G4 Mini internal dvd/cd drive failure

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I bought a second hand Mini G4 1.42 the dvd/cd writer has started to fail, I have installed a new one which we know works but it will not show up in the system profiler... I'm lost as I'm clearly no expert. Can anyone help ?

Photomacz
 

dtravis7


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MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Where did you get the replacement drive from? Are you sure it's plugged in correctly? It's been a while since I have been inside of a G4 Mini but there are many videos showing the way to change the optical drive.

Here is a good video.

Mac Mini Memory Installation Video at OtherWorldComputing.com

Are you sure the drive you installed is made for the G4 Mini?
 
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Hi thanks for the reply, the drive which was bought to replace is the identical model no. to the original drive installed as new, the drive was bought from a reputable dealer who has tested the unit.

thanks.
 

dtravis7


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The thing that has me wondering is, if you plugged the top chassis in wrong and the pins did not go into the slot, the hard drive would not work either. The only two things I can think of is somehow the new drive did not seat properly on the plug in the back on the board is is not all the way in. Or the drive is somehow defective, but they tested it so it should just work.

I have changed a couple here on both G4 and Intel Minis and on an iMac that uses the same drive and it just worked like I never took out the drive.
 
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I have stripped the machine down again, put the original drive back. While it was stripped I cleaned all contacts carefully, and made sure everything was seated correct before screws were nipped up, the machine will now read some DVDs, cds but will not write disks... progress ! Maybe !
 

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