CD ROM not working

reynardreynard
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have a 333iMac with the tray loading CD ROM which no longer recognizes CDs. None. I've tried starting by pressing "C" using the original software disks. It just boots from the startup on the hard drive. My question: Ive been planning on buying an external CD RW(USB) anyway--would the computer recognize it? Realize, I would not be able to pre-install any software(drivers, for ex.) that came with burner. Would just plugging it in the USB port cause the iMac to recognize it and load the software?

BTW, is this a common problem on the older iMacs?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    [quote]Originally posted by reynard:

    <strong>I have a 333iMac with the tray loading CD ROM which no longer recognizes CDs. None. I've tried starting by pressing "C" using the original software disks. It just boots from the startup on the hard drive. My question: Ive been planning on buying an external CD RW(USB) anyway--would the computer recognize it? Realize, I would not be able to pre-install any software(drivers, for ex.) that came with burner. Would just plugging it in the USB port cause the iMac to recognize it and load the software?

    BTW, is this a common problem on the older iMacs?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Did you install RAM recently? If so maybe you didn't reattach the CD cable properly. Could just be a loose wire...



    External burner should be fine. If it requires drivers the OS will try to find them over the internet... Very cool when it works (not always).



    Hope this helps.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    concentricityconcentricity Posts: 434member
    allinone is probably right that it's just a loose cable. (not tough to fix)



    but keep in mind that if you get an external USB burner, don't bother with anything more than about 4x. very few 8x and higher drives will burn well (or at all) over USB. the bus isn't fast enough to keep the data cache full in the drive.



    AllInOne - i've never seen or heard of this 'automatic driver searching'. is that just in X, or 9?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    reynardreynard Posts: 160member
    Thank you allinone and concent. for your replies. I havent cracked the case on the iMac so I dont think I detached a wire. But, I like the idea of the burner searching for a driver if it needs to. And it made me think, the company that I buy from probably has the software available for download if necessary.

    And its nice to know Id be wasting money buying a faster burner since the USB connection would hold it back anyway
  • Reply 4 of 5
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    [quote]Originally posted by concentricity:

    <strong>AllInOne - i've never seen or heard of this 'automatic driver searching'. is that just in X, or 9?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    9 does it too.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    After I installed OS X on my 266MHz iMac the CD drive didn't always work. A restart always fixed it, but I guess it doesn't in your case. Sorry I couldn't help.
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