Possible G4 Upgrades

jhelm007

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Harryc said:
what is the model of the original DVD-ROM drive in this machine?
Click to expand...
I have one in a box somewhere. If I get a chance I'll see if I can find it and give you the model info. I think it is a Mat****a of some kind.
 
jhelm007

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jhelm007 said:
I have one in a box somewhere. If I get a chance I'll see if I can find it and give you the model info. I think it is a Mat****a of some kind.
Click to expand...
Hmmm.... never been bleeped for typing japanese manufacturers before.
 
Avalon

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Harryc said:
One more quick question that applies to this thread. I have no problem burning DVD's or CD's on the NEC 3500A DVD-RW drive, but so far I can't burn or find a disk that I can prove one way or the other that this drive is capable of booting the machine. I downloaded a copy of Ubuntu PPC Live DVD and it burned fine, but it won't boot. I can hold down the 'C' key all day, no luck. I do not have a copy of Mac OS on CD or DVD yet as this was an EBay purchase last week. One tip I found described a problem with this particular drive and DVD+R media. I tried DVD-R media and no go. I found at least one post on xlr8yourmac that the guy was able to boot with a Tiger DVD using this drive on a G4, so at least I know it is capable of it. I am honestly stumped. Any ideas? I'd hate to go out and buy a copy of OSX only to find I can't boot into it.
Click to expand...

What did you use to burn it? I know that Toast is not able to burn bootable DVDs/CDs, at least, I never managed to make a bootable DVD/CD with Toast.
I suppose that you downloaded the ISO-image of Ubuntu's DVD. So, what you can do is open Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities) and drag the image into the lefthand box (where your HDs are listed). Select the image in Disk Utility, put in your DVD (preferably -R) in the burner, and click on burn.
That's it. If the image is bootable, your DVD will be too. I did that to make a backup copy of my Software Restore DVD, and also with the Ubuntu Live CD ISO-image, and it boots fine (with C-key pressed at startup).
 
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Harryc

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Avalon said:
What did you use to burn it? .
Click to expand...
It was toast. Go figure that Roxio would make a program that does not create bootable DVD's on Mac. I followed your 'disk utility' advice and was able to burn/boot off of DVD. Being a relative Mac newbie, this entire episode leaves me scratching my head over a CD and DVD media burning strategy. With this new information, I have learned the following;
  • I need to use DVD-R Media on this drive in OSX for burning DVD's. Any special rules for CD's?
  • I should use OSX's 'Disk Utility' to burn bootable DVD's and CD's
  • Normal storage CD and DVD's can be burned using Toast. Would that also include MP3 CD's, or is that directly from iTunes only?
  • Uncopyrighted DVD movies can be copied in Toast, but movies in general should be edited in iMovies and burned from there as well.

Anything else I'd need to know? Thanks again guys.
 
Avalon

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Concerning MP3 CDs, you can burn them with Toast. Except bootable disks, anything can be burned with Toast, on any type of media supported by your drive (DVD+/-R, even Dual Layer).
 
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Harryc

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Ok, I've got it. Excellent help from Avalon and jhelm007. This forum is great. Hopefully i can contribute someday when I get ahead of the learning curve.
 
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Harryc

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Avalon said:
The only problem is that Apple's iApps (iTunes, iDVD etc.) will only burn on a drive that is recognised as "Apple supported/shipped". That, unfortunately, is only true for the models that Apple has in fact used as Superdrive (like the DVR-109, for example). They will be recognised as "Apple supported" and therefore it will be just plug n'play.
Click to expand...
I finally got around to installing a Pioneer DVR-109 in my G4 Powermac. It does not say 'Apple Supported'. It says 'Burn Support Yes(unsupported). What now? I flashed to the latest firmware on the drive, same issue. It does show up in iTunes though. Tiger 10.4.2
 
dtravis7

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jhelm007 said:
Hmmm.... never been bleeped for typing japanese manufacturers before.
Click to expand...

It's because there is a 4 letter cuss word in the middle of that name! I have ran into that also. Panasonic is a parent company of them. Matsus***a Electric Industrial Co! hahahha

One time in person I was accused of cussing just telling them the name of their drive.
 
Avalon

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Harryc said:
I finally got around to installing a Pioneer DVR-109 in my G4 Powermac. It does not say 'Apple Supported'. It says 'Burn Support Yes(unsupported). What now? I flashed to the latest firmware on the drive, same issue. It does show up in iTunes though. Tiger 10.4.2
Click to expand...

Hmm...that's strange...
It should say 'Burn Support: Yes (Apple supported/shipped)'
Is it a DVR-109 or DVR-A09? There's a difference in the firmware.
I've read an article somewhere about using an aftermarket DVR-109 (or A09) as Superdrive...I'll look it up and post the link, if I find it.
 
Avalon

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Here's something I've found on www.xlr8yourmac.com

Install was a snap on the G4 AGP tower. Removed drive tray, screwed in new drive and closed machine back up. Then I ran my update for the OS from 10.3 to 10.4, hoping that maybe during the install it would see the Dual Layer drive and overt the need to hack iDVD. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN. (iDVD 5.0.1 only shows the DL/8GB project option for drives reported as "Apple Supported/Shipped". FAQ has link to previous patch/hack however.)

After updating the OS and all software updates were run, I checked Sys Profiler. It showed "disc burning: Yes (unsupported)" (this is typical for OS X 10.4.x-Mike)

I ran iDVD and the option for Dual Layer was not there. I ran the previously mentioned hack for iDVD. (Reader FYI - See FAQ's DVD section-Mike) And iDVD provided the Dual Layer option. I HAVE NOT BURNED A DUAL LAYER DISC YET. HOWEVER I HAVE DONE THE OPTION FOR "SAVE TO DISC IMAGE". iDVD performed the task without a problem, as should be expected, since this operation is not related to the DVD burner itself.
Click to expand...

It seems to work with the iApps, eventhough it's not listed as 'Apple shipped/supported'. My DVR-106 is still listed as 'Apple shipped/supported', I use 10.4.2 as well.
 
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Harryc

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Avalon said:
Here's something I've found on www.xlr8yourmac.com



It seems to work with the iApps, eventhough it's not listed as 'Apple shipped/supported'. My DVR-106 is still listed as 'Apple shipped/supported', I use 10.4.2 as well.
Click to expand...
Thanks Avalon, it's definately a DVR-109. Everything I found pointed to the same thing. I can't find a single person with an OEM DVR-109 that has 'Burn Support: Yes (Apple supported/shipped)', although it is reported to 'just work' in OS X 10.4.2 without patchburn. If anyone here is seeing anything diffferent in Tiger with a DVR-109 please reply here. We're talking about drives not installed by Apple.
 

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