopefully it doesn't have a bad motor like the one I have at the minute. Will try to install Leopard, Lubuntu, Mac OS 9, Panther, and Tiger. one may be omitted in the future.

 

[Cox Orange]

A pity I hadn't been arround lately. If the one from the US doesn't work I have one, which I believe could work. It is a SuperDrive Dual-Layer DVD Burner slot-in drive. I am in the EU, so there is no tax or high shipping costs,... not yet

It was pulled from a SUN server and has the -S/-B firmware instead of the apple -C firmware. It works though, only the speeds for write are slightly faster.

 

[weeowey2]

the region lock is a software setting and only applies to video DVDs, not software or data disks.
what Apple has to say about it,
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201705

thanks, that solves my issue. I have received one from Germany (or USA not sure) and I will see how well it works.