Fix Your Stuff Community Store

Repair guides for the MacBook.

3787 Questions View all

Options

Optical Drive not found... can a dead PRAM batt cause this?

Picked up a used Black MacBook C2D with a bad drive, or so I thought. I swapped in a known good optical drive that still is not recognized. I can hear it power up and spin but it won't show up in OSX. I also noticed the PRAM batt is dead, the time resets to some date in 2000 whenever power is removed. Could this be related? There is also a long delay from the boot chime until it gets to the screen with the apple. Logic board done, or just PRAM batt?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score -1
Add a comment

1 Answer

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Chosen Solution

Options

If it's the PRAM battery, that would be a new one for me. I suspect the optical drive cable. Sometimes if the cable gets crimped or cut, it can get power but not be seen by the laptop (I assume because the "data" wires in the cable have been affected, but the "power" wires have not?)

As for the long delay, I'd try using the reinstall media to format the hard drive and reinstall the OS. Sometimes hard drives which have been transplanted/imaged cause the computer to become confused, and they can take longer to "find" the boot drive. This may not solve the problem, but it's a step toward getting there.

I'd also reset the PMU and PRAM. Actually, I'd reset both those immediately, in case it might even resolve the optical drive issue (although it's unlikely it will).

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 1

4 Comments:

I swapped cables with the drive, can't reinstall OS without drive working.

I assume the drive was formatted in another computer due to this fact as it is a fresh install, so I guess that could be causing my delay.

I'm gonna have a better look at it, see if I can see anything damaged, etc.

by

Also tried the resets already.. no go.

by

So are you saying you swapped the optical drive cable with a known good optical drive cable, and it still didn't work? To load the OS, you can always connect your machine via Firewire to another machine in target mode, and use that machine's optical drive.

by

I would take care of the know fixable problem, the PRAM battery before going after the other problems.

Resetting the power manager also resets date and time settings. After the reset, on some iBooks and PowerBooks, the system clock is set to 00:00 (GMT), 01 Jan 1970 for computers with Mac OS X or 00:00, 01 Jan 1904 for computers with Mac OS 9.

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

intothevoid will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 1

Past 7 Days: 1

Past 30 Days: 1

All Time: 656