G4 ibook slot load drive

Hey,

Recently I have been having trouble with my slot load combo drive. It started last week when I could not eject a cd-r from my drive. I tried the usual options of booting in firmware mode. The drive would sound like it was going to eject the disc, and then it would stop, as if something was blocking it. So i poked a paper clip in to see if there was something blocking it, and indeed there was. The lock mechanism was not opening. I called apple, and since I bought my ibook last November, it was going to cost me between 150-500 dollars to find a solution to the problem. Not having that money, I decided to open up the ibook and take apart the drive. When doing this I discovered this pink gel hindering the cd lock. I removed the goo, reassembled the ibook and tried out the drive. Cd's ejected, but not without the drive sounding like it was on its last legs. Eventually another cd got stuck, I repeated my previous process (with two screws left instead of 5), but did not find anything in the way this time. The drive works, but sounds like it is really in its waning days, and now I am not sure what to do.

My options are these:

1) Figure out if the drive is salvageable, and try to fix it.
2) Order a new combo drive
3) Upgrade to a super drive
4) Sacrafice the portability and get a Lacie external DVD burner

Does anyone know which option is best? Or if my drive is on it's way out? And if any of these options are not possible (like the combo drive). I figure the combo drive is the most expensive. The combo replacement and external drive purchase are about the same in price, but not in labor. I urge anyone to help. Thank you for taking the time.

Well since you have already taken the computer apart once, I can't see much in the way of upgrading the drive yourself.

Do a search for compatible dvd burner drives (pioneer are good since they are the one's apple uses and should be recognised by OS X as a "superdrive" rather than just a generic DVD burner which isn't automatically supported by iTunes and iDvd)

Shouldn't be that expensive - I think http://xlr8yourmac.com/ has a list of compatible drives....

Go for it!

Sorry to butt into your thread here but since I have a small query about the iBook slot-drives as well, I was hoping you wouldn't mind if I posted it here?

I just wanna ask, when you load a CD or eject a CD from the slot drive, is it normal to make some weird noises, lol. I just got my iBook a few hours ago and tested out a few CDs and it makes noises weird compared to normal drivers on PCs. I haven't used laptops much before, especially ones with slot-drives! So could someone please clear this up for me please.

And once again, sorry for posting this here!

Yeah, mine seems to do a little grunting and groaning as well when it loads/ejects. Seems to work well, just noisier than I expected.

it's normal for noise. it's a mechanism. moving parts.
back to the topic, i'd say u buy an external drive.