Laptop DVD drive - freezes OS. External case options?
Hi all,
An issue has just developed with my trusty, albeit ancient, home laptop - a Pismo G4 550/120GB/768mb. i have had this machine for a couple of years, it was a bargain buy and has served me well as a web surfing, minor multi-media and basic FCP 4.5HD editing machine. soon after purchase i swapped out the flakey LG DVD-ROM for a pioneer KVR-06, which has been an excellent drive and i recently replaced the hard drive which had started to pack up.
Anyhow, a couple of days ago the machine suddenly locked up in the middle of burning a dvd - i lost all keyboard/mouse/touchpad functionality and everything froze. i did a hard re-boot, and it got stuck on the grey start up screen and wouldn't boot any further. i disconnected everything (including ejecting the battery and the optical drive) except the power cord and tried again and she booted right up.
the first time i slotted the optical drive back in, it froze up straight away again. the next time (after another hard re-boot) it seemed to work, but then later froze again during another burn.
i went to my local computer parts dealer, pioneer laptop optical drive in hand, and asked if it would go in a 2.5" external USB2 case. at $12, this looked like a cheap work-around for the problem. i was a tad flabbergasted when the fellow behind the desk said "no. that will only go in a laptop, there are no external cases that will fit it".
so 2 questions:
1- does anyone know what would cause the computer to suddenly have these issues with the optical drive? is it possibly related to it being a hot-swappable drive? or is it simply the sign of an aging computer....?
2- did this salesperson at the computer store know what he was talking about when they said there were no cases to fit the laptop dvd burner?
(in the meantime i shall google away for 2.5" enclosures that may do the trick)
now before anyone says 'just buy a new MBP', that is what i intend to do this year, but i hope to keep this little classic going all the same.
thanks in advance for any advice that ppl may have!
sennen.
An issue has just developed with my trusty, albeit ancient, home laptop - a Pismo G4 550/120GB/768mb. i have had this machine for a couple of years, it was a bargain buy and has served me well as a web surfing, minor multi-media and basic FCP 4.5HD editing machine. soon after purchase i swapped out the flakey LG DVD-ROM for a pioneer KVR-06, which has been an excellent drive and i recently replaced the hard drive which had started to pack up.
Anyhow, a couple of days ago the machine suddenly locked up in the middle of burning a dvd - i lost all keyboard/mouse/touchpad functionality and everything froze. i did a hard re-boot, and it got stuck on the grey start up screen and wouldn't boot any further. i disconnected everything (including ejecting the battery and the optical drive) except the power cord and tried again and she booted right up.
the first time i slotted the optical drive back in, it froze up straight away again. the next time (after another hard re-boot) it seemed to work, but then later froze again during another burn.
i went to my local computer parts dealer, pioneer laptop optical drive in hand, and asked if it would go in a 2.5" external USB2 case. at $12, this looked like a cheap work-around for the problem. i was a tad flabbergasted when the fellow behind the desk said "no. that will only go in a laptop, there are no external cases that will fit it".
so 2 questions:
1- does anyone know what would cause the computer to suddenly have these issues with the optical drive? is it possibly related to it being a hot-swappable drive? or is it simply the sign of an aging computer....?
2- did this salesperson at the computer store know what he was talking about when they said there were no cases to fit the laptop dvd burner?
(in the meantime i shall google away for 2.5" enclosures that may do the trick)
now before anyone says 'just buy a new MBP', that is what i intend to do this year, but i hope to keep this little classic going all the same.
thanks in advance for any advice that ppl may have!
sennen.