[iBook] MCE Combo drive upgrade for G3 iBooks?

[Ben Chong]

Hi list,

This is my first post. I've been a collector of classic Macs for a  
while but only just bit the bullet, got a couple of iBooks and am in  
the process of transitioning from my wintel notebook to a 1.33GHz.

The first iBook I got was a 500MHz 2-usb on which I upgraded the hard  
drive and tried to upgrade to a combo drive (made by MCE).

The first combo drive I got  did not work. There appeared to be a  
conflict between the hard drive and the combo drive. Without the hard  
drive, the combo drive could boot from a CD.

I returned the combo drive to Mac-Pro (a local retailer) and got  
another one in exchange. The guy said that they have been  
encountering problems with these drives and suggested that I contact  
MCE before tearing apart the iBook again.

Unfortunately, MCE has been less than responsive.

I read somewhere that the combo drives have to be flashed to  
operating in slave mode since they share the same cable with the hard  
drive. The original CDROM in the iBook has a switch but the new  
combos don't.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Thanks.

Ben
PS : I will be writing up my wintel-to-Mac transition on my website  
once I get my website files transferred across.