Hey all! Hoping someone can help me figure out what I need to do next.
I have a slot loading iMac G3 DV running OS 9.0.4 that I set up for some old educational software for my kids. The slot loading optical drive is unreliable and doesn’t eject without me grabbing the disc—if it kicks it out far enough to get a finger on it, which is about 50% of the time. This hasn’t been a problem until now because the games I have installed for my kids don’t require a disc to be in to run.
My dad just gave me a bunch of game CDs from my childhood and those need to be in the CD drive for the game to run. So I need to come up with a solution so my kids can swap discs without me.
I’m not confident in my ability to tear down the machine and fix the slot loading drive, but if there’s a good tutorial with pictures somewhere, I might be willing to try that. But my ideal solution is to see if I can get an external optical drive to work.
I bought a Que QPS-525 USB drive, and while I was able to get it to mount CDs, the games weren’t recognizing them. It does show as a device available in Apple System Profiler. I could run the games directly off the CD in the Que drive, but I’m also using the old Kid Desk software to keep it simple for my kids, and that wouldn’t recognize the game off the CD if I ejected it and then re-mounted it. (Kid Desk has you enable software for each user. Enabling it off the CD in the Que drive worked until ejecting and re-mounting the disc—somehow Kid Desk doesn’t recognize it as the same instance of the game if it’s in the Que drive.)
A Reddit group recommended I get a FireWire optical drive instead, so I picked up a LaCie LightScribe DVD drive. I can’t get that to mount discs but everything seems to be working. It’s not showing up in Apple System Profiler.
So, what am I doing wrong, or what should I try next? Thanks in advance for any help!
I have a slot loading iMac G3 DV running OS 9.0.4 that I set up for some old educational software for my kids. The slot loading optical drive is unreliable and doesn’t eject without me grabbing the disc—if it kicks it out far enough to get a finger on it, which is about 50% of the time. This hasn’t been a problem until now because the games I have installed for my kids don’t require a disc to be in to run.
My dad just gave me a bunch of game CDs from my childhood and those need to be in the CD drive for the game to run. So I need to come up with a solution so my kids can swap discs without me.
I’m not confident in my ability to tear down the machine and fix the slot loading drive, but if there’s a good tutorial with pictures somewhere, I might be willing to try that. But my ideal solution is to see if I can get an external optical drive to work.
I bought a Que QPS-525 USB drive, and while I was able to get it to mount CDs, the games weren’t recognizing them. It does show as a device available in Apple System Profiler. I could run the games directly off the CD in the Que drive, but I’m also using the old Kid Desk software to keep it simple for my kids, and that wouldn’t recognize the game off the CD if I ejected it and then re-mounted it. (Kid Desk has you enable software for each user. Enabling it off the CD in the Que drive worked until ejecting and re-mounting the disc—somehow Kid Desk doesn’t recognize it as the same instance of the game if it’s in the Que drive.)
A Reddit group recommended I get a FireWire optical drive instead, so I picked up a LaCie LightScribe DVD drive. I can’t get that to mount discs but everything seems to be working. It’s not showing up in Apple System Profiler.
So, what am I doing wrong, or what should I try next? Thanks in advance for any help!
