G4 Cube optical trouble

[beachycove]

The CD-R drive in my Cube is behaving erratically -- as in, not recognizing disks and randomly ejecting them.

I would rather not replace it, as I have a sentimental attachment to the money that would require (and I prefer to reduce and reuse old gear, and get it working again whenever possible). The problem does not seem to be a dirty lens, as I have cleaned it with a kit and often the process does not get as far as the reading of the disks before the disk is ejected, anyway. Do these things need lubricated, by any chance?

 

[H3NRY]

Sometimes they do get sticky and require lube, but usually after sitting unused for years. The symptom is that they won't eject a disk. That doesn't sound like your problem. Sounds like your drive is having trouble reading a disk. You were trying to read a *CD-ROM*, right? Not a system installer DVD, because the cube's CD/RW drive is not a combo drive. It won't read DVDs at all. I have not found that lens cleaner CDs do any good on computer drives or on CD players either for that matter. Sorry, I don't have any cure. Check the cables and connectors, because sometimes they oxidize and make poor contact after many years. Let us know what you find.

 

[beachycove]

It has trouble ejecting a disk, absolutely. So disassembly and lubrication could do the trick....

I must go a-googling on how to do that.

 

[Bunsen]

Another possibly helpful hint:

There seems to be a problem endemic to the PB 1400 CD ROM drives, and that is that after some time the drives will no longer mount any CDs. You can put a CD in, but after 14 blinks of the LED, nothing further happens. /
The only thing I noted as a potential fix was a small dial:

After getting brave I decided to try and turn the dial and see what happens. / Nothing happened until I got about 3/4 of the way around and all of a sudden it fired up instantly. BINGO ! After that it mounted every disk I threw at it. If I had to guess, the dial is a focus setting and after use, the dial vibrates out of focus.

I told someone else who had this problem with a 12x CD ROM for a PB 1400 and a 12x CD ROM for a PB 3400. He tried the same steps I did and was able to fix both.

More detail and pickshers. scroll down

 

[Paralel]

Weird. Is the guy sure its not a pot rather than a focusing dial? If the laser got weaker and started to fail with age then upping the pot could make the beam stronger and thus able to read disks again. However, it would be a temp fix since upping the pot will surely kill the laser sooner rather than later.