HELP! Powerbook Crash

[Nicholie]

Okay, first my Powerbook (12") hard drive crashed. This happened a couple months ago, but I was able to wipe everything and reinstall, no problems.

So this time, before I could re-install, a lovely guest at my apartment spilled beer onto the side of the slot loading drive and failed to tell me. When I noticed this over 48 hours later, the beer and hardened on the fuzzy portion of the optical slot loading drive (where the disc slides in).

I tried using Q-Tips to clean this off, didn't help. One of my install discs is in there, and it will not eject due to the sticky and hard nature of the fuzzy part of the slot-loading drive.

I have looked at manuals for getting the optical drive out and it looks totally scary.
Is there another way I can fix the drive so I can load and eject discs? Or, alternately, could I use a USB CD-ROM drive to install that way? I am at a loss.



Thank you in advance!

-Nichole

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Hi Nichole,

I'd want to clobber that guest if I were you ... or at least put your PB in a safe place when you have guests over ...

One option is to contact your nearest Applestore and at least work out if it's cheaper to replace the drive yourself or to have it fixed.

Have you tried shining a torch in the slot to see if there's any beer stuff impeding the disc from ejecting?

I take it you mean the PowerBook G4? Have you tried restarting while holding down the trackpad button? This is the "emergency" hardware disc eject procedure.

You could also try to grip the very edge of the disc with a pair of tweezers (Swiss Army pocket knife tweezers might be good) or long-nosed pliers and very very carefully try to pull it out ...

I don't know if this is the optical drive replacement guide you saw but presuming you have this model Powerbook, I've included a link anyway:

PowerBook G4 Al 12"

Here's a link to give you an idea of cost of replacement drives:

http://www.ifixit.com/Products/Optical-Drives/15

 

[Nicholie]

Yeah - it's an aluminum 12" G4 Powerbook. I did try pulling out the disc with tweezers... but I was afraid I would damage the disk. It just so happens to be the first install disk, so it would be really bad if I damaged it.

I will try the trackpad button thing later today... I hope it works!!