MBP will not boot with Superdrive installed

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MBP "A-1178" : 2.53 GHz/4 GB RAM - NVIDIA GeForce 9400M/500 GB HD & Mavericks
I am working on a MBP model A1150 (2006 Glossy), when I received the computer, it did not have a SuperDrive installed but, it booted and worked as expected. When I installed a Superdrive in the MBP, it would not boot up; no sound, lights or action. When I unplug the drive from the logic board and re-assemble, the MBP boots and works normally. I tried a second Superdrive and received the same results. I was told that if a drive was installed, it was part of the boot sequence unless disabled. I am not sure where to start looking to enable or connect whatever it is that stops the computer from booting with the drive connected.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
That machine should boot normally with or without the Superdrive installed. Are you sure you have the correct Superdrive with proper firmware installed? If you do, then there's likely a problem with the Logic board itself.
 

pigoo3

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I'm thinking the same thing as "chscag". Even though you tried two drives...maybe neither is the proper drive for this model MBP. Darn Apple is always changing things. So even though the drive physically fits has the proper cable connections...it may not be the proper drive.

To check on this...there should be a part number on the label adhered to the drive. You can cross reference this part number via:

- eBay (many sellers selling parts list things by part number)
- Powerbookmedic.com. You can cross reference part numbers & compatible MBP's they work with here as well.

* Nick
 
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MBP "A-1178" : 2.53 GHz/4 GB RAM - NVIDIA GeForce 9400M/500 GB HD & Mavericks
The Mac Book is an A1150 (2006 "Glossy") model, the drives are, Super 867CA - 678-0563, Super 857CA - 678-0557A and, DVDRW S10NA 678-0565B

Not coincidentally, as I have three drives, I have the three chassis that they mounted in; none of the service tags stated anything wrong with the DVD Drives when they were pulled from service.

The repair person who 'Gifted' me with these chassis mentioned something about the "Ambient Light Senor" located in the upper left hand corner of the logic board having something to do with the "POSt" procedure of the MBP; if that is not in the right state, it will not allow the machine to power on. Can anyone confirm this?

Anyway, all of the sensors on the three boards have different wires and connectors so I cannot substitute.

I am a long time "Windows Mechanic" and there was always another machine I could throw a part into to test out but, I do not have that freedom working on MacBooks.

Any advice on testing drives or trouble shooting why this unit doesn't work with the drive installed?

.
 

pigoo3

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Anyway, all of the sensors on the three boards have different wires and connectors so I cannot substitute.

I am a long time "Windows Mechanic" and there was always another machine I could throw a part into to test out but, I do not have that freedom working on MacBooks.

This is why I mentioned earlier that the exact correct parts/part numbers must be used. The Macintosh World is not like the Windows World. Parts interchangeability is really not very common. Apple is ALWAYS changing things. BELIEVE ME…I wish parts were more interchangeable.

Now if you were to obtain the exact correct part…and things still didn't work…then we would know that the problem isn't the drive…but something else.

- Nick
 
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I went to Powerbookmedic.com and I checked the cross reference guide and, they check back to the A1150 model

I went to Google and did a search on the individual part numbers on the drives and, they again come back to the A1150 model. The possibility of all three drives being bad, causing the same symptoms when connected to the board looks more to the probability of the board having a problem.

I have a portable USB optical drive; I hooked it up to my A1178 MBP and, it see and plays DVD, no sweat so, I hook the portable unit up to the A1150 model and, it see the portable drive but, it will not play the disc ...Failed to initialize, no recognized drive....yadda, yadda, yadda.

User to user help works most of the time but, if I had technical documentation in my hands, I could come to some real conclusions.

.
 
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User to user help works most of the time but, if I had technical documentation in my hands, I could come to some real conclusions.

.

“There was an initialization error. A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]“

This is the message that I received but, the Disk Title appeared on the desktop and I could read the files on the disk, it appears that the DVD Player program will not start without the internal drive. The external drive will play audio CD's and read files, it just doesn't play DVDs.

I did a Google search on that and came up with this:

GET YOUR EXTERNAL SUPER DRIVE WORKING

LINK

"...You’re going to need to slightly modify the DVDPlayback framework on your Mac, and to do that, you need a Hex editor....." Don't know if I want to jump into this yet so, I found a workaround for the problem, I downloaded VLC Media player and, now the DVD will play via that program.

.
 

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