[NTLK] Known problems with SR-8174-C model DVD drive in Apple Powerbook Pismo

Jon Glass jonglass at usa.net
Fri Dec 11 17:48:31 EST 2009


On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 11:24 PM, Frank Gruendel <newtontalk at pda-soft.de> wrote:
> This beast has a CD / DVD ROM drive, model number SR-8174-C, that is kind of unreliable. S

> This is why I bought an identical (used) drive at eBay last week. It arrived yesterday and, lo and
> behold, shows almost the same symptoms.
>
> Is this a known problem with the drives used in the Pismos and Lombards of that time? The drive in
> question was to the best of my knowledge manufactured by Panasonic.

The 8187 drive is actually the LG drive, and it's garbage. I've gone
through 3 of them. The one you want is the Matshita or Panasonic
drive. I don't think it's "perfect" but it has a much better track
record than the 8187 drive. The numbers you want to look for on the
bottom side are these: "Model Number M7931 (DRN-8080B)" That's the
Matshita drive. I've had this one since 2005 or so, and it's not given
me one problem, and I used it heavily until last fall. Oh, and yes,
it's a long-standing/well-known problem among Pismo owners.

The Pismo has three issues IIRC. 1. that LG drive, 2. The Sound
I/O-power board (the sound plugs come loose from the circuit board,
and since they are surface-soldered, can't be fixed by mere mortals),
and 3, the pink screen. The pink screen tends to go away after warming
up a few minutes, so it hardly counts, but it isn't pretty. My Pismo
has had problems 1 and 2 multiple times, and my wife's Pismo 1 and 3.
Of course, she never used headphones or mics, so maybe that's why 2
didn't show up. ;-)

-- 
 -Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<jonglass at usa.net>

"I don't believe in philosophies. I believe in fundamentals." --Jack Nicklaus



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