Pioneer K04L in PowerBook

[the_reever]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this post but any help pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

I recently bought a Pioneer DVR-K04L (slim, slot-loading, dual layer burner) that I wanted to put in my aging G4 Ti PowerBook (1GHz, 1GB, DVI). I followed all the instructions that I found online (MacWorld, PBFixIt) and successfully replaced the old optical drive.

The system profiler recognizes it, as does Toast Ti (v.6.08, I think, the latest one, anyway) and all the iLife apps, but everytime I insert a bland CD or DVD it ejects it in a matter of milliseconds!

Has anyone else had this problem and found a fix for it?

Thanks in advance for your knowledge!

Reeve

[the_reever]

Sorry, that's a "blank" CD or DVD, not "bland".

Reeve

[qshartle]

have you tried opening toast, putting some test files in a data cd, then click record, and when it says "no disc in drive" THEN insert the cd?


Q

[willrob]

Depending on how your System preferences are set up, a CD-R or DVD-R will either mount on the desk top or be ejected if no application (iDVD, Toast, Etc) is already launched.

As the previous post suggest, launch Toast first, then insert the blank disc.

william

[the_reever]

have you tried opening toast, putting some test files in a data cd, then click record, and when it says "no disc in drive" THEN insert the cd?

I opened up Toast first as you suggested but it still eject the disk after it asked me to insert a blank disk.

Reeve

[Frobozz]

This drive requires OS 10.3.x. My brother tried this drive with 10.2.8 and it doesn't work - he is going to reinstall it when he buys 10.4.

[the_reever]

This drive requires OS 10.3.x. My brother tried this drive with 10.2.8 and it doesn't work - he is going to reinstall it when he buys 10.4.

Thanks but I'm already running OSX 10.3.8

Reeve

[the_reever]

I read on a couple of forums that the "back two screws attaching the drive to the mounting brackets must be loosened for the drive to work". So I opened up the case again and loosened these two screws by about 2 full turns and reassembled. Toast no longer recognized the drive (No Recorder Found) and Apple System Profiler had a bunch of symbols like "@" and "#" and far worse listed under the name.

I then opened up the case again, tightened the screws all the way and then loosened then about half a turn. Again, Toast says "No Recorder Found" but Apple System Profiler lists the name as "PILNDEP DVD-PW DVP H04L". Closer but still not able to burn.

Please help!

Reeve

[Frobozz]

A lot of dealers are selling these drives for upgrading PowerBooks. Your difficulty must not be common. Have you tried posting this issue to the appropriate PowerBook forum at http://discussions.info.apple.com ? There may be others there who have done the upgrade.

You might also check the Drive Compatibility Database at xlr8yourmac.com. I recall looking into it when my brother couldn't get his drive to work.

[the_reever]

I already checked xlr8yourmac and there wasn't a whole lot there but I will try the other forum you mentioned, thanks!

Reeve

[AntnyMD]

Have you tried totally deleting Toast and all associated files, then reinstalling Toast and updating to the lastest release of version 6? I just installed this drive into my TiBook 667 a couple of hours ago and have had no problems with Toast.

[londor]

Apparently the problem with this drive is that is set to master or slave in the firmware. So depending on the powerbook you have you need the one that is properly set for yours.

For more info do a search for this drive here.

[NightWing]

The Master/Slave is the same problem with mini's and the panasonic drive that does not work unless you flip it.

You could also have a bad drive.

[the_reever]

The Master/Slave is the same problem with mini's and the panasonic drive that does not work unless you flip it.

You could also have a bad drive.

I thought my Ti PowerBook WAS an "older" one, not being the aluminum PB version, but perhaps it is master/slave issue with mine. I did notice that the "Unit Number" was 0 with my old optical drive and changed to a 1 when I installed the DVR-K04L.

Nightwing, what exactly do you mean by "flip it"? Do you mean changing the jumper setting from slave to master? The DVR-K04L is supposedly hardwired in it's firmware to be one or the other. Does anyone know of a firmware update or patch that will help solve this issue?

Reeve

[thoughton]

I thought my Ti PowerBook WAS an "older" one, not being the aluminum PB version, but perhaps it is master/slave issue with mine. I did notice that the "Unit Number" was 0 with my old optical drive and changed to a 1 when I installed the DVR-K04L.

It must be something else, since AntyMD's PB is considerably older than yours and his drive appears to have worked without fiddling with jumpers.

Antny, while you're here and since we hav ethe same ancient PB, how's that drive going? Noisy/quiet? Expensive? Where from? And what did you do with the old drive? I'm still looking for a Really Skinny (tm) extrenal case for my old combo drive!

[londor]

It must be something else, since AntyMD's PB is considerably older than yours and his drive appears to have worked without fiddling with jumpers.

If you go to the xlr8yourmac website you will see that it is a master/slave problem. As mentioned earlier the k04 does not have jumpers. It is set in the firmware. There are two different batches of this drive, one set to master and one set to slave. At the moment there is no possibility for the user to change it. So if you got by luck one that is set to what you need it will work.

When buying this drive you have to order the one that has the proper setting for your computer.

[thoughton]

So you're saying this guy's 1GHz Titanium PB is a "New" PB?

[londor]

No, sorry if I simplified too much in my first post. I will edit it to remove the master/slave list of computers. To know which one you need check in the system profiler to see if your original drive is reported as master (0) or slave (1). You just need a K04 to match the one you already have which is not the case for the_reever (original master and k04 slave).

[the_reever]

Thank-you, everyone, for your comments. It looks as though I have a SLAVE drive (Unit Number = 1) and I need a MASTER drive (Unit Number = 0). I read somewhere that my Ti PB has 2 separate IDE controllers for the HDD and the optical drive and that's why they both have to be set to MASTER.

In the new Mac Mini there's only one IDE controller so the HDD is set to MASTER and the optical is set to SLAVE. I don't know if this is also the case with "older" Ti PBs (667MHz, 800MHz) but it seems to be as Antny got his to work.

I also did a search on xlr8yourmac and the people with problems are the ones with Ti PBs like mine or newer. The older ones seemed to go off without a hitch. Too bad I didn't know about that site before I bought the drive on eBay. I guess it'll go back up for sale but I'll be more specific with my buyers.

Thanks again for the wealth of knowledge!

Best regards,

Reeve

[AntnyMD]

Antny, while you're here and since we hav ethe same ancient PB, how's that drive going? Noisy/quiet? Expensive? Where from? And what did you do with the old drive? I'm still looking for a Really Skinny (tm) extrenal case for my old combo drive!

The drive is fantastic. I only heard a bit of spin up noise the second day when I put in a CD. I think this is because I realized I didnt install these two little extra washers that came in a baggie with the drive. It hasnt prevented the drive from burning at max speed (its now faster than my external Lacie drive with similar capabilities), and no failures so far. The mechanical noise is a slightly different pitch from the original drive when I insert media.

I bought mine for $199 from mcetech.com. Although they offer an install service I thought I'd take the chance and DIY. Everything worked out and I'm no longer afraid of the innards of my PowerBook. You definitely need a Torx 6 AND 8 screwdriver, and a tiny tiny Philips + if you have a TiBook 667. Even the MCE instructions didnt mention that third one.

My original failed within two years of burning CD's, and eventually it stopped reading them as well. Its essentially only a DVD-ROM now, and in this day and age that equals useless.

I also did a search on xlr8yourmac and the people with problems are the ones with Ti PBs like mine or newer. The older ones seemed to go off without a hitch. Too bad I didn't know about that site before I bought the drive on eBay. I guess it'll go back up for sale but I'll be more specific with my buyers.

As I stated, I purchased from mcetech.com .. Their dropdowns make you verify you're buying the drive for the correct computer. I'm sure eBay sellers just wanna dump a drive they purchased in error.

[sjk]

I'd like one of those Pioneer drives to replace the MatSHITa in my iMac G5.

[NightWing]

The standard Pioneer is set as slave.

Have heard but not confirmed that there is a software drive select for either this drive or the Panasonic.

[thoughton]

The drive is fantastic...

Thanks, that's very interesting. I'm pretty tired of 30 min rips and 30 min burns and seeing as how my original combo drive's CD laser only lasted about 400 CD burns (like you, I now have a spare slot-loading dvd-rom) i'm just waiting for my current one to flake out. I'm somewhere around the 400 mark again ...

Good to know you had no problems.