G3 internal cd drive issues

I have a G3 iBook, and my optical drive has been acting up lately, to put it nicely. About 10 - 20 percent of the time, when I put a disc in it will recognize and load the disc. 50% of *that* time, it will let me browse and use the disc. However, a good 80% or more of the total time, when I put a disc in, it won't load, MacOS won't see it, sometimes it'll click some and sometimes it will spit the disc right back out at me. I have a PC internal cd writer (Plextor) in an external drive enclosure that I am using on the iBook via USB. Seems to work, but sure is a hassle if I want to take my iBook anywhere and still use the drive.

Has anybody else experienced this? Any suggestions?

As a side note, just to see what would happen, I opened the drive without a disc and manually moved the laser along its track in case it was getting stuck or something of the sort. That seems to help sometimes, but is a very temporary fix (maybe the next disc will load and partially work).

I hate to sound like a broken record on these fixes and upgrade issues but here it goes. You can buy a internal combo drive specifically for an ibook off of ebay for around $50-$100 if i recall correctly. Then you just install it yourself, no need for an external drive and no temporary fixes.

Ah. And therein lies the problem. $50 - $100. Sucks being a full time college student with an also full time job. And lets not forget the full time girlfriend.... *sigh*

yeah that does suck. all i can say is save up, sorry.