G4 400mhz Mac probs - os 9.2.1

I got given a Mac G4 400mhz, with 700mb ram, 20gig hdd etc.
It runs os 9.2.1 and does everything ok except when it comes to the cd drive.

It has a diamond data cdrw drive that is seen by the mac but nothing seems to boot or load from it. It doesnt see audio cds, or any cds burnt (from my pc as mac format). ive even tried a bootable linux installation disc.

when i load a black cdr or cdrw it loads 'packet media 1' on the desktop but i cant iniatilze it, urn anything to it etc.

is this a prob with os 9 or the cd drive?
i want to install osx on it but am afraid if i buy it the discs wont be read, so i want to sort this out first. any help would be greatly appreciated as im pretty new to macs. thanks.

Alex

mm.. thats weird

i know some of those imacs dont read blank cds, but that model definately should its one of the later ones.

1st step i would take the beast apart and check that everything is connected properly (if u cant do it off the top of your head theres many docos - google)

2nd try an external drive and just see it could just be that the drive is faulty

and as far as OSX goes make sure u do a firmware update (can be found on apple site - search imac firmware in support section) before installing OSX.

if none of that works its pretty much trial and error, it cant really be much else other than the drive itself , pins on the motherboard or the connection.

hope ya get it solved im typing this on one of those machines, tiger and all (5 years on they still go hard)

good luck!

whoops i got confused i thought it was 700Mhz its only a 400Mhz so there is a big chance that it wont read blank cds but u could be lucky and have got one of the first models with a burner.

its a g4 400mhz PowerPc.

it now seems to mount the empty disks (after a long wait) and shoes them as 'packet media' on the desktop.

i still cant do anything with them tho, ive tried using them with toast lite but i get a "mode error" when it tries to burn.

found the problem... **** ide cable... where it had laid on the case hinge it had punctured through and obviously wasnt working.... replaced and all cool now.

cheers for your help.