Machinehead

The optical driver on my Mac Mini has died. It was acting flaky over the last 2 weeks and now I can't boot from it or get it to show up in the OS. It still works mechanically as in ejecting and accepting discs though.

I'm past the 1-year warranty, I bought the Mini in May of last year.

Any suggested vendors to buy a replacement from?

Also, could it be the controller rather than the drive?

MP3Car.com

 

Bugbyte

I've only ever had the regular DVD drive quit on me, not the slot load. Replaced that one at Circuit City.

__________________
Want to:
-Find out about the iBug?
-Stop being a newbie? Take a look at the FAQ Emporium?
-Find out about carPC's in just 5 minutes? View the Car PC 101 video
-Help me kill my car PC
-Watch live video streams from my mobile PC? Check it out here.
-Where is the iBug?

Machinehead

I probably should open the case and re-seat the drive to see if it's just loose. It's not really acting like it's loose though.

golfguy

Other World Computing has replacement slot-load SuperDrives for under $100. I'm sure you can pick up DVD/CD-RWs for much less than that. They're not hard to replace in the Mini.

__________________
Any day is a good day for golf.

Mazdaspeed6 Carputer Progress: Gone
(Check Speedy's Install)

Speedy was traded for a 2004 350z - installation will commence Any Day Now

Machinehead

I found a couple other vendors as well.

And yes, changing the drive isn't too hard. Taking the case apart is probably the hardest step in the process and that's too tough, a little tricky maybe.

roseforeplay

There are many places you can find a replacement optical drive. I would recommend making sure it is the same manufacturer and the preferrably the same model. I have worked with many Macs, a lot of the minis, and in my experience the drive has to be the same model and come from an equivalent machine.

If need be I can point you to some websites I've used in the past to get replacement parts for Macs.

MP3Car.com