[Ti] dead cdrom on TI500 - what are my options

[Kynan Shook]

I work for an Apple Authorized Service Provider that also installs MCE 
drives...  We decided to go the MCE route because a lot of people 
wanted to upgrade their PowerBook drives, and because upgrading the 
original PBG4 to a Combo drive was cheaper than replacing the drive 
with an identical DVD drive from Apple; even though Apple gives us a 
credit for returning the old drive, and MCE doesn't.
Anyway, I've installed a fair number of drives (probably 20 or so), and 
only one has come back so far that I'm aware of.  The only bad thing 
that I can say about them is that I'm reasonably sure that the priority 
for their drive supply is their own installation.  I can't blame them, 
I suppose; they make more money by both selling and installing a drive 
than by selling the drive to us and then we install it.  Unfortunately, 
this has meant 2-3 month waits for a few of our customers while we try 
to restock the drive.  And I suppose I could say one more bad thing 
about them along those same lines; they're not particularly responsive 
to us.  When we first wanted to order a drive, a guy I work with  left 
voicemail or E-mail for 3 different people at MCE, trying to order a 
combo drive.  None of them responded...  Finally, our customer just 
decided to call MCE's main phone number, and they finally got in touch 
with us.  Eesh.  Even now, it sometimes takes a couple tries to get the 
drives ordered.

But I can say that the drives have been good, at least.  That's what's 
important, right? ;-)


Kynan Shook
kshook at mac.com
http://homepage.mac.com/kshook/index.html


Steve Martin <martin at metronet.com> writes:
> Check www.mcetech.com
>
> If you are fortunate to have an MCE authorized dealer nearby they could
> upgrade you to either a CDRW/DVD or "Superdrive" equivalent so you can
> burn DVD's also and do the installation "while you wait".  I had this
> done at Computize in Houston last fall and it took an hour or so.  If
> you do send it in to them for the upgrade, and are willing to pay for
> overnight shipping it should be possible to be without it for as little
> as 36 hours (ship it at 6:00pm one day, get it sent back to you the
> next day with morning delivery).