superdrive upgrade for a powerbook

lotas

I have a 15" alu powerbook, 1.33Gz g4, and it came with the standard combo drive. i would like to upgrade it to a superdrive if posible. i asked in the 3g store and they said its posible, and took my number, but never rang back with details. can the 3g store sell them? is there somewhere else i can get one? is it a hard job to do your self, or is it even posible (apple warrenty and stuff). Thanks in advance.

Hugh_C

lotas wrote:

I have a 15" alu powerbook, 1.33Gz g4, and it came with the standard combo drive. i would like to upgrade it to a superdrive if posible.

lookee here . Dunno about the difficulty, but it comes with illustrated instructions. There are other solutions besides this. google is your friend.

lotas

Thanks! So no one has experiance upgrading one of these?

colm_c

Upgrading a powerbook is quite a bit of hassle, especially just for a superdrive. If you want a superdrive you might be better off (both hassle wise, cost wise, and it'll be faster too) to pick up an external FireWire DVD burner... you can get them for around 100 euro... I believe....

lotas

Thaks for that Colm_c. The question is can they work with the iApps? plus an external one would be a lot cooler for me since it would work with both my powerbook and Dell laptop, and anything else i need it for for that matter.

colm_c

I've got a Lacie one it's a couple of years old, but it works with all the apps I use, iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, DVD Studio Pro and toast...

If you get one with both USB 2.0 and FireWire, you won't need to get a firewire card for your Dell...

lotas

Actually, the Dell has both firewire (or 1394 as they call it) and USB2, so it should work no problem on both. Thanks for the info! I will be looking for one of them soon!

case_sensitive

Without PatchBurn iApps aren't going to work with an external burner. iLife '05 isn't as fussy mind you..
I worked as tech for a computer repair place for years, and laptops still wreck my head, no two are alike, and all are virtually guaranteed to give problems. Make sure to read up on it well in advance, print out the pages if you only have one computer, assemble all the tools you need, and set aside a few hours of quiet time to do it.
It's do-able, and you're feel like a ninja, but don't expect to be in and out in 5 mins.
<no double entendre intended..>

lotas

Thanks for the info case_sensitive. i would like an internal drive, but the idea of an external one has started me thinking. especially since it would work with both dell and powerbook. Thanks for the tip on PatchBurn. I will look out for that when i get the drive!

case_sensitive

Patchburn for Panther , for Tiger
is a bit of an instiution in terms of upgrading your Mac :->
About to put a 16x DL/DVD-+RW into this iMac, see you all on the other side, must remember to PatchBurn mine too..

case_sensitive

It's sort of OT, but finished putting in my Pioneer DVR-109 last night, went very well.
Burning not supported (according to System Profiler) without Patchburn, but v3.1 sorted that right out, even has iDVD 4 support.
Drive itself is actually significantly shorter than the already shorter-than-average 106 (Superdrive) that comes with the iMac, I was kinda worried the poxy short cables wouldn't stretch.
Aside from forgetting to plug in the molex connector (and then leaving Airport card disconnected!), it went swimmingly. Can't burn at 16x until I get suitable media/firmware u/g but I knocked out a DVD from .img file in just a shade over 6 mins, big improvement on 35 mins. They're even providing DL DVD-R support when standard is finalized through firmware upgrade.
Only problem I've come across is that no one has the region-free firmware to flash this with, hasn't been done yet. Forums are awash with firmware for other drives, so hunt around if you're in the market.

Ernesto

lotas wrote:

I have a 15" alu powerbook, 1.33Gz g4, and it came with the standard combo drive. i would like to upgrade it to a superdrive if posible. i asked in the 3g store and they said its posible, and took my number, but never rang back with details. can the 3g store sell them? is there somewhere else i can get one? is it a hard job to do your self, or is it even posible (apple warrenty and stuff). Thanks in advance.

go here: http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/customer/product.php?productid=885&cat=54&page=[/URL]1

[nicK]

Ernesto wrote:

go here: http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/customer/product.php?productid=885&cat=54&page=[/URL]1

are you mad? that drive only writes to dvd-r's at 1x..

for the same price ya can get this baby!

Ernesto

[nicK] wrote:

are you mad? that drive only writes to dvd-r's at 1x..

for the same price ya can get this baby!

touche fat man. touche