Just cannot get the optical drive to work on my G4 Mac Mini 1.5Ghz.

[fergycool]

I've got a G4 Mac Mini 1.5Ghz. I have never been able to boot from the CD or indeed access a disk in it. - The only way I can eject a disk is to boot to Open Firmware and eject it there.
System Profiler always shows the disk but always without any media loaded.

At first I assumed it was because the only disks I had were 700Mb. But after sourcing some 650Mb ones they did not work either. I always get the error that the disk is not initialised.

I gave up with the optical drive at that point and eventually I got Mac OS9 installed by imaging (using iBored) the v9 install image to the internal original disk (attached) when booted from an external USB drive running OS X. Then booting from that and installing to a new IDE adaptor/mSATA disk that was temporarily connected using an USB<>IDE adaptor. Once the mSATA was installed as the internal drive this boots fine.

However, I still wanted to get the optical drive working so I replaced the original optical drive with a Panasonic UJ-875. Unfortunately as luck would have it this does not work either!

I got into thinking that it's a Master/Slave/CL thing, so messed with a tiny jumper on the IDE adaptor. But after booting in all combinations I realise that it's likely not that as the original disk had the same problem.

So before I give up ever wanting to use an optical drive in this Mac Mini is there something simple I may have done? Perhaps I've damaged the riser board that the internal and optical drive attach to?

Thanks!

[ssp3]

Wasn't there something about internal drives requiring Apple firmware?
Back in the day we had to hack Apple's CD or CD/DVD driver to make non-Apple drives work and I also had to modify one kext in OSX in my Intel Mini to be able to use non-Apple external DVD drives.

Try booting off of CD by holding down cmd-opt-shift-delete

[fergycool]

Thanks. That boot combination does nothing I'm afraid. For optical drives though I thought it was the old world (motorola) Macs that needed Apple firmware drives (although this is a very faint and distant memory!).

[ssp3]

It's just a thought, but maybe try ROM file from v8 installer? I think ELN did more changes to v9 ROM compared to v8. There was something about ATA drivers too. Maybe they interfere?

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=2408.msg37482#msg37482

[fergycool]

Thanks. I tried that but no change.

I also reverted to the original optical drive. This does not read any CDrs, but it does actually read a non-cdr CD. This disk is not read by the replacement drive so I think you are correct and these need to be Apple firmware drives.

So I either give up and be satisfied by the non-optical drive containing Mac Mini or go hunt for how to flash these drives! :-)

[ssp3]

A couple of suggestions.
1. Clean the original Apple drive.
2. Try hacked DVD driver with your Panasonic.
3. Buy a replacement Apple drive. They go for around 20-30 ($ or EUR). If you're in EU, PM me. I have a couple of dead PowerBooks with such drives.

[fergycool]

Thanks. I've had the original drive apart and it was quite clean already.

Do you have a link to the hacked DVD drivers?

I'm UK based. but that made me think and I do have an old MBP. It was one of the first Intel ones. I wonder if that has an IDE drive in it? I'll look for the specification.

Thanks.
 

[ssp3]

I made my own long time ago, but here's the work of someone else:
https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/apple-cddvd-driver-148-edited-universal-scsi-compatibility

[aBc]

Return the IDE adapter to its original state (jumper / no jumper, etc.) and if the System Profiler shows the disk, at least you’ve got that going for you. Do you have any other “retail” created disk to try… to see if that might mount? If that would work then it might all be consequence of not having a properly burned Mac mini installer disk in the first place. Try, try again to burn an installer disk from the downloaded file and at a very slow burn speed, then…. try the traditional install from that disk. IF that doesn’t work…

Boot into Open Firmware with your new installer disc already inserted.

*Holding down the Command + Option + o + f  keys all together.   (That’s o as in otter and f as in frank)

Then once at the prompt, type boot cd:,\\:tbxi and then hit enter.
If it won’t boot from the CD then… then your installer disc / CD is quite possibly crap.

But yes, do try a commercially created CD of any sort.
And even if that doesn’t work, do try another burn of the Mac mini v.9 installer and begin again.  Good luck!

[fergycool]

Thanks a lot for all those suggestions

I reverted jumpers to the original (none = master) with no success.

I then booted from the original OSX partion (as I'd previously copied the OSX boot partition to a USB drive). When booted from that the drive also fails. Again it recognises the optical drive, but whenever I insert a ("retail") disk it shows some activity then spits it straight back out!

I also tried with the original optical drive under OSX and I'd also forgotten that sometimes when I try to insert a disk it will not accept the disk no matter how hard you push.

Original = UJ-845-C 

Replacement = UJ875 - According to System Profiler it's a UJ875S

I googled this and there seems to be issues with this. Perhaps I should have done this before I bought it :-)

I think I'm done with both of these drives now! I've got a 2006 Intel MBP which apparently has a UJ-857. I'll remove that and give it a final try. If that does not work then I think this is going to be a optical free Mac Mini!

I'll report back, but those 2006 MBPs have loads of screws to get into the unit so this may be some time!

Again thanks all for your suggestions!

[fergycool]

 Whoops!
 
Looks like I broke something. I got the drive out of the MBP. But once in the Mac Mini it was not detected. It was getting power, but OSX did not recognise it.

I tried with Mac OS9 but I cannot now boot from the internal SDD (with Mac OS9), even from OF. Now when I boot from OSX and run Disk Utility it says the disk is unpartioned.

Looks like I need to start afresh!

[fergycool]

..I just realised that you can boot from a IDE drive when attached via a cheap "USB<>IDE" adaptor. That makes life easier for installation for me without an optical drive since I've got the v9 image put to an IDE drive via iBored.

[ssp3]

..I just realised that you can boot from a IDE drive when attached via a cheap "USB<>IDE" adaptor. That makes life easier for installation for me without an optical drive since I've got the v9 image put to an IDE drive via iBored.

It's nice to see someone else, besides me, discovering the potential of this little app 

[fergycool]

:-) it was your post I came across that informed me about that tool! So thanks!

[fergycool]

Sorry to report but I was unsuccessful in getting the optical drive to work. The one from the MBP was not recognised. Plus now  I know I can boot the install image from the USB/IDE drive then I guess the cdrom is not that much use anyway.

Many thanks for both of your suggestions!