Mac parts

[juliet]

Anyone out there able to suggest me somewhere UK-based that would be able to sell me a 12" Powerbook CD/DVD drive? Google is Unhelpful (I can find 'em in the US, but that's no good).

Mine has broken, & the repair place have quoted me £300. Which is not that bad (US prices for the drive are $300, so I'd expect here to be a bit higher), but they also want to take it away for TWO WHOLE WEEKS.

If none of you helpful people can suggest somewhere I suppose I could mail them back & ask if they do parts sales, but I suspect they won't.

Comments

[rgl.livejournal.com]

The reason they want to take it away for 2 weeks is that they actually have to send it back to Apple to do the replacement. As far as I know Apple "official" service places are actually obliged to send stuff back to base for repairs, and similarly can't sell parts. That certainly used to be the case, anyway - at one point I was a regular on uk.comp.sys.mac (you could ask for help on there, btw - they used to be very helpful).

However, one UK spare parts place that I do know of, although I've never used it, is here (http://www.applemacparts.com/).

[juliet]

aha! They appear to have the Right Bit (& a SuperDrive even, which is one up on what I have currently), but have emailed them to confirm its Rightness. Thanks!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

It's not in the UK, but I've bought powerbook parts from www.welovemacs.com in the US. Expect to get VATed though.
However, I think it's a pretty standard drive. My 15" PB has Matsushita (i.e., Panasonic) CD-RW CW-8123 in it, for example, and I can find them on the web.

[juliet]

Yeah - if I buy from the US there's hassle with getting the VAT back from college etc etc, & also there's customs as well as VAT, & so on - at which point I might as well just pay the registered service people & suck up the 2 weeks without-laptp.

http://www.applemacparts.com/ seem to have the right bit, though. Failing that I shall investigate what it actually is that I have and try buying by brand name - cheers!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

menus: Apple-> about this mac -> more info -> ata
lists the type of the drive for me.
If it says "MATSHITA" that just means Matsushita, often sold as Panasonic.

VAT for me on a powerbook keyboard from the US wasn't too terrible, 10-15 quid.
There's no duty on computer bits, only VAT.

[mzdt.livejournal.com]

you could try malcolm - http://www.pbfanatic.co.uk/ - although he mainly does spares for older powerbooks?

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Mac Warehouse are who we use at work, but I'm not sure if they only deal with companies rather than individuals. The sales guy I work with there is Paul Orchard, if that helps.

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

http://www.pbparts.com/ Are us based, but it often helps to look at what bits and bobs they're selling and then look and see what Dabs etc have got that is the same.

I'd also Pop in and ask Micro Anvika on TCR.

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

My guess is you want one of these, possibly ... http://www.pbparts.com/shop/uj816.html

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

http://www.kodawarisan.com/PowerBook/10.html

Oh and Google about for take apart guides, its not something you want to attempt without some idea of what order to take things apart in (and a set of carefully labeled yogurt pots for all the screws).

[juliet]

http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/53.0.0.html -lots of nice clear pictures - which is what started me on this 'parts' quest :-) No way would I start messing around with the innards of my lovely Powerbook just on spec!

http://www.applemacparts.com/ seem to do the right bit, but have emailed them to confirm that it really is the right bit before I order it.

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

Oh and you'll need a torx/star driver rather than a normal screw driver. Maplins generally have them....

My advice, find a nice clear space, remove all for footed creatures and allow most of an afternoon ...

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

I replaced the harddrive in my 14" iBook, and yeah, it was tricky. The screws were the hard part to keep track of, as they come in a variety of sizes, varying by .5mm amounts it seemed - and getting the wrong one somewhere would cause problems down the line - I ended up having to redismantle the laptop and do it again to swap a couple of screws around! Whoops.

Aside from that - have containers to put the screws and parts in, and label each container with where it came from. use diagrams if neccessary - because although the online guides say which screw goes where, sometimes it can be hard to work out which screw is which when you have several in a pile.

[barakta]

As I understand it the powerbooks are easier to dismantle than the iBooks. Thank the gods. iBooks are foul to dismantle. I would think twice if not more about taking one apart again.

[uon.livejournal.com]

I printed out the screw guides from pbfixit.com and placed each screw on the corresponding region of the guide sheet: it's all very well making sure the screws don't run away, but particularly with Apple laptops, there's a bunch of different kinds and it can be really hard to remember which sort goes where.

I found that the absolute worst bit of taking an iBook apart (I think this goes for PBs as well) is getting the lower casing off, since you basically have to randomly poke a pokey thing down the side until you can get all of the hidden catches loosened simultaneously, without cracking or scratching the case, which can be really quite nerve-racking. Don't think you need to do this to replace the optical drive, though.

I've got the right Torx bits somewhere if you need them, although Maplin sell them fairly cheaply on the rare occasions they've got anything useful in stock.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

How old is your powerbook? I am somewhat nervous about my powerbook going wrong some day...

[juliet]

Not 100% sure as I inherited it from the person who had this job before me - around 2 yrs I think.