I have an imac and was told that supposedle needs a new motherboard and new CDrom drive. Well that ran well over the worth of the Imac. The machine still works and boots and I can get to the harddrive and everything, but no CD Rom. I believe they were telling me that the IDE bus that the cdrom operates on is blown. Is it possible to run the CD on the same IDE bus that the harddrive is on? Also, I've looked on ebay and found CD drives for about $60, what kind of cd drive is it, since I do have access to lots of old computer junk, I tried a cd rom over the weekend and the IDE cable melted... either because of the bad bus or the wrong type of drive.

The IDE cable MELTED?
Hey Dr. Frankenstein, either get your iMac
looked at by someone who knows what's
what, or get a FIREWIRE CD drive and
bypass the innards of your Imac
altogether. This way, if your Imac dies you
will still have a FW CD Drive to jack into
your next computer.

Thanks for the info. I did take it to my local Apple repair place. $500 seems a bit high to repair one of the first iMacs. Has anyone tried using the other IDE bus? While I like the firewire idea, I still have a gaping hole in my imac that will drive me nuts... sorry just personal preference.

I'll say again: Look into a FW drive. Buying
a new tray or slot internal CD drive for a
first gen iMac that has motherboard or
bus issues is lunacy unless you are
going to repair it right, which isn't really
worth it. Consider the FW drive. Put some
duct tape over the hole and forget about it.
Or just BUY a working first gen iMac from
EBay or something. Use your existing one
for parts or as just a networked machine
without the CD.

Or do what I did....

Take one Rev A iMac. Disassemble. Buy female IDE port from local geek hardware shop. Cut up port on side for expansion card and bolt in port. Cut new IDE cable into strands, fish through computer, and attach to female IDE port. Reassemble.

Now for the fun part. Get an external SCSI case. Put an IDE CD-ROM in the case. Hack another female IDE port onto the back of the SCSI case.

Now, attach normal IDE ribbon between computer and case. Enjoy!

I love iMac hacking.

If you're managing to melt cables, you better not try anything out of the ordinary. It sounds like you're more of a hazard to yourself and the machine than leaving it alone would be...

p

Put down the fork,....And walk away from
the Mac.......

Yeah, no kidding.

p