Question : Problem: Optical Drive not Reading on iMac G4

How do I troubleshoot my CD/DVD Drive in my iMac G4 (flat panel).  It just stopped being recognized by my OS.  It will still respond to the eject button, but won't read a CD or DVD.

Answer : Problem: Optical Drive not Reading on iMac G4

I don't know MAC's very well, but I suppose a broken optical Drive will react similar to windows or Linux. I think you should also be able to set the MAC to boot from a CD. If you can, then try that and insert a bootable CD.Probably you got something with the hardware, or you could try a Linux LiveCD. If it is an Intel based MAC those should also work on your MAC. If you can't boot from CD, then the optical drive is probably defective and you should get it replaced. Optical drives break quite often, so that isn't a big issue, they are normally also cheap.

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