CD Burner Question

[Richard Kriss]

Tony,

I have a G4-450 and have changed out the DVD to a CDRW. It is easy to do but
there are some pitfalls.  First, be sure you buy one where you can take it
back if it does not fit without a return fee.   The reason for this is I had
to try three before I found one that would work.  There are three issues to
consider

Make (damn) sure the one you buy only has one button on right front. The
biggest problem is the mechanical interface with the lever and door the case
of the Graphite G4 case.  I purchased a Memorex that showed only one button
on the box and when I opened the package the CDRW had two buttons.  The if
the CDRW has two buttons the lever seems to engage the wrong button sending
the CDRW off to never never land and does not cause the tray to eject.

The second problem is some of the CDRW's have a lip on the tray than hangs
up on the G4 case. Some work and some do not.  Heads up

The third area is only some are supported by Mac OSX.

I finally just purchased a Sony 170 that was G4-800 pull on eBay and it
works find but the eject button on my G4 case does not work. I  just use the
eject button on the keyboard.

Before you do anything go to http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ and poke around

Dick

> From: "Rosenberger, Anthony B. (Tony)" <arr4 at cdc.gov>
> Subject: [G4] CD Burner Question (want to buy one)
> Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 07:58:34 -0500
> 
> I have a G4 sawtooth 450, which only has a DVD rom drive.  I am interested
> in buying a CDRW drive to install.  Do I have to buy one from apple and
> spend 3x more, or can I just go out and buy any IDE ATAPI CDRW drive.  I
> know any ATAPI cdrom will work to read, but what about burning support on a
> non apple CDRW drive from iTunes, toast, etc.  Please let me know any
> experiences I should be aware of before I make the desion on which one to
> buy.  I just cant see spending the extra cash since drives are so cheap.
> Also, I do not want an external. Thanks all.