Replaced DVD drive - little problem

[luke29]

Hello people,

recently my DVD drive died in my alu iMac. i was out of the guaranty - and had no applecare - and the local dealer wanted 270 € for the drive.

I thought no problem - i buy a new one for 60 € and build it in myself.
So I replaced the drive. Everything worked. The only problem is that i have to push the DVD all the way in until the drive take's it. i mean really all the way in. i have to use the end of my ipod cable to push the drive the last cm.

the question is how to fix that?
can i tell the firmware that the drive grab's earlier the disc (like the old one). i feel that there is some pressure at the beginning.
when i eject the disc - it comes out normal.

here are the specs of my machine.
mid 07 | 24'' | 2.8 GHz C2D
old drive was a MATSHITA UJ-85J-C
new drive is a MATSHITA UJ-875S

i appreciate every advice/help

luke

ps.: i have made a few photos from my adventure http://www.flickr.com/photos/34013944@N05/

 

[Apocrathia]

tbh that sounds like a bad presence sensor (I guess thats a logical name for whatever it's actually called, perhaps insertion sensor, but that one is too funny).
I've had slot loading 5.25" drives on pc's that did the same thing. from my experience, theres 2 sensors in a slot loader, 1 in the front that signals an arm to pull in the disc in then 1 at the back letting the drive know the disc is in all the way.
Me being the destructive little bastard that I am, I would take the drive apart and look for the screwed up sensor to see if theres a mechanical button or something thats jammed or an optical sensor thats being blocked.
However, your best bet is to exchange the drive.

As a precautionary, check all of your cables, try a few more discs, etc...

 

[mistertomlinson]

Same thing happened to me. I'm currently trying to find a solution. I don't think the drive is defective as I've found several different sites with people replacing their superdrives with the UJ 875S so apparently it's a firmware issue, but I can't figure out how to replace the current firmware with an Apple firmware (non-generic).