AppleCD SC Not Working

Got an AppleCD SD that doesn’t seem to work. I took it apart to find that it didn’t have the usual leaky caps, however it also doesn’t seem to read CDs. Put in my Apple Legacy CD (the 7.6.1 variant) that I burned to find that it flashes the orange light up front twice before slowly spinning the CD backwards. If I put in an audio CD, it does the same thing but stops the CD after the two flashes. I tried cleaning the lens with rubbing alcohol to no avail.

Any fixes for the units that don’t have bad caps?

Any pot you can adjust on the laser lens? Also check belts

I believe there are a couple adjustment pots but I do want to wait till I get more advice before I start tweaking those. AFAIK these are old enough to not use belts.

Chances are it's the caps, even if they're not physically leaking. I have a PLI branded caddy CD-ROM drive that didn't read until I re-capped it, they just seem to drift out of spec when the caps age it seems.

I agree

The thing is it doesn’t have the caps that people normally point out as leaking.

I’m wondering if the laser diode has died (or is weak and unable to read CDs).

Is it the AppleCD 300 Plus series with the tray. The non plus uses a caddy system and that one is known for leaky caps.

However the 300 plus is known for a harder to fix issue...broken worm gear.

The way to tell if this is the case is if the laser assembly moves. if it doesn't, the worm gear that moves it has a split in it and the motor can no longer engage it properly. I have 2 300Plus's that both have this issue though one seems to still work despite it. There isn't really a way to fix it. It requires replacing the worm gear and no one has made a 3d printed replacement for that one yet (would be difficult since the tolerances have to be very precise and that's hard to do at the small size this part is for 3D printing). The easiest way to tell if it can move it properly is when checking it with the top off. If the laser assembly doesn't move to the roughly middle of it's range when you go to eject the tray, then it's stuck. My still working unit always does that before it ejects the tray but the non working one doesn't.

The laser diode is likely fine. It just can't seek anymore so it can't read the CDs properly.

My AppleCD SC+ has been dead for over a decade now. I haven't pulled it apart, but that model has surface mount leakers, see: https://www.asterontech.com/Asterontech/next_cdrom_refurb.html

Oh that one looks like a caddy drive. The caddy drives are the only one's I know of that use a voice coil to move the laser assembly. Yeah those definitely suffer from capacitor issues. However the OP's board does not have SMD caps on it....I am assuming it's the non caddy drive with a failing worm gear. Sure it could need new caps but unless it's caps in a high heat environment like the analog board/PSU of some AIO machines like the Macintosh SE, Macintosh Performa 575, etc, those are probably still fine.

Maybe I'm mixing up which is the caddy version. The Plus or the regular? That and the "SD" part here (maybe what Apple named the external versions. The drives meant for internal drive bays like the ones in the AIOs have an i added to the end of their model number) This may be a different series of CD rom drives maybe because I don't recall mine having that SD in the model name, but I still feel it may be a mechanical issue. Would have to hear back on the OP on how the laser assembly behaves when it's in operation to know for sure.

I can't say for sure if this is OP's device, but the AppleCD SC Plus is a caddy-loading drive:


The first AppleCD drive that wasn't caddy-loading was the AppleCD 300 Plus, so more than a little confusing!

Nice picture of the SC Plus, 300, and 300 Plus all in one picture here (en français):

I can confirm, this unit is the caddy loader. It seems like a later/early revision of the drives didn’t have the leaky caps.

Have you checked the drive mechanism itself?

The cd sc plus I have here is really leaky and as dead as a doornail after full recap

So I bought a slightly newer CDU 561-10

Just swap the front and put it in

Oh yeah possible that model drive does not like CD-Rs. I have a newer AppleCD 300i caddy loader (internal drive to my Macintosh LC 520) and it reads every CD-R I've made so far. Even some mini-cds. Just have to carefully position them and a little luck for it to stay aligned on insert.

On that note I wonder if anyone has ever made mini-cd adapters for the caddies because I have yet to see any caddies with the mini-cd indent in them like the newer tray loaders have. Mine will read them fine. (it seems like a 3D printed part could easily fill this role) I just have to get lucky with the alignment when it pulls the caddy in.

I would think a simple adapter that fits into the caddy that is thick enough to just barely fit with the lid closed should be safe to use.


Anyways since caddy drives auto eject CDs it can't read, you can always just find a normal CD that is either audio cd or PC formatted and see if it will take it. If it doesn't eject it, then it's reading CDs just fine and just doesn't like the CD-Rs you are using. Note that CD-RW discs certainly will not work. Mine doesn't read the 2 I got. I don't expect any of these old era drives to be able to read them.

There were some adapters that came with minicd albums sometimes, i have one, but it seems to have been pretty rare

Iesca said:

There were some adapters that came with minicd albums sometimes, i have one, but it seems to have been pretty rare

Click to expand...

Oh nice. You have a photo of that? Does it look like something that could be 3D printed?

This would be especially challenging to 3d print, but here you go:

Oh wow that looks over engineered if it was meant for caddies.

I was thinking it was just a static insert that acted as a smaller enclosure. The one you have is the kind of adapter you'd need for slot feeders (like the CD players in cars for example). In that case that kind of design would be required since the part has to remain attached to the CD.

But something that changes the shape of the area inside the caddy interior was what I was thinking could be done in this case. Since unlike the slot loaders, the adapter doesn't need to attach to the CD. Instead the adapter would be a part of the caddy instead and would remain a static piece of it that is sized to fit in the unused area and not move around on it's own.

EDIT: Rough MSPaint image of what I mean:



The caddy as viewed with the lid missing with the insert installed but no MiniCD placed. The red part is the plastic "insert" that would fill the space and act as the new border for the miniCD to sit in. Since the caddy is an enclosed box more or less it should be safe to leave a loose part like this just sitting in here as long as it's sized correctly and doesn't move around too much. The MiniCD would sit in the center and the plastic part would be sized to fill out the unused outer region. This should prevent the miniCD moving out of range of the spindle when the caddy is loaded. The caddy area is like maybe 2 and half CD's thick by the way so this plastic part would be almost that thick too so there's not much top/down movement of the piece. This should prevent instances of the mini cd somehow getting under the plastic piece if the caddy is handled roughly.

I imagine the sizing would have to have some accuracy. You don't want enough movement of the adapter itself that the sides of the miniCD would contact it during operation. But if you shape it to precisely fit inside the caddy space, it should be boxed in such a way that it can't really move around and wouldn't interfere with the mini CD during operation.

Nice idea but you'd have to consider the early model will not like reading CD-Rs let alone smaller capacity media in that format.