[Janis]

I am trying to make a Powerbook G4 useful and clean enough that a disadvantaged student will get some use out of it.  This is foreign territory to me.   It does not have an optical drive and although one could be purchased,  I and no other volunteers, fill up to the challenge of changing it.   I was hoping that one of our spare external USB optical drives could work but apparently it has to be firewire standard.  I know there afre adapters, firewire to USB,  but will they work in this situation?  Also what specs do I need to look for it it will work?  The old G4 has two ports, one labeled 400 firewire and the other 800.

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Hello Janis.

Can you tell me more about this Computer? The Laptops Specs...

May i ask what happened to the original Optical Drive that came with this laptop? (Reason im asking is, there is a a way to re-initialize and restore it)

 

"(Pretty much any USB DVD/CD drive will work with your Mac. I've used LG, HP and Toshiba portable DVD drives over the years. They were all marked for Windows only and they all worked flawlessly with my Macs)"

Edited by HelpMeHelpYou, 02 August 2014 - 04:21 PM.

[HelpMeHelpYou]

Hello Janis.

Can you tell me more about this Computer? The Laptops Specs...

May i ask what happened to the original Optical Drive that came with this laptop? (Reason im asking is, there is a a way to re-initialize and restore it)

 

"(Pretty much any USB DVD/CD drive will work with your Mac. I've used LG, HP and Toshiba portable DVD drives over the years. They were all marked for Windows only and they all worked flawlessly with my Macs)"

Edited by HelpMeHelpYou, 02 August 2014 - 04:21 PM.

[Janis]

This was a donated laptop, Apple G4 Powerbook,  minus any software and the optical drive is missing.   It is an aluminum g4, 160G HD, 1.67Ghz laptop.  That is about all I know about it.   I found instructions to remove the former owner's passwords but haven't done that yet  and have deleted those folders that refer back to him.   The laptop has to be usable in a classroom or at home with a working optical drive.   I tried one of our spare USB optical drives (Samsung) but all it does is "click, click"etc)   I had read that only firewire will work with laptop but we don't have a firewire optical drive so was hoping to convert one of hte USB drives via an adapter.  Will this work on either the 400 firewire or 800 firewire?

[HelpMeHelpYou]

Have you tried to just plug it up with no adapter? The 800 is the higher rated one so try it on that one. Let me know if it works or not...

On the 800 port is there a "Y"-like icon around it?

Edited by HelpMeHelpYou, 02 August 2014 - 05:05 PM.

[HelpMeHelpYou]

Also you may possibly have to Restart the Laptop in order for the USB optical drive to read right.

[Janis]

I tried that yesterday and that was when all I got was the clicking sound.   I brought it home to try on my own computer, using the USb just to make sure the drive was functional.   On a regular pc,  it works fine.

[HelpMeHelpYou]

You restarted the Laptop after hooking the USB Optical drive up to it?

[HelpMeHelpYou]

Can you run SysSpec gives you a complete specification and system information of your PC. This includes hardware, software and settings...

 

Then post your info. 

 

http://www.alexnolan...are/sysspec.htm

[Janis]

I talked with a real Apple tech today and is explanation is that the laptop is too old and does not have the driver software available.  For that vintage of a a mac, it is highly unlikely that such a software download is available  so I guess this project is toast.  thanks for trying.