Hi all,
This is my first post on this site. I have a 1999 blue clamshell ibook, running 9.2. I'm pretty sure that the CD drive is broken, it wont read cd's, it just churns and churns when I put in a disk and then it says "fails to initialize", no matter what disk i put in. I thought to try to re-install the operating system, and I tried this a number of times, and one time it did read the disk for about two minutes and started re-installing 9.2 then it stopped reading it. So now, the computer is non functional because it does not have a full operating system installed and I can't get the drive to work again.
Any ideas about a very low-cost way to replace the cd drive? i'm a student and I can't afford to have it done professionally, and I would like to re-install it myself. I've seen ibook cd drives for sale on ebay - but do I really need an ibook one, or would any laptop internal cd drive fit?
Any thoughts or ideas would be very much appreciated,
jaime
clamshell ibook- help! broken cd drive?
June 7, 2005 - 6:16pm
#1
clamshell ibook- help! broken cd drive?
I don't think anything else but the original CD-ROM drive will fit in the laptop. Laptops are always so tightly packed. It's like foot and sock.
From what I could find online, it seems like all iBooks use IDE CD-ROM drives. That should make it easy to find. You don't need a speciel laptop version, just to install the OS.
The main problem would be to find an IDE cable that has the right connectors and length. Hook it up external, and figure out whether to set the CD-ROM drive jumpers for master or slave (I should think: slave).
If your laptop has a USB or FireWire port, it might be easier to get an external USB or FireWire box (for harddrive or CD-ROM) and connect a CD-ROM drive to that box.
Good luck.
but not hard to replace either, but you'll want to get a copy of the service docs (or similar.)
The iBook uses a standard formfactor laptop optical drive. The original drives are Matshita CR-175-D, CR-176-D, CR-177-D. These drives are dirt cheap nowadays, figger on spending $20 at the most. You can use any slim laptop drive as a replacement, but the original bezel won't fit other than the original type mechanism. You'd use the generic-style bezel that comes with your new drive, not pretty but it'd work. I've got a Matshita UJDA330 CD/RW in my wife's clamshell iBook, was cheap and it works great.
See my pages on iBook opticals and also drives for expansion bays.
dan k
so just to clarify, my bezel will fit all the mashitas (Matshita CR-175-D, CR-176-D, CR-177-D)? and are mashitas the same as matushitas? will any cd drive with model cr-175D-177D fit with my machine, or just the mashita brand? (there is a cr-176D for sale on ebay, but it is listed as a 'gateway solo')
and, btw, will a dvd or cdrw work on my machine, or is it too old? it is a 1999, and just came with the cd drive...
thanks so much for your help!
jaime
but won't fit most other Matsushita drives. EG: my clamshell iBook's Matsushita UJDA-330 has different bezel mount points than does its original cr-176.
Matshita is shorthand for Matsushita. The longer name probably just doesn't fit into the space available for the maker's name in drive ROMs.
dan k