I've learned a lot reading through these posts but I haven't come across my problem. I have 2 G4s that I inherited from a design shop. They are both working well except the CD/DVD drives aren't recognized.
The System Profiler sees them (Philips, burning enabled, etc) but when I view the computer it won't show the drive - only my hard drive and a network.
I can open the drives by restarting and holding the mouse button down but when I insert a disk (DVD, audio, program, system) it doesn't mount. I also try booting from a system CD by holding the "C" key down - no luck. I can use an external USB drive but I can't boot from that.
First, any ideas on how to determine if the drives are bad? Since the problem is occurring on 2 identical machines I find it a little hard to swallow (but not inconceivable).
Second, if I wanted to replace the drives, any suggestions? I tried replacing with a PC DVD drive I had but the tray won't fit through the mirrored slot.
Thanks in advance.
The System Profiler sees them (Philips, burning enabled, etc) but when I view the computer it won't show the drive - only my hard drive and a network.
I can open the drives by restarting and holding the mouse button down but when I insert a disk (DVD, audio, program, system) it doesn't mount. I also try booting from a system CD by holding the "C" key down - no luck. I can use an external USB drive but I can't boot from that.
First, any ideas on how to determine if the drives are bad? Since the problem is occurring on 2 identical machines I find it a little hard to swallow (but not inconceivable).
Second, if I wanted to replace the drives, any suggestions? I tried replacing with a PC DVD drive I had but the tray won't fit through the mirrored slot.
Thanks in advance.