I have a 1999 G3 Powerbook. It has 192 MB memory (64 with a 128 upgrade), a 400 MHz processor, a 6 GB harddrive and a 2X DVD ROM drive in the right hand drive bay. It reads CDs just fine, but Apple DVD player 1.3 will not play DVDs. In fact, the system will not recognize the disc. It tries to spin it up, then tells me that "this disc is not readable by this Macintosh. Would you like to initialize this disc? ProDOS OK?" Now we both know that it can't be INITIALIZED becaused it's a DVD, not a DVD-R and because this is a regular DVD drive, not a DVD/CD-R drive. I am currenlty dual booting Mac OS 9.1 and OS X on two different partitions. I get the same problems under both OSes, both of which have been under CLEAN INSTALL (reformatted the drive and all). Am I missing a driver or something? The control dock says that the left bay is a battery and the right bay is an ATAPI DVD drive, so I believe the system knows that it's a DVD drive. Please help me...part of why I got this system was to watch DVD movies on long road trips. Feel free to e-mail me. And I do my best to help answer your questions here. Thanks CrasH

I purchased a VST DVD-ROM drive which came with a PCMCIA DVD decoder card. My drive exhibits the same behavior as yours when I don't have the PCMCIA card installed and try to access a DVD. The 1999 Powerbooks did not come with DVD - that was an option you had to spend several hundred dollars for at the time of purchase. Use the System Profiler located under to the Apple Menu to determine if you - in fact - did receive a DVD-ROM drive. I too enjoy the DVD for long trips. Be sure to bring a pair of headphones.

I checked both the removable drive itself and the system panel. It says I do have a DVD ROM drive, but with no mountable media inserted (in spite of the fact that there is a movie in the drive). It is a MATs---A 085E removable drive with driver version 1.94. I appreciate any more help, as it still won't recognize DVD discs. I am currently off to Apple's website to see what can be done there. Thanks

Sorry, driver 1.4

Thanks to all those who posted. Turns out that the **** who sold me the laptop on e-bay claimed it worked perfectly, and it does...provided that he had included the PCMCIA card that serves as the decoder card. Never had much trouble from e- bay, but this guy wouldn't respond in the first place to my e-mails and only gave me two days to get the $1000+ to him before threatening negative feedback, non paying bidder notices, etc. Buyer beware. Anyone have a DVD Decoder card for a G3 Powerbook Wallstreet edition for sale?

Thanks to those who helped. I just purchased a PCMCIA DVD decoder card for the G3 Powerbook (on e-bay). I hope it works. Thanks again. If any of you need anything, don't hesitate to e-mail me.