Here's my experience replacing two "LG" drives in two of our Pismos (there is a third drive that needs replacement now as well).
I ordered the drive mechanisms themselves from WegenerMedia.com (there has been some controversy over Wegener on this list, which I am not going to address here.. please see the list archives... other than to say I ordered a pair of drives from them received them just fine) and it cost me $119 per drive including shipping. These drives, as far as I know, are the same specs as the original drives. I ordered these drives rather than a newer, more capable drive because I wanted the special Apple-manufactured faceplates from the old drives to "bolt" right onto the replacement drives so they looked exactly like the originals.
The drives from Wegener are the "same" as the old drives but they seemed to have a steel enclosure rather than the aluminum enclosure of the original drives as they are slightly heavier. These new drives are not supposed to have the same problem as the original drives... but we'll see over time. The new drives required taking apart the casing from the old drives (four small Philips screws) and placing the replacement drives inside the old casings. Getting the faceplates off of the old drives is a bit of a challenge but the installation on the new drives was relatively simple. I did have to use a nail file to sand the plastics of the faceplates on the new drives down to make a good fit that allowed the drives to "pop-out" smoothly from the laptop (it was catching on the body of the laptop at first). The drives are currently installed and working great after two weeks.
By the way, both of these laptops are under warranty with Service Net (for the most part, a truly lousy warranty company) and after a couple of weeks of wrangling I got them to agree to let me purchase and install the drives rather than shipping the WHOLE computers into their service department (which is incredibly incompetent with all the mac hardware I've asked them to fix). They promised to reimburse me the price of the drives "within 30 days". It's been about a week so I'm still awaiting the check. After servicing our laptops for years, I'll never buy another one (in fact, any Apple computer) without AppleCare... well worth it for the most part! The quality of AppleCare service and support since the return of Jobs, in my experience, has been wonderful!
Hope this helps in your "quest" for a replacement drive.
... Eric
Well, I never had applecare so I guess it's going to be an expensive fix.
Looking on the web, it appears the replacement is $130 up. OTOH I've
seen two combo drives for $200 & $300
(http://www.wegenermedia.com/pismocombo.htm) and I saw an article on
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/PB_G3/oem_combo_drives/build_guide/ build_combo_drive.html
for using a Matsushita UJDA 710 drive as an alternative (about $100 on
ebay).... tempting.
Has anyone any other suggestions or thoughts on this matter? And how do
I explain it to the wife?
Thanks Pete.... another LG victim
Subject: Re: Pismo DVD drive not recognizing CD's Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 23:47:58 -0500 From: James Rohde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[snip]
Pete, you possibly have the dreaded 'LG dying' problem (which I had
shortly before my original warranty ran out). The LG model of drive has
documented problems with failing way too soon (the Matsushita drive
doesn't appear to have the problem). I had similar symptoms when my drive
started going south.
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