G4 Quicksilver 2002 dead DVDRW drive

Hi all,

First off, sorry for the e-novel. ;P

I brought a used G4 Quicksilver 2002 just before Xmas, which unknown to me had a dying DVDRW drive.

Basically, what was happening, was I'd put a disc (-R) into the drive, which would 99.99% of the time would make the whole G4 lock up and give me the multi-coloured beach ball icon on the screen and refuse to eject the disk, either from the eject key, or any other means (left MB, open firmware, terminal).
At this point, the drive could still read media, but it couldn't write (although, I have managed to write one CDR with it, about 2 weeks back).

Now, today I decide that I need to make a backup of my Tiger disc (I have an original, in immaculate condition, but don't want to get it scratched as the dvds are about as rare as rocking horse poop), so I stuck the DVD into the drive and nothing happened.
I opened System Profiler and it said no optical drive detected (or something similar) and the drive refused to eject the disc, even after a restart.

Anyways, long story short, I restarted the G4 and the drive showed in SP, but still refused to eject the disc. It took me seven attempts to get the DVD to eject and now, the drive won't read anything; it just makes a whirrr...clunk...whirrr noise, then spits the media back out.

The device in my G4 is a Pioneer 103 (Below is the blurb about the drive from SP)
Now, I've been told conflicting stories about replacing this drive and TBH I don't know who/what to believe, so I thought I'd ask you nice folks.

One person has said I need to get a Pioneer SuperDrive, because I'm using Tiger (10.4) and others have said I can use almost any DVDRW, as long as it's IDE/ATAPI.

BUT if I get a bog-standard IDE/ATAPI drive, will I be able to (1) use it to boot from my 10.4 media (The person who told me to get the SuperDrive said that other IDE drives wouldn't allow you to boot/install) and 2) Will I be able to use itunes/disk utility to burn CD/DVDs? Again the same person told me if I got an IDE drive, I'd need to buy Toast, as you can only burn from the Finder with Pioneers.

Many thanks.

I replaced the drive in my G4 a while ago.

I would stick to the pioneers, they are guaranteed to work and dont cost very much

The pioneer 110s, 118s etc will all work with no extra drivers to mess with

Performance Upgrades; FireWire USB SATA Storage; Memory, more at OWC

louishen said:

I replaced the drive in my G4 a while ago.

I would stick to the pioneers, they are guaranteed to work and dont cost very much

The pioneer 110s, 118s etc will all work with no extra drivers to mess with

Performance Upgrades; FireWire USB SATA Storage; Memory, more at OWC

Click to expand...

Hi Louis,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Would one of these do the job? It's not mac specific, so I'm not sure about the booting/burning in Finder.

Thanks again.

Yes that will work nicely and all Pioneer drives are recognised as native. Only thing don't see is if the drive is Dual Layer (DL) burning capacity?

Here is how to replace the optical in a Quicksilver:-

eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/manuals/cdinstall/quicksilver72.pdf

harryb2448 said:

Yes that will work nicely and all Pioneer drives are recognised as native. Only thing don't see is if the drive is Dual Layer (DL) burning capacity?

Here is how to replace the optical in a Quicksilver:-

eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/manuals/cdinstall/quicksilver72.pdf

Click to expand...

Hi Harry,

I had a look at the specs of that drive and from what I can see, it doesn't support DL, but to be honest, I don't think that would be much of an issue for me - I only really need -R/W capabilities at the moment.

Thanks for the PDF link. I already have that one, which I DL'd a couple of weeks back.

I've contacted the eBay seller I purchased the G4 off and he's offered to replace my drive with another 103, from another QS he has, so that's a bonus, for a short-term fix. But I'll likely get this one from Amazon in a few weeks, in case the replacement turns out to be on its last legs, like the one I have already.

EDIT: I've just done a quick ebay search and found this so I may go with this one, instead.

Honestly, the 103 is history, give it a miss.

I had a Pioneer 105, wouldn't write to modern disk media, replaced it with a 112 and then added a 115, both external, daisy-chained with firewire, the setup works a treat.

I concur with Louishen and Harry, Pioneer is arguably the best for Mac.

Be careful Rottie!

When Pioneer drives are advertised as being for Macs of any version the price doubles. Do a general search of that model in the PC section of eBay and I am sure you will find one for half that price. They are all ATAPI and Macs recognise all Pioneer drives as native.

hughvane said:

Honestly, the 103 is history, give it a miss.

I had a Pioneer 105, wouldn't write to modern disk media, replaced it with a 112 and then added a 115, both external, daisy-chained with firewire, the setup works a treat.

I concur with Louishen and Harry, Pioneer is arguably the best for Mac.

Click to expand...

Hi Hugh,

Re: the 103 - I think I will take the seller up on his offer of a freebie replacement, just to keep me ticking over, so to speak, but like I said before, I'll order a new drive ASAP.

harryb2448 said:

Be careful Rottie!

When Pioneer drives are advertised as being for Macs of any version the price doubles. Do a general search of that model in the PC section of eBay and I am sure you will find one for half that price. They are all ATAPI and Macs recognise all Pioneer drives as native.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the words of advice, Harry. I did a search on "Pioneer dual layer DVDRW" on ebay and nothing came up, except a SATA drive - And the Apple advertised drive doesn't give a model number.

Looks like I've found a good 'un
Pioneer 20x Int-DVDRW Black DVR-116DBK

Rottie said:

I think I will take the seller up on his offer of a freebie replacement

Click to expand...

In which case, it can be used as a 'bare' external drive meantime. It's so easy to do with an ATA-USB adaptor, Newer Technology Universal Drive Adapter -... (U2NV2SPATA) at OWC (there are probably cheaper, generic ones about) but the limitation is USB1. Whilst the adaptor is USB2, the Q'silver ports are USB1 only. Maybe a PCI USB2 card at some stage? Louishen's the man to ask about that.

Yes that is the go Rottie buy it and throw it in.

hughvane said:

Whilst the adaptor is USB2, the Q'silver ports are USB1 only. Maybe a PCI USB2 card at some stage? Louishen's the man to ask about that.

Click to expand...

I'm one step ahead of you there, Hugh. I already have a Belkin 5 port USB 2.0 PCI card installed, from when I got my AIO printer, a couple of weeks ago. linky

harryb2448 said:

Yes that is the go Rottie buy it and throw it in.

Click to expand...

I've got it in my watch list as we speak. Can't do anything till the end of the month, cos my wallet's still having post chrimbo after shocks lol

Them empty wallets are a dashed disgrace. Got three of the devils and all empty!

***UPDATE***
Last night I ordered a Pioneer DVR-A18LBK from Play.com (UK): DVDs, Music CDs, MP3s, Video Games, Books, Electronics & Gadgets - Free Delivery so hopefully should be getting the new one in the next week.

Thanks all for your help.

***UPDATE*** Drive arrived today and installed in <10 mins. So far, it likes all the media I've thrown at it - 16x TDK branded -R, Ritek 16x "White top" -R and even a "PC Line" (PC World's own brand) +R (said x8 on the spindle/cake box, but drive only went to x4) and a couple of Verbatim 48x CD-Rs. So far, 6 burns and zero coasters, so I'm a happy bunny.

Not bad for £17.99 delivered.

Thanks again for everyone's help/advice.

Told ya and well done Rottie!